C.4 Appropriate Remote Commands

All of the remote commands described above are wrapped up with the usual boilerplate. The files always start with ‘00 00 00’ and the “magic” command described above, then two ‘ESC @’s to reset the printer. The remote command sequences come next; if they print anything that is usually followed by a ‘FF’ (0C hex) character to feed the page, then the file ends with another two ‘ESC @’s to get back to the ground state.

An alignment sequence goes like this:

1. Host uses ‘DT’ to print an alignment sheet
2. User eyeballs the sheet to see which is the best aligned pattern.
3. Host sends a ‘DA’ command indicating which pattern the user chose
4. If the user said "realign", meaning he isn't done yet, go to step 1
5. We are done: host sends a ‘SV’ command and exits

The sequence used (by the STC 3000, at least) to print from the roll feed is (with byte count omitted)

     PM 00 00
     SN 00 00 00
     EX 00 00 00 00 05 01
     ST 00 01
     SM 00 02

The sequence used by the STP 870 to print on plain paper is

     PM 00 00
     IR 00 03
     SN 00 00 01
     SN 00 01 00
     SN 00 02 01
     EX 00 00 00 00 05 00
     FP 00 00 00

and the job finishes with

     IR 00 02
     LD

For different paper type settings on the STP 870, the arguments to ‘SN’ vary. The arguments to the first and third ‘SN’ commands are as outlined in the description of the ‘SN’ command above; the arguments to the second (“platen gap”) are ‘00 01 01’ for thick papers (“matte paper—heavyweight”, “photo paper” and “premium glossy photo paper”) and ‘00 01 00’ for all others.

For roll-mode printing, the STP 870's sequence changes as follows. ‘IR’'s arguments become ‘00 01’ in the header, and ‘00 00’ after the job, and ‘EX’'s last argument changes from ‘00’ to ‘01’.

For zero-margin printing on the STP 870, the arguments to ‘FP’ become ‘00 0xb0 0xff’. This moves the origin about 5.5mm to the left, to a point one tenth of an inch to the left of the left-hand edge of the paper, allowing printing right up to (and beyond) the edge of the paper. Some printers (at least the STP 870) include white absorbent pads at the left margin position and other positions (89mm and 100mm on the STP 870) to soak up ink which misses the edge of the paper. Printing off the edge of paper of a width not aligned with a pad could result in making a mess of the inside of the printer and ink getting on the reverse of the paper.