TEXT

The TEXT data type tells the spooler that the job consists of ANSI text. The spooler uses the current print device driver to create a new print job that prints the text of the original job using the print device's factory default font, form, orientation, and resolution listed in the Document Properties dialog box. This is useful when the print job consists of simple text and the target print device (for example, a PostScript printer) cannot interpret simple text jobs.

Text files consist of numeric values from 0 to 255, where each value is mapped to a particular character or symbol. Several character-mapping schemes (character sets) are in common use, and text files contain no indication of which character set to use when displaying or printing the file. The TEXT data type assumes the ANSI character set, so it might print some characters incorrectly if the application that created the job does not use the ANSI character set. Most character sets are identical for the values 0 through 127, so this problem usually affects extended characters (those with values from 128 through 255).

The following table shows five examples in which common character sets use different numbers to represent the same character. The PC-850 character set is commonly used by MS-DOS®-based applications in Europe; ANSI is used by Windows-based applications; PC-437 is commonly used by MS-DOS-based applications in the United States; Roman-8 is the default PCL character set.