Dot-Matrix Emulation

For various historical reasons, many host based applications either try to print their output in either 80 columns or 132 columns by 66 lines. In order for these output sizes to line up correctly, the printer must support 10 CPI or 17 CPI (Characters Per Inch) character sets, as do most dot matrix printers.

Many printers designed for use with Windows however, do not support exactly the right sized characters to allow these dimensions to be printed correctly. Additionally, some Windows printers, especially the inexpensive ones, cannot be directly printed to, but instead rely on the graphics engine in the Windows operating system to allow them to print.

By using a special True-Type font and some clever dimension mapping techniques, ZTERM 2000 is able to print either 80x66 or 132x66 on any printer that is supported by Windows, including "exotic" printer drivers such as the Acrobat Distiller or Fax printer drivers. Using the dot-matrix emulator requires no changes to the host code - the transparent print enable/disable escape sequences are used to enable the dot-matrix emulator.

Using either the toolbar or menu, the dot-matrix emulator can be switched between 10 and 17 CPI modes. It is important to select the correct mode prior to commencing printing from the host. 10 CPI results in portrait output and 17 CPI generates landscape orientation.