----------- Epson (24pin) to BJ10e Font Converter -------------

Background

Having purchased my BJ10e I soon felt the urge to try some
different fonts. It seemed that the only downloadable fonts
available were those sold by IBM intended for their Proprinter 24
which the BJ10e emulates, whilst I am sure the IBM fonts are
excellent, they are rather expensive. I already had some
Epson 24 pin fonts, and Fontkit Plus, so I wrote EPSON_BJ
to convert the Epson fonts into BJ10e fonts.

Scope

EPSON_BJ  will load any Epson compatible 24 pin font
and convert it into an equivalent BJ10e font.
The converter handles both proportional and monospaced fonts.
It is designed to run in low, medium, or high resolutions, with
or without the UIS III file selector (recommended).

Using the program

The procedure for using the program is detailed below.

1)   On running the program a file selector will be displayed.
     The Epson font to be converted should be selected.
     
     Once a file has been selected the conversion will take place,
     this will take a few moments.   

2)   Having completed the conversion the program will display another
     file selector, a name should be entered here for the BJ10e font.

     It is suggested that the font retain its original name, but be
     given an extension of .DLF (Down Loadable Font) this will
     maintain consistency with the available IBM fonts.

     The new font will be saved.

3)   You will be asked whether you wish to convert another font.
     Enter Y here to return to step 1 above, any other keypress
     will return you to the desktop.

Note/
     Once a font has been converted into BJ10e format it will not
     be possible to load it into Fontkit, it is suggested that
     the Epson compatible version of each font is retained to
     allow subsequent editing.

Downloading fonts

In order to accept downloaded fonts the BJ10e should have it's
DIP switches set to DOWNLOAD and NORMAL density. 

The output files contain the BJ10e font along with the control
codes to download them successfully. In order to use one of the
BJ10e fonts all that is required is to send the complete file
to the printer, this can be done using the following GFA BASIC
or its equivalent in your chosen language.

     OPEN "i",#1,"Fontname.ext"
     INPUT #1,a$
     CLOSE #1
     LPRINT a$

Alternatively the fonts can be downloaded by 'PRINTing' them
from the desktop or CLI.
                                  
I have placed EPSON_BJ in the Public Domain, you are welcome to
make copies so long as this text file remains with the program.

I hope this will be of use.

          I.S.Porter
           Manchester
               England