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- \V
- VLASER
-
- Copyright 1991 by Ho`a G. Nguye^~n
- _________________
-
-
- VLASER is a printing program which prints VIE^'T files (output
- of VIE^'T or VMORE). Laser printers which are compatible with
- VLASER are all HP-Laserjet series and compatible printers, with
- the sole exception of the original Laserjet printer, which did
- not have font downloading capability\. Your laser printer must be
- connected to your computer through the primary parallel port.
-
- VLASER is executed by:
-
- VLASER [filename]
-
- where the optional filename is a VIE^'T-format file\. VLASER
- selections are made through a menu\. To select a parameter for
- changing, either type the letter of number at the beginning of
- the line (for example, F for font name), or move the cursor bar
- to that line using the up and down arrows, and press Enter.
-
- Once a parameter has been selected for changing, a dialog
- line (or group of lines) will appear at the bottom of the screen
- with directions for changing the parameter. Some parameters,
- such as Font name, Line spacing, and Paper size results in dialog
- boxes which behave as ad\ditional menus. Again, use the left and
- right arrow keys or the high-lighted characters to select the
- appropriate choices. Some parameters affect (or limit) others,
- when this happens, VLASER attempts to propagate the effect of a
- recently changed parameter to the others, and adjust them
- accordingly\. These automatic adjustments are not always perfect,
- and can be corrected by you\.
-
- The following are brief description of the commands:
-
- N) File name: drive, directory (path) and name of file to
- print.
-
- F) Font name: name of fonts to use\. Four fonts are
- supplied: Courier, Prestige, Palatino and
- Chancery\. Other user-\designed fonts (see
- LSDESIGN) can be accessed through the "others"
- selection.
-
- I) Pitch: horizontal character spacing. Two pitches
- are available: Pica (10 characters/inch) and
- Elite (12 characters/inch).
-
- 1) Left edge offset: ad\ditional offset which will be ad\ded
- to the left margin when file is printed.
-
- 2) Line spacing: vertical line spacing. Five selections are
- available\. The first and fourth selections (6
- lines/inch and 3 lines/inch) correspond to the
- American typewriter's "single" and "double"
- spacings. The others are metric spacings. The
- 5mm spacing is recommended for Vietnamese (the
- American "single" spacing produces a crowded look
- when used with Vietnamese accentmarks). Thus, the
- 10mm selection corresponds to the Vietnamese
- double-spacing.
-
- 3) Start at page: start printing at this page\. This value
- is related to the "first page number" value below.
- For example, if First page number is 5, then if
- Start at page = 6, printing will start on the
- second page of the file\.
-
- 4) End at page: stop printing after this page\.
-
- 5) First page number: page number to be printed for the
- first page of this file\. This allows printed
- files to be concatenated (like chapters in a
- book).
-
- 6) Top margin and 7) Bottom margin: these values are
- displayed in 3 forms: metric, English, and line
- number. The last form allows you to preview the
- output inside VIE^'T. If you use these line numbers
- to set the corresponding top and bottom margin in
- VIE^'T, then the page breaks you see in VIE^'T will
- match up with the laser-printed output.
-
- 8) Print page numbers: if set to NO, no page number will be
- printed, and parameter 9 will be ignored.
-
- 9) Page-number position: horizontal position where the page
- number will be printed (page numbers are printed
- at the bottom of the page).
-
- 0) Paper size: allows you to select one of 4 Laserjet paper
- sizes. Your selection must match the physical
- size of paper being used and the MP SIZE selection
- on your printer's panel (refer to your printer's
- manual for MP SIZE selection).
-
- A) About VLASER: displays a short introduction screen to
- VLASER.
-
- P) Print: Print the file\. If no printing has taken place
- during the current VLASER session, or if the font
- or pitch has been changed since the last printing,
- then the font will first be downloaded to your
- printer.
-
- Q) Quit: exit VLASER.
-
- VLASER's environment is saved automatically when you exit
- the program and reloaded when VLASER is restarted. However,
- three parameters (starting page, ending page, and first page
- number) are file dependent. If VLASER detects that the current
- file is not the same as the file that was present when these
- parameters were set, they would be reset to default values.
-
- Note: After exiting VLASER, the last downloaded font will stay
- in your printer's memory and take the place of the default font.
- Since the VIE^'T font is a superset of the normal ASCII character
- set, this is a beneficial side-effect, allowing you to use VIE^'T
- fonts for other purposes. The downloaded font will be erased
- when you press "Reset" on your printer, or turn the printer off.
-