RetroPrinter Support

Hi
I now have all the printer control codes I need set up in my ZX Spectrum WP Tasword 3 and they all work. The last thing I need to do now is set up the character code for the GBP £ sign. There is a simple menu option in Tasword 3 to do this asking you to press the relevant key then add your custom character code in decimal format for it. I'm finding it difficult to find the answer, as some of the literature I have found on the web does not express the codes in decimal form and the one that does with Epson FX-80 character codes indicates "156", but this results in a blank. I've tried other codes which have resulted in a range of characters, but not the £ sign! Whilst expereimenting, I noticed my set up had the Atari-PC437-US charset configured, but since this wasn't producing the GBP £ sign, I tried the Epson-PC850-INT charset, but still had no joy. From my reading it looks like the Epson-PC-437-US charset (the manual default) has the GBP £ sign within it. If so what character code should I use? I assume that the correct character code for GBP £ will work in both 9 and 24 Pin mode, but just wanted to check. Thank you

Pc-437-us has 156 for the £ symbol. You can also use 27,82,3,35,27,82,0 - this switches to the international character set for UK prints the pound sign then switches back to the international character set for the US.

It does not matter if you are in 9 pin or 24 pin mode

Mr RWAP you are a genius I now have £ sign printing. For some reason the "156" character code leaves a blank when asigned to a key, however, setting up a custom printer code using your sequence to turn the international character set on and off works with 35 asigned to the £ key. I now simply have to place the graphic symbols I have assigned to turn on and off the international character set either side of the £ sign, in the same sort of way I would turn on off another printer code like italics. Thank you.

The QL word processor software allowed you to replace specific characters with a control code sequence, so the £ symbol could be replaced with the entire sequence (essential if you needed to allow th eword processor to do full justification for example).

I am surprised that the character code 156 prints a blank - it does depend on the font settings and whether you have bit_depth set to 7 or 8 (if it is set to 7, then you cannot access character codes over 128). However, there is also a default setting /root/config/print_upperchrset which is set to No by default, which is probably the issue.

I will change the default charset and default printer_upperchrset to Yes as I think that should be the default!

UPDATE. With a much better understanding now, I've been able to get character code 156 to print £, by fronting it with 27, 54 printer control codes which enables extended ASCII characters. So I now have two different ways of setting up the £ sign using Tasword 2, 3 and 2 plus on my ZX Spectrums.