Tasword Plus Three character set
The table below describes the character mapping of a Tasword Plus Three file.
Certain assmptions have been made, for example that characters D6 and D7 which resemble A with dot above represent the more useful ring above.
Character 5E is shown as an upward arrow as on the Spectrum keyboard, however this can reasonably be assumed to represent a caret since an arrow is also included at character EB.
| 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 | @ | P | £ | p | [1] | [1] | á | ò | ẽ | ï | ¼ | [7] | |
| 1 | ! | 1 | A | Q | a | q | [1] | [1] | Á | Ò | Ẽ | Ï | ³ | [8] |
| 2 | " | 2 | B | R | b | r | [1] | [1] | é | ù | ĩ | ö | ¾ | [9] |
| 3 | # | 3 | C | S | c | s | [1] | [1] | É | Ù | Ĩ | Ö | ⅓ | [10] |
| 4 | $ | 4 | D | T | d | t | [1] | [1] | í | â | õ | ü | ² | [11] |
| 5 | % | 5 | E | U | e | u | [1] | [1] | Í | Â | Õ | Ü | ⅔ | [12] |
| 6 | & | 6 | F | V | f | v | [1] | [1] | ó | ê | ũ | å | ₂ | [13] |
| 7 | ' | 7 | G | W | g | w | [1] | [1] | Ó | Ê | Ũ | Å | ½ | [2] |
| 8 | ( | 8 | H | X | h | x | [1] | [1] | ú | î | ñ | ¿ | ← | [2] |
| 9 | ) | 9 | I | Y | i | y | [1] | [1] | Ú | Î | Ñ | ¡ | → | [2] |
| A | * | : | J | Z | j | z | [1] | [1] | à | ô | Ç | Æ | ↓ | [2] |
| B | + | ; | K | [ | k | { | [1] | [1] | À | Ô | ç | [2] | ↑ | [2] |
| C | , | < | L | \ | l | | | [1] | [1] | è | û | ä | [3] | § | [2] |
| D | - | = | M | ] | m | } | [1] | [1] | È | Û | Ä | [2] | [4] | [2] |
| E | . | > | N | ↑ | n | ~ | [1] | [1] | ì | ã | ë | æ | [5] | [2] |
| F | / | ? | O | _ | o | © | [1] | [1] | Ì | Ã | Ë | ₧ | [6] | [2] |
- Printer control codes (graphic mode)
- Blank
- Small colon
- Extend mode symbol (Ǝ)
- 2 with inverse colours
- Extend mode symbol with inverse colours
- Block start marker
- Block end marker
- / with inverse colours
- 1 with inverse colours
- § with inverse colours
- "TP" symbol
- - with inverse colours
Pre-configured disk image
I've prepared a disk image for double density 3.5" floppy which contains Tasword Plus Three and Tasprint Plus Three.
It includes fixes by Cristian Secară, as detailed on his website, and set up with printer control sequences for an Epson LQ-100 (which should work to some extent on other ESC/P2 printers, though page sizes may need tweaking).
Codepage 850 mapping
The best mapping of the Tasword Plus Three character set to characters supported by my printer I found was the "multilingual" Code page 850.
The table below gives the mapping between Tasword Plus Three characters and code page 850 characters or ESC/P2 escape sequences, along with the symbol-shift+s second character set entry key.
Where a character can't be represented in code page 850 a space is generated to ensure that monospaced text remains aligned (and to leave space to write the missing character in with a biro!).
| Tasword character | §S-key | Printer character/escape sequence |
|---|---|---|
| £ | n/a | 156 |
| © | n/a | 184 |
| á | space | 160 |
| Á | ! | 181 |
| é | " | 130 |
| É | # | 144 |
| í | $ | 161 |
| Í | % | 214 |
| ó | & | 162 |
| Ó | ' | 224 |
| ú | ( | 163 |
| Ú | ) | 233 |
| à | * | 133 |
| À | + | 183 |
| è | , | 138 |
| È | - | 212 |
| ì | . | 141 |
| Ì | / | 222 |
| ò | 0 | 149 |
| Ò | 1 | 227 |
| ù | 2 | 151 |
| Ù | 3 | 235 |
| â | 4 | 131 |
| Â | 5 | 182 |
| ê | 6 | 136 |
| Ê | 7 | 210 |
| î | 8 | 140 |
| Î | 9 | 215 |
| ô | : | 147 |
| Ô | ; | 226 |
| û | < | 150 |
| Û | = | 234 |
| ã | > | 198 |
| Ã | ? | 199 |
| ẽ | @ | "e",BS,126 (over print e with tilde) |
| Ẽ | A | 211,BS,126 (over print Ë with tilde) |
| ĩ | B | 213,BS,126 (over print ı with tilde) |
| Ĩ | C | 216,BS,126 (over print Ï with tilde) |
| õ | D | 228 |
| Õ | E | 229 |
| ũ | F | "u",BS,126 (over print u with tilde) |
| Ũ | G | 154,BS,126 (over print Ü with tilde) |
| ñ | H | 164 |
| Ñ | I | 165 |
| Ç | J | 128 |
| ç | K | 135 |
| ä | L | 132 |
| Ä | M | 142 |
| ë | N | 137 |
| Ë | O | 211 |
| ï | P | 139 |
| Ï | Q | 216 |
| ö | R | 148 |
| Ö | S | 153 |
| ü | T | 129 |
| Ü | U | 154 |
| å | V | 134 (assuming it represents å not ȧ) |
| Å | W | 143 (assuming it represents Å not Ȧ) |
| ¿ | X | 168 |
| ¡ | Y | 173 |
| Æ | Z | 146 |
| æ | ↑ | 145 |
| ₧ | _ | " " (not available in code page 850) |
| ¼ | £ | 172 |
| ³ | a | 252 |
| ¾ | b | 243 |
| ⅓ | c | " " (not available in code page 850) |
| ² | d | 253 |
| ⅔ | e | " " (not available in code page 850) |
| ₂ | f | " " (not available in code page 850) |
| ½ | g | 171 |
| ← | h | ESC,"(","^",1,0,27 (print character 27) |
| → | i | ESC,"(","^",1,0,26 (print character 26) |
| ↓ | j | ESC,"(","^",1,0,25 (print character 25) |
| ↑ | k | ESC,"(","^",1,0,24 (print character 24) |
| § | l | 245 |
| Ǝ | m | " " (not available in code page 850) |
Printer initialisation sequence and program settings
The printer initialisation sequence is set to
ESC,"@",ESC,"(","t",3,0,1,3,0,ESC,"P",ESC,"l",2,ESC,"Q","N"
which encodes the following:
- Initialise printer
- Assign PC850 character table to active table 1
- Select 10 characters per inch
- Set left margin to 2
- Set right margin to 78
1 and right margin is set to 76.
Tasprint Plus Three
Tasprint has its own set of escape sequences (using the ! character) as seen in the included demo.txt file.
Thanks to flatduckrecords on the spectrumcomputing.co.uk forum we now have scans of the Tasprint Plus Three user manual which describes these in full.
The manual also explains the settings in tpconfig which I set (mostly by trial and error) for the LQ-100 to the following:
| Graphics line spacing | 27 51 24 | 24/180th inch line spacing |
| Normal line spacing | 27 50 | 1/6th inch line spacing |
| Single density | 27 75 224 1 | 480 dots at 60-dpi |
| Double density | 27 76 192 3 | 960 dots at 120-dpi |
I'm almost certain I have the intra line spacing and mesh pass spacing settings wrong, but I don't have the +3 or printer set up currently to experiment further now that I have the manual and a copy of the ESC/P2 specification.