Editing Daisy wheel printing (section)

=== Graphics ===

Although the daisy wheel principle is basically inappropriate for printing [[bitmap graphics]], there were attempts to enable them to do so. Most daisy wheel printers supported a relatively coarse and extremely slow graphics mode by printing the image entirely out of dots (formed by the "period" character). This required a mechanism capable of pixel by pixel movement, both horizontally and vertically, and low-end printers were incapable of it.<ref name="letterhead" >{{ cite journal | title = Creating a letterhead with your daisywheel printer | last = Hogan |first=Thom | journal = Creative Computing Magazine | url = http://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v10n3/202_Creating_a_letterhead_wit.php | volume = 10 | issue = 3 | date = March 1984 | page = 202 }}</ref> Given the slow speed and the coarse resolution this was not a feasible technique for printing large images. However, it could usefully print a small logo onto a letterhead and then the following letter, all in a single unattended print run without changing the print element.

Daisy wheel printers are capable of producing simplified graphics in the form of [[ASCII art]].

Consideration was also given to optimising graphic printing by changing the glyphs on the daisy wheel to a set that would be able to print all the required bitmap combinations more quickly, without requiring an impact for every single dot. This would have the advantage that vertical dot combinations could be printed in a single impact, without requiring fine rotation control of the platen roller. However it would require a specialised daisy wheel so printing of a letter and letterhead would require a two-step process with a manual wheel change in-between.<ref name="Kostopoulos, IEEE" >{{ cite journal | title = Quality graphics for daisy-wheel word processing | last = Kostopoulos |first=G. K. | journal = IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics | publisher = [[IEEE]] | date = February 1989 | volume = 35 |issue=1 | pages = 16–23 | issn = 0098-3063 | doi = 10.1109/30.24649 }}</ref> As the development of this technique post-dated the widespread availability of 24-pin dot matrix printers and coincided with the arrival of affordable [[laser printer]]s in offices, it was never a popular approach.

{{anchor|Twinriter}}[[Brother Industries]] manufactured the [[Brother Twinriter|Twinriter series]] printers, which tried to overcome the limitation of the missing graphics capabilities of daisy wheel printers by adding a dot matrix print head to the existing daisy wheel print head, with the former being used for letter quality printing and the latter for drafts and for printing symbols which were not present in the daisy wheel character set.<ref>{{cite journal |author-first=Owen W. |author-last=Linzmayer |title=Double duty printers |journal=[[Creative Computing]] |volume=11 |number=11 |date=November 1985 |page=72 |url=http://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v11n11/72_Double_duty_printers.php |access-date=2016-10-31 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161031175010/http://www.atarimagazines.com/creative/v11n11/72_Double_duty_printers.php |archive-date=2016-10-31}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Brother Twinriter 6 - Daisy Wheel Drives Us Dotty - A Little Slowly - Dual-Format Printer Saves Spaces, Sacrifies Draft Print Quality |author-first=Steve |author-last=King |journal=[[InfoWorld]] |pages=57–60 |date=1987-11-23 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BT8EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA57 |access-date=2016-10-31}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Peripherals; Finally, the Right Stuff |author-first=L. R. |author-last=Shannon |date=1987-08-25 |journal=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/25/science/peripherals-finally-the-right-stuff.html |access-date=2016-10-31 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161031175948/http://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/25/science/peripherals-finally-the-right-stuff.html |archive-date=2016-10-31}}</ref>