Emulations User guide108What are escapesequences?An escape sequence consists of an ESCape control character (ESC =decimal 27 or hexadecimal 1B) followed by one or more characters,which represent commands to the printer. Please note that this escapecharacter has nothing to do with the ESC key on your computer key-board.For example, the control character ESC followed by the character “4”tells your printer to print the subsequent text in italics.Control codes Control codes give simple instructions to the printer to perform a spe-cific function. Unlike escape sequences, control codes do not beginwith the ESC control code. Instead, they consist of special single-char-acter non-printing commands (e.g. LF, FF, DC2).How are escapesequences used?Escape sequences are transmitted to the printer by your computer soft-ware via the printer driver. Experienced users and programmers canalso control the printer directly via control sequences, however beforeyou start working with escape sequences and control codes, we recom-mend that you study the computer software manual.To enter control codes the Ctrl key and an ASCII character must bepressed simultaneously. For instance, by pressing Ctrl and J a line feedis accomplished (it is required to output the character string on theprinter). More information concerning this topic is contained in yourcomputer software manual and the corresponding Programmer’s Ap-plication Manuals (stored in the MISC folder of this CD-ROM).The selected emulation must correspond to the printer driver ofyour application program. Settings caused by ESC sequencesremain valid, until they are switched off by another control code.All settings are reset to the original menu, when the printer isswitched off.
