jnh@ece-csc.UUCP (Joseph Nathan Hall) (12/15/88)
Those of you who have ImageWriter IIs whose output at "best" looks only slightly better (or even worse) than it does at "faster" might want to try fiddling with the verboten DIP switches (the ones with the clipped-off handles that you're not supposed to mess with). These switches are used to adjust (I believe) the hammer-fire timing on the reverse (right-to-left) printing pass, and they DO make a difference. Just try setting the switches (there are two of them) to each of the four possible permutations ... turn the printer off after you change the setting, then turn it back on and print something at "Best" (make sure the lines are long enough to trigger bidirectional printing). Write down the switch settings on the print sample, and try another setting ... Leave the printer set at the one that works best. Simple, eh? These switches are allegedly set by "qualified Apple technicians" at the factory. In my case, they were set to the worst of the four possible permutations. Maybe my "qualified Apple technician" had just heard he was being laid off. Also, the "quality" setting on the ImageWriter (on the front panel) WILL affect the output in "draft" mode. The power-up setting is the ImageWriter's fast "draft" style; the setting you get by pressing the "quality" button once is the "normal" style; and the setting you get by pressing the "quality" button once more is the ImageWriter's NLQ style (albeit compressed). If you're tired of waiting for a decent-looking program listing because the Mac is bit-blasting your characters to the printer, you can speed up things a lot by using "draft" mode and a better print style instead. -- v v sssss|| joseph hall || 201-1D Hampton Lee Court v v s s || jnh@ece-csc.ncsu.edu (Internet) || Cary, NC 27511 v sss || the opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of my -----------|| employer, north carolina state university . . . . . . . . . . .