AppleSoft: Carriage Returns and Linefeeds

After the printer comes to the end of a line and before it prints the next line of text, it takes care of two signals, the carriage return and the line
feed. The carriage return, ASCII CR (decimal 13), signals the printer to send the print head to home position if necessary. The line feed, ASCII LF (decimal 10), signals the printer to feed the paper past the print head by one line space.
Most printers, printer interface cards, and application software programs offer options in ignoring or accepting these printer signals. These options help when printed output has too many or too few line spaces to your liking. With the following procedure, you select the options which produce the proper printing format.

1. Determine how many line feeds you want to add or subtract.

2. Turn off, then turn on the printer. Print a Basic program. If the program lists line after line then go to step 4.

3. Check the printer manual and/or the interface card manual for instructions on changing the linefeed option on each device. Change one of the devices to add or subtract the number of linefeeds you determined.

4. Print from your application software package(s). If the output is still not to your liking, check the application program's manual for instructions on changing the linefeed option in the program.
Published Date: Feb 18, 2012