Sending Escape Codes to the Hewlett Packard LaserJet
by James H. Chuang

Laser printers deliver high-quality printed output and have become more
affordable recently. Hewlett Packard LaserJett printers are presently the
most popular laser printers for use with PC/MS-DOS computers.

dBASE III PLUS does not use printer drivers. It assumes only that the
printer is capable of feeding paper continuously and can eject a page in
response to a form-feed character. To use other features of the printer
from within dBASE III PLUS, you need to send control codes to the printer.
For many dBASE III PLUS users, this is the first trip to the dot prompt. If
that isn't enough, the LaserJet's control codes are quite lengthy and
cryptic compared with other printers. 

Fortunately, there are many ways to get help with printer control codes.
Chapter 12, "Printing," in Programming with dBASE III PLUS shows the
techniques used to send printer control codes from the dot prompt. More
information is available in the January 1988 TechNotes article, "Printing
with Special Effects," by Naoma Stow. A program by Kent Irwin in the May
1987 TechNotes demonstrates the use of .MEM files to create "printer
drivers" for dBASE III PLUS, much like those in Framework II, MultiMate
Advantage II, and RapidFile. Finally, in the December 1986 TechNotes, Ken
Getz, Larry Abare, and Karen Robinson provided a solution using assembly
language and dBASE III PLUS to maintain and access a table of commonly used
printer control strings.

LaserJet users now have an additional helper in the form of Laserprt.PRG.
Laserprt is a simple program that's written specifically for Hewlett
Packard LaserJet printers. With it, you can set the page orientation to
portrait or landscape, select the standard font (Courier) or condensed
(Line Printer), set the top, left, and right margins, and the text length.
These are the control codes LaserJet users most often need to use with
dBASE III PLUS. If you have font cartridges or download fonts to the
LaserJet, you can modify Laserprt to take advantage of them.

Laserprt should be entered into a program file by typing

MODIFY COMMAND Laserprt

at the dot prompt. 

When you're through entering the program, save it by pressing Ctrl-W.
Whenever you need to change the LaserJet's settings, just go to the dot
prompt and enter

DO Laserprt