Patent US 4,254,409

A control system for modifying a conventional full width page printer to permit generation of different printed characters, symbols, or other graphic elements of different sizes in a single line. Use of this control system permits the sequential generation of such graphic elements, even though they have different relative widths and mixed sizes, during a single pass of the paper through the printer. In a block of printing which includes mixed sizes, the height of the highest character determines the printing unit, i.e., the block size, employed by this control system, and a variety of character sizes can be printed within that block. Vertical spacing between such blocks can be rapidly traversed by the printer to begin the next printing in any chosen format. Among the many capabilities of this control system is the printing of vertical words, words within larger letters, reverse printing, superscripts, subscripts, bar product codes, mixed sizes, and the like, all intermixed horizontally or vertically as desired without reversing the paper feed. By the use of two dimensional location of the beginning of each letter which is identified by control codes, minimal memory requirements are necessary.