dot matrix printer unicode question

[Jude DaShiell <jdashiel@shellworld.net>]

Could unicode be the reason my Panasonic KX-p1123 printer prints garbage 
on sveral pages when I try printing out a 13 line long text file on Linux 
and that same file gets printed perfectly when done with a real dos 
computer?  I have a printer queue set up which allows lpr and lp both to 
print garbage last time a sighted person took a look dollar signs question 
marks and very long lines of text were being printed.  This is a grocery 
list with one item per line.