Below is the original PRTSCFX.DOC from 1983 with a few formatting changes for Markdown viewing.
This was a Terminate and Stay Resident (TSR) program for IBM PC-DOS to print graphical screenshots using the line drawing characters of the IBM Monochrome Display.
Examples of its output are in the BYTE article mentioned below, which can be viewed on archive.org.
PrtScFX is a screen dump program which prints a graphic image of a text mode display on an Epson FX or RX (not MX!) series printer. The printout looks just like a screen display, including connected line graphics.
PrtScFX should be run once, typically from your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. From then on, if you are in 80 column text mode, the Shift-Prtsc key will give you the prompt:
G = text graphics dump, D = darker graphics, SPACE = normal dump, Esc = cancel
and you can type:
G for a text mode graphics dump
D for a better quality (double-strike) text graphics dump
Space Bar for a "normal" screen dump (passes the request on to the
standard - or other special - screen dump utility)
Esc to cancel the screen dump request
Either the IBM Monochrome Display or the color/graphics adapter can be used, but only 80-column TEXT mode displays are dumped. For either display adapter, the printout duplicates the font of the IBM Monochrome Display.
PrtScFX coexists nicely with IBM's GRAPHICS program. Just run them both in your AUTOEXEC (in either order), and then GRAPHICS will handle graphics mode displays, and PrtScFX will kick in for text mode.
PrtScFX produced the illustrations of Transend PC screens in my article (with Richard Moore), "A Communications Package for the IBM PC", in the November 1983 BYTE magazine. For camera-ready art like this, I recommend:
- A fairly fresh ribbon - but not brand new (smudges). The one we used in the article was a little faint.
- Good quality bond paper - not typical printout paper (the ink bleeds).
- If available, friction feed instead of pin feed - better registration.
- The D option for double-strike graphics.
In the article, we used a ribbon that was just a little too faint.
PrtScFX is placed in the public domain without restriction.
Michael Geary P.O. Box 1479 Los Gatos, CA 95031 (408) 354-4400
If you just want to use PrtScFX, you just need PRTSCFX.COM
If you want to modify and/or re-assemble PrtScFX, the source files are PRTSCFX.ASM and MONOCG.ASM. The latter file contains the character generator data from the ROM on the display adapters. If you don't need to modify this, just use MONOCG.OBJ.
(change drive letters as needed)
B>masm PrtScFX ;
B>masm MonoCG ; (omit if you have MONOCG.OBJ)
B>link PrtScFX + MonoCG ;
If you have the Spacemaker program by Realia, Inc.:
B>sm PrtScFX ; /s
If you don't have Spacemaker, you should get it! For now, use:
B>exe2bin PrtScFX.exe PrtScFX.com
(Your .COM file will be larger using exe2bin)
B>del PrtScFX.exe
Suggested modifications: Handle 40 column text, clean up & document code (sorry, it started out as a "quick and dirty" program).