Rotating text 90 degrees on Laser Output

[cvandijk]

Hello All:

I am wondering if RM/COBOL has the ability to rotate text 90 degrees before printing it to a laser form.

We are implementing new bills which are on a legal piece of paper with some text facing the normal direction and other text that faces the other way.

Any help on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[razalas]

That doesn't sound like anything specific to any flavor of Cobol.

That sounds like it's going to require you include special escape sequences in your print output to tell the printer the placement, orientation and/or font for parts of your print output.

You are going to have to identify and learn the control language (PCL, etc.) for your specific printer.

Code what you mean,
and mean what you code!
But by all means post your code!

Razalas

 

[cvandijk]

Thanks very much for your input on this matter. I will have to do some more research on the control language when I return to work from the weekend.

 

[jmanj]

I used SQR language (used to be owned by Brio or MITI) to do such rotational text printing, check printing, signatures, logos, bar coding etc. It's been awhile but most important is an in-depth knowledge of the PCL control language which you
can buy or download from HP.

 

[mrregan]

This may be helpful.

http://www.mecsw.com/info/appnote/app_031.html

 

[cvandijk]

Thanks to everyone for all your help. I am going to have to brush up on my PCL control language. Thankfully while I was analyzing some other programs that my predecessor wrote on the system, I found one that incorporates the PCL control language in COBOL.

I appreciate the responses, they were most helpful.

 

[k5tm]

If this is on Windows, you can use the P$SetFont call to set the escapement parameter to 900 (90.0 degrees). See the RM/COBOL User's Guide for more information. The watermark example could be helpful.

Tom Morrison

 

[razalas]

Tom,

will the P$SetFont function allow you to interleave different blocks of text in perpendicular directions on the same page? Or does that cause the entire page image to be rotated?

with some text facing the normal direction and other text that faces the other way

Code what you mean,
and mean what you code!
But by all means post your code!

Razalas

 

[k5tm]

David,

You can change the font with P$SetFont as you see fit, whenever you wish. IIRC the watermark example cited above mixes fonts including different escapement values.

Tom Morrison