Abstract: A character generator with multidirectional scan and variable line and character (or symbol) size capability is disclosed. Universality is implemented by producing a serial binary stream which can be used to print or display in any of eight combinations of scan direction and progression, that is, for scan direction left to right, or vice versa, progressing up or down, or scan direction top or bottom or vice versa, progressing left or right. In formatting the serial binary stream, a font is accessed (for basic symbol definition), which selectively provides for orthogonal scan of the symbol definitions. Variable line size is implemented by terminating a symbol row (or line) based on a predetermined size criteria regardless of the comparable font dimension and "filling" up to the line size to the extent the corresponding font dimension is less than the predetermined size criteria.

Abstract: The invention provides a printer with a capability of printing in any one of a plurality of rotations. Component image data is stored in a library. The component image data is subdivided into data sets or quads. The size of a quad is selected so that it can be readily rotated with simple hardware. As the data sets are written to a buffer, they are rotated, and the locations in the buffer at which the different data sets are written depends on the selected rotation, to provide for data rotation "on the fly".