Abstract:
A serial printer comprises a carriage, a print member rotatably mounted to the carriage and including a plurality of character elements of a predetermined font style, drive means coupled to the print member for rotating the print member to a desired rotational position in order to place a selected character element at a printing position adjacent a record medium to be printed upon, print hammer means mounted to the carriage and capable when enabled of impacting the character element located at such printing position with a desired level of force, and hammer control apparatus coupled to the print hammer means for enabling the print hammer means when the selected character element has been rotated to the desired rotational position. The hammer control apparatus comprises means responsive to a first signal representative of the selected character element to be impacted for generating a second signal proportional to a desired level of force with which the selected character element is to be impacted by the print hammer means when the plurality of character elements are defined in any one of at least two different font styles, one of which being the predetermined font style, means coupled to the means for generating a second signal for multiplying the second signal by a constant identified with the predetermined font style to form a third signal representative of the desired level of force with which the selected character element is to be impacted, means coupled to the print member for detecting when the selected character element has been rotated to the desired rotational position, and means responsive to such detection for coupling the third signal to the print hammer means thereby enabling the print hammer means to impact the selected character element with the desired level of force.