Editing Dot matrix printing (section)

====Near Letter Quality (NLQ)====
{{Main|Near letter-quality printing}}
''Near Letter Quality'' mode—informally specified as almost good enough to be used in a business letter<ref name="MX6-3">{{cite book |title=Dot Matrix, InfoWorld Jul 28, 1986 |date=28 July 1986 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Vy8EAAAAMBAJ&q=dot%20matrix%20letter%20quality&pg=PA40}}</ref>—endowed dot-matrix printers with a simulated typewriter-like quality. By using multiple passes of the carriage, and higher dot density, the printer could increase the effective resolution. In 1985, ''The New York Times'' described the use of "''near letter-quality,'' or NLQ" as "just a neat little bit of hype"<ref name="NYT.dot2"/> but acknowledged that they "really show their stuff in the area of fonts, print enhancements and graphics."

NLQ printers could generally be set to print in "draft mode", in which case a single pass of the print head per line would be used. This produced lower quality print at much higher output speed.