Windows vs. Printer Control Codes

[takabyte]

In DOS-based programs, you can send control codes to a printer to change fonts, skip to a specified line, etc. You can also have such codes in a text file and copy that file to the printer, using DOS COPY command, and the codes will be properly recognized and executed by the printer. But if those same codes are sent to the printer through Windows, whether by using Windows to print the text file mentioned above from, say, Notepad, or whether from a VB program, the codes are not interpreted as printer controls at all, but simply printed as though they were text. Why is this, and is there a way around the limitation in Windows?

[Dias de verano]

You seem to be talking about those ancient devices like Epson dot matrix printers, which can be run as either character (text) where the fonts are stored in a ROM in the printer, or in raster (dot-addressable) mode.  In general, printers that are run from Windows are run in raster mode rather than character mode. That is, when you print text from Notepad, the printer driver sets the printer in graphics mode, (which means control codes are no longer recognized, for obvious reasons) and sends the printer the necessary dot data to print the characters.

To get character mode printing, use control codes, etc, you can install the Windows generic text-only printer driver. (Plenty of articles you can Google for.)

[takabyte]

dias de verano, muchas gracias, mi amigo!