Here's a tip to improve the quality of your dot-matrix printouts.

 When using your printer's tractor feed, you may have seen occasional lines
 of strange misaligned NLQ text, or misplaced white and dark lines in
 graphics.  These occur because the tractor doesn't position the paper
 precisely enough during line feeds.  There ought to be precision of less
 than .005 inch; friction feed provides that but tractor feed does not on
 some printers.

 My WordUp manual suggests changing the tension switch to "friction" while
 printing, making sure to occasionally flip it back to "tractor," say at
 page breaks, so the paper can center itself on the tractor sprockets
 again.  This works to a degree, but defeats the purpose of any paper feed
 mechanism, which is unattended printing.

 Here's a more elegant solution: a small paperback book, or any other flat
 object of similar weight, placed to exert a slight drag on the paper as it
 enters the printer.

 The old Panasonic printer I use is nicely set up for this.  It has two
 flat, hinged paper guides in the rear.  Tractor-feed paper goes in over
 the bottom guide, then comes back out over the top guide and down to the
 take-up stack.  After paper is threaded through the machine I lift the
 upper guide, place a small book (my ICD host adaptor owner's manual, if
 you care to know) on top of the incoming paper, and drop the guide back
 into place.

 I thought I would have to attach the book to something, but the moving
 paper holds it exactly in its proper place.  It will stay there while a
 whole box of paper goes through.

 Depending on your printer's feed path, some similar trick may work for
 you.  It's a low-tech solution, but those are often the best.  My
 printouts have looked much better since I've been doing it.

                                         --Mark Slagell