Q. I want a printer to use with my Commodore 64 for £100-£150. I understand that Epson, which has a good name, has just released the P-40. But I'm told non-Commodore printers don't produce the Commodore graphic characters - does this apply to the new Epson printer?

John Ormes, Crewe

A. Taking your last question first: very few printers other than Commodore's own print out the graphics characters that the machine uses. Unfortunately, this not only affects graphics that you wish to use in your programs but also any codes used to show screen control codes such as cursor.

A few manufacturers have now started to produce boards to sit inside standard printers, but these tend to be rather expensive at around £60 on top of roughly £250 for the printer.

Many interfaces are now available which allow the Commodore 64 to be used with most Centronics printers, and some of these also allow you to use the C64's character set or give an alternative such as [sA] for the graphics character generated by pressing SHIFT and A. We use such an interface in PCN's office to produce our Commodore listings. Again, this option is expensive at up to about £90. You could look at the Micrografix interface, distributed in the UK by Impex (01-900 0999), or the one from Zero Electronics which is £42.95 (0493-842023).

Cheaper interfaces are available at around £20 that simply plug onto the user port and a small program is used to output all data to the printer. However, not all programs work with this type. Stack would be a good place to start enquiries (051-933 5511).

Unfortunately, we have not yet looked at the Epson you mention, but from the specifications we've seen it appears to be a Centronics or Serial thermal printer which takes a 4in roll of paper, not totally unlike the Sinclair ZX printer. You'll have to buy a Commodore interface. If the P-40 uses the standard control codes, you may be able to get all Commodore graphics by using one of the more expensive interfaces.

If you were prepared to forgo the graphics to use full size paper with your printer, you could take a look at the Brother HR5 printer. Again, it is thermal but won't cost much more than Epson's P-40.

Printers are still an expensive item and the nearer to £200 that you are willing to spend, the greater the chance of buying an interface that will make it behave like a normal Commodore printer.

* Issue 107 will contain a guide to some popular printers, and the Workbench section will show how to build a printer interface for the C64.