I gave this one a shot but I don't think we're quite there yet.

First, let me back up just a bit. Somehow, I've given the impression that we're working with a dot matrix printer. We actually work entirely with laser printers from our DOS system.

I tried the syntax you gave me:

set printer to
set printer to name getprinter() && btw, we don't use this in our progs
??? ' '
set printer on
? "line 1"
??? (ctrl code)
? "line 2"

When I did this, the ??? before setting the printer on was completely ignored. So, when I hit the ??? after line 1, line 1 printed on a page and the page was ejected before I could even print line 2.