HP 6 FAMILY, 4000, 1200c, 5 FAMILY, 5-5M, 4 FAMILY User Manual
PCL 5 Comparison Guide
for the
HP LaserJet III
HP LaserJet IIID
HP LaserJet IIISi
HP LaserJet IIIP
HP LaserJet 4 Family
HP LaserJet 4000 series
HP Color LaserJet
HP Color LaserJet 5/5M
HP LaserJet 5 Family
HP LaserJet 6 Family
HP DeskJet 1200C
HP DeskJet 1600C
Printers
Edition 1
E1097
HP Part No. 5021-0378
Printed in U.S.A. 10/97
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This manual was created using text formatting software on
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T rademark CreditsIntellifont is a U.S. registered trademark of Agfa Division,
Miles Incorporated. CG T imes is a product of Agfa
Corporation, AGFA Compugraphic Division. LaserJet, PCL,DeskJet, Vectra, and Resolution Enhancement are U.S.
registered trademarks of Hewlett-Packard Company. IBM
is a registered trademark of International Business
Machines Corporation. Wingdings, MS-Mincho, and
MS-Gothic are trademarks, and Microsoft, Windows, and
MS-DOS are U.S. registered trademarks of Microsoft
Corporation. Centronics is a U.S. registered trademark of
Centronics Corporation. ITC Zapf Dingbats is a U.S.
registered trademark of International Typeface Corporation. Helvetica and Times Roman are trademarks of
Linotype AG and its subsidiaries.
Univers is a U.S. registered trademark of Linotype AG and
its subsidiaries. PostScript and the PostScript logo are
registered trademarks of Adobe Systems, Inc. in the U.S.
and other countries. Arial, Times New Roman andMonotype are U.S. registered trademarks of Monotype
Corporation plc. Macintosh is a registered trademark and
TrueType is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. ESC/P is
a trademark of Seiko-Epson Corporation.
iii
ConventionsThis manual uses the following conventions:
Bold indicates a term defined in the glossary.
Italic refers to a related document, or is used for
emphasis.
The cursive letter l is used in some examples to
distinguish the letter “l” from the numeral “1” (one).
A slash zero 0 is used in some examples and escape
sequences to distinguish the letter “O” from the number
“0”.
0x XX represents a hexadecimal number (XX).
The ~ character indicates that the current line of code is
a continuation of the previous line.
NoteNotes contain important information set off from the text.
IntroductionHewlett-Packard printers which support the PCL 5 printer
language contain slightly different feature sets, each
suitable for that printer’s intended use. Each printer
implements minor variations of PCL 5 as a result of those
differences. With new printer releases, new features may be
added with new commands and/or PCL operations which
require documentation.
The purpose of this guide is to identify the differences in
the implementation of the PCL 5 Printer Language for
different HP LaserJet and DeskJet printers, as compared to
that described in the PCL 5 Printer Language TechnicalReference Manual. This guide describes new commands and
exceptions to existing commands unique to the printers, as
well as internal typeface/font support and print
environment settings.
Feature Set 1-1
This guide covers the following HP LaserJet printers:
This guide also covers the HP 1200C and 1600C DeskJet
printers.
PCL Feature
Support
Table 1-1, the PCL Feature Support Matrix, lists all the
printer commands from the PCL 5 Printer LanguageTechnical Reference Manual and identifies which of these
commands are supported by the various printers. More
detailed PCL information for each PCL 5 printer is
provided in Chapter 2.
NoteThe PCL 5 Printer Language Technical Reference Manual
(part number 5961-0509) was revised for the release of the
HP LaserJet 4 printer and contains all PCL language
features up to the HP LaserJet 4 printer.
With the introduction of the HP LaserJet 4 printer,
Hewlett-Packard enhanced the PCL 5 printer language to
provide some new features. The major improvements to the
PCL 5 printer language are listed below.
600 dpi support for higher quality printing
45 scalable typefaces for greater type variety
TrueType rasterizer (in addition to the Intellifont
rasterizer) for fast Windows printing, and for matching
Windows and printer type (easy WYSIWYG)
New graphics commands for faster and better curves and
shading quality
Bi-directional I/O for easier use and sharing by providing
printer status to computer applications
Automatic and faster printer language switching
Automatic I/O switching for faster I/O rates
Improved memory management so most pages print in
standard memory
Improved PCL and HP-GL/2 performance for faster
graphics and text printing
Feature Set 1-3
NotesIn T able 1-1, if the command value field parameters are
not listed, then all parameters are supported by printers
that support that command.
The value in parentheses following a command
parameter identifies the parameter value field value (for
example, the parameter “Letter (2)” indicates that the
value field to select letter size in the Page Size command
is “2” ).
Commands which are not supported (“ns”) by a printer
are ignored.
1-4 Feature Set
PCL 5 Technical
Reference Manual
Corrections
This section describes updates to the PCL 5 Printer
Language Technical Reference Manual (5961-0509).
Because this manual will not be updated, any changes to it
are documented in this guide. Some errors have been
identified in the PCL 5 Printer Language TechnicalReference Manual since its printing. Those errors are
identified and corrections are provided on this page.
Chapter 4
PCL Job Control
Commands
Chapter 8
PCL Font Selection
Chapter 13
The PCL Print Model
Unit of Measure Command
In Figure 4-6 on page 4-18, the two escape sequences at the
top should read “(?&u100D) and (?&u200D)” instead of
“(?&u100B) and (?&u200B).”
Transparent Print Data Command
The last sentence in the note at the bottom of page 8-33
should read “Refer to the PCL 5 Comparison Guide,
Appendix A, for character codes for the various symbol
sets.” instead of “Refer to Appendix A for character codes for
the various symbol sets.”
User-Defined Pattern Command
In Figure 13-10 on page 13-19, byte zero should read
Format (20) instead of Format (0)
On page 13-21, Format (Byte 0) should read “0” for a 300
DPI user-defined pattern header and “20” for a
resolution-specified user-defined pattern header.
Feature Set 1-5
Table 1-1.PCL 5 Feature Support Matrix
FUNCTION COMMANDIIIIIIDIIISiIIIP44M4Si
4SiMx
4L
4P
4MP
4PJ4 Plus
4M Plus4V4MV
MISCELLANEOUS
4ML
Configuration (AppleTalk) ?&b#W[data]nsnsnsns
✓✓ns✓
ns
✓✓
JOB CONTROL
Universal Exit/Start of PJL
?%–12345X ns ns
✓
✓ ✓ ✓✓✓ ✓ ✓
ns
(UEL)
Reset ?E
Number of Copies ?&l#X
Simplex/Duplex Print ?&l#S ns
Left (Long-Edge) Offset
Destination Tray 3 (3)nsnsnsnsnsnsnsnsnsnsns
Print Direction?&a#P
Character Text Path Dir.?&c#Tnsnsnsnsnsnsnsns
Left Margin?&a#L
Right Margin?&a#M
Clear Horizontal Margins?9
Top Margin?&l#E
Text Length?&l#F
Perforation Skip?&l#L
Horizontal Motion Index?&k#H
Vertical Motion Index?&l#C
Line Spacing ?&l#D
ALPHANUMERIC ID (Media selection by type/PCL mass storage command)
Alphanumeric ID?&n#W[oper-
- Indicates a command is supported. ns - Indicates a command is not supported.
nsnsnsnsns
Destination Tray 3nsnsnsnsnsnsns
Print Direction?&a#P
Character Text Path Dir.?&c#Tnsns
Left Margin?&a#L
Right Margin?&a#M
Clear Horizontal Margins ?9
Top Margin?&l#E
Text Length?&l#F
Perforation Skip?&l#L
Horizontal Motion Index?&k#H
Vertical Motion Index?&l#C
Line Spacing ?&l#D
ALPHANUMERIC ID (Media selection by type/PCL mass storage command)
Alphanumeric ID?&n#W[oper-
nsnsnsnsnsnsns
ation] [string]
- Indicates a command is supported. ns - Indicates a command is not supported.
✓
1
The LaserJet 4000 series printers support HCI trays 2– 41 (20 – 59)
5Si
5SiMx
Mopier55M
4000
series
Desk-
1200C
✓✓✓ ✓
✓✓✓
✓✓✓
✓
nsnsnsns
ns
1
✓
✓
✓✓✓
✓✓✓
✓
nsnsnsns
✓✓✓
Desk-
Jet
Jet
1600C
nsns
nsns
ns
nsns
ns
nsns
nsns
nsns
nsns
nsns
✓
Feature Set 1-11
Table 1-1.PCL 5 Feature Support Matrix (continued)
FUNCTION COMMANDIIIIIIDIIISiIIIP44M4Si
CURSOR POSITIONING
Horizontal Position?&a#C
?*p#X
?&a#H
Vertical Position?&a#R
?*p#Y
?&a#V
Half Line Feed?=
Line Termination?&k#G
Push/Pop Position?&f#S
The Primary font printer commands in this table can be changed to Secondary by replacing the left parenthesis
“(” in the command with a right parenthesis “)”.
Symbol Set (Primary)?(ID
Spacing (Primary)?(s#P
Pitch (Primary)?(s#H
Height (Primary)?(s#V
Style (Primary)?(s#S
Stroke Weight (Primary)?(s#B
Typeface (Primary)?(s#T
Font Selection By ID # (Pri.)?(#X
Select Default Font (Primary) ?(3@
Underline?&d#D
?&d@
Transparent Print Data?&p#X[data]
Text Parsing Method?&t#P nsnsnsnsnsnsnsns
Assign Font ID #?*c#D
Font Control?*c#F
Symbol Set ID Code?*c#Rnsnsns
Define Symbol Set?(f#W[data]ns ns ns
Symbol Set Control?*c#Snsnsns
✓
- Indicates a command is supported. ns - Indicates a command is not supported.
The Primary font commands in this table can be changed to Secondary by replacing the left parenthesis “(” in
the command with a right parenthesis “)”.
Symbol Set (Primary)?(ID
Spacing (Primary)?(s#P
Pitch (Primary)?(s#H
Height (Primary)?(s#V
Style (Primary)?(s#S
Stroke Weight (Primary)?(s#B
Typeface (Primary)?(s#T
Font Selection By ID # (Pri.)?(#X
Select Default Font (Primary)?(3@
Underline?&d#D
?&d@
Transparent Print Data?&p#X[data]
Text Parsing Method?&t#P nsns