Printer Drivers

The printer drivers for Signum!2 were essential in adapting its documents to a wide variety of printer hardware. Specific font files were used for different printer types:

  • *.P24 for 24-needle dot matrix printers,
  • *.P9 for 9-needle printers, and
  • *.L30 for laser printers.

Users were instructed to rename the printer driver that matched their setup to SPRINT.PRG, so that it could be invoked directly from the editor.

Printing at the time involved sending ASCII text to a character device. Additional graphics or layout commands could be sent using ESC (ASCII 27) sequences, as specified by ESC/P (Epson) or PCL (HP).

24-Needle

The default 24-needle printer driver was PR24N.PRG. which used ESC/P escape sequences. ESC * in particular was used to print in graphics mode.

This driver intentionally skipped the second-to-last pixel of every row of pixels in a glyph, because in 360 dpi horizontal graphics mode, it was not possible to print adjacent dots and Signum wanted to ensure the right edge of each glyph got printed accurately.

There was a PR24_KAD.PRG variant that did not skip this pixel, for use with inkjet printers that did not have this limitation.

Print Quality / Druckqualität (PR24N.PRG)

The print dialog provided several customization options, allowing users to select between different ESC/P command variants based on their printer’s capabilities. This included options for absolute positioning or 1/360th inch line movements, required for the 360dpi vertical resolution mode.

Printer Type / Druckertyp (PR24N.PRG)
Paper Settings / Papierart (PR24N.PRG)

Laserprinter

The printer driver for ATARI laster printers was PRATL.PRG. The printer driver for HP-LaserJet and compatible printers was PR30L.PRG.

9-Needle

The printer driver for 9-needle printers was PR9N.PRG.

Spooler, Premul

To further enhance usability, Signum!2 offered a spooler and programs that could redirect print jobs to the ATARI’s serial (RS232) or parallel (Centronics) ports, or save output as a .PRD file for later printing, allowing for seamless integration with various printing setups.

  • PEMV24.PRG to redirect to the RS232 port
  • PEM_CENT.PRG to redirect to the parallel port
  • PREMUL.PRG to redirect to a *.PRD file