HP 5961-0509 User Manual

PCL 5 Printer LanguageTechnical Reference Manual

HP Part No. 5961-0509 Printed in USA First Edition - October 1992

Notice

HEWLETT-PACKARD MAKES NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND WITH REGARD TO THIS MATERIAL, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO , THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Hewlett-Packard shall not be liable for errors contained herein or for incidental or consequential damages in connection with the furnishing, performance, or use of this material.

This document contains proprietary information which is protected by copyright. All rights are reserved. No part of this document may be photocopied, reproduced, or translated to another language without the prior written consent of Hewlett-Packard Company. The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice.

Printing History

This manual was created using HP Vectra Personal Computer. The body text is printed in fonts. The camera-ready copy was printed on an HP LaserJet IIISi printer with Resolution Enhancement technology (REt) and was then reproduced using standard offset printing.

First Edition – October 1992

HP Tag/Vectra

software on an

Helvetica

NOTICE

This document is the current edition of the technical reference manual for PCL 5 and earlier printers. It replaces the September 1990 edition of the

Printer Language Technical Reference Manual

ordered another PCL Technical Ref erence document, this manual and the

5 Comparison Guide

are the updated replacement documents.

(p/n 33459-90903). If you have

HP PCL 5

PCL

iii

Trademark Credits

Intellifont

Division, Miles Inc. Agfa Division, Miles Inc.

Goudy Old Style CG Times

Miles Inc. on Corporation plc. Hewlett-Packard Company. of Hewlett-Packard Company. International Business Machines Corporation. and Corporation. Apple Computer, Inc. Systems, Inc. Corporation.

and

Garth Graphic

CG Triumvirate

CG Melliza, Microstyle, CG Omega, CG Palacio

and

CG Trump Mediaeval

CG Times

, a product of Agfa Division, Miles Inc., is based

Times New Roman

PCL

MS-DOS

are U.S. registered trademarks of Microsoft

TrueType

Centronics

ITC Avant Garde Gothic, ITC Benguiat, ITC Bookman

are U.S. registered trademarks of Agfa

and

Shannon

are trademarks of

CG Bodoni, CG Century Schoolbook, CG

are products of Agfa Division,

, a U.S. registered trademark of Monotype

, and

Vectra

are U.S. registered trademarks of

Resolution Enhancement

IBM

is a registered trademark of

is a trademark

Microsoft, Windows

and

Macintosh

PostScript

is a U.S. registered tr ademark of Centronics

are registered trademarks of

is a registered trademark of Adobe

ITC Cheltenham, ITC Galliard, ITC Korinna, ITC Lubalin Graph, ITC

Souvenir

registered trademarks of International Typeface Corporation.

Tiffany

a U.S. registered trademark of Fundicion Tipografica Neufville, S.A.

Serifa

is a registered trademark of Esselte Pendaflex Corporation. Revue and Corporation. AG and its subsidiaries. Linotype AG and its subsidiaries. Monsieur Marcel OLIVE. trademarks of The Monotype Corporation plc.

ITC Zapf Chancery

is a trademark of International T ypef ace Corporation.

is a trademark of Fundicion Tipografica Neufville, S.A.

University Roman

Helvetica

are trademarks of Esselte Pendaflex and

and

Times Roman

Univers

is a U.S. registered trademark of

Antique Olive

Arial

and

ITC Zapf Dingbats

are trademarks of Linotype

is a trademark of

Gill Sans

are registered

are U.S.

Futura

ITC

Letraset

Inside This Manual

What You Can Learn From This Manual

Hewlett-Packard has developed a standard set of printer features for use in all HP printers. Printer features are accessed through the corresponding commands of Hewlett-Packard’s PCL language. This manual describes the PCL 5 printer language. This includes descriptions of the commands available for Hewlett-Packard PCL 5 LaserJet printers and the basic requirements of PCL language programming. With the release of new LaserJet family printers there are new features added which supplement the e xisting PCL base set. Features of future printer releases are not covered in this document. The new features are described in the latest version of the

Comparison Guide

the information provided in the to the information in this document.

Experienced Users

This manual was written for people with some programming experience. Many of the concept discussions assume some programming knowledge.

PCL 5

. Programmers should familiarize themselves with

PCL 5 Comparison Guide

in addition

When writing a PCL language program, you should know the PCL language concepts and commands presented in this manual, and should be aware of the differences in implementation of the PCL 5 printer language for the various HP LaserJet printers, as described in the

PCL 5 Comparison Guide

Non-technical Users

Many software applications (word processing software, spreadsheets , etc.) allow you to embed printer commands as the body of your documents. This manual presents the full syntax and explanation of all the commands supported by PCL 5 LaserJet printers. These commands enable you to take advantage of the LaserJet printer’s advanced feature set.

escape sequences

Note Since actual implementation of printer commands within software

applications varies from package to package, specific examples are not given. For e xamples of printer command usage with many popular software packages, refer to HP’s provided with the printer. The most current versions of software application notes can be obtained through the HP Forum on CompuServe, by fax using the HP FIRST fax service, or through HP’s literature distribution. Refer to Appendix A for more information.

Software Application Notes

Chapter Summaries

A brief description of each chapter is provided below.

Chapter 1 - Introduction to HP PCL

This chapter gives a brief history of the development of the PCL language, describes the PCL language levels (architecture), and describes the PCL command structure (control codes and escape sequences).

Chapter 2 - The Page

This chapter introduces the idea of the logical page and identifies the area in which printing can occur. It also describes the PCL coordinate system and the HP-GL/2 picture frame.

Chapter - The Print Environment

This chapter introduces the printer’s feature settings, collectively, as the print environment. It includes descriptions of the factory default environment, user default environment, and the modified print environment. The effect of printer reset functions is also described.

Chapter 4 - PCL Job Control Commands

This chapter describes the commands which provide job control. Job control commands are usually grouped together and sent at the beginning of a job. Job control includes restoration of the User Def ault Environment, selection of the number of copies of each page to be printed, duplex print commands, and unit of measure specification.

Chapter 5 - Page Control Commands

This chapter describes the commands providing page format control. Page format control allows you to select the page source, size, orientation, margins, and text spacing.

Chapter 6 - Cursor Positioning

This chapter describes how to position the cursor within the logical page.

Chapter 7 - Fonts

This chapter describes basic font information including font characteristics.

Chapter 8 - PCL Font Selection

This chapter describes how to select a font for printing using the font characteristics commands. The underline feature is described at the end of the chapter.

Chapter 9 - Font Management

This chapter describes font management which provides mechanisms for downloading and manipulating soft fonts.

Chapter 10 - User-Defined Symbol Sets

This chapter describes the capability of some PCL 5 printers to enable users to define their own symbol sets for special needs.

Chapter 11 - Soft Font Creation

This chapter describes how to organize font/character data for downloading to the printer.

Chapter 12 - Macros

This chapter describes macro commands which store a block of PCL commands and data which can be used repeatedly without redefining the block. The macro function reduces the number of commands that must be sent to the printer.

vii

Chapter 13 - The PCL Print Model

This chapter describes the PCL print model which allows for special effects when printing.

Chapter 14 - PCL Rectangular Area Fill Graphics

This chapter describes how to define and fill a rectangular area with one of the predefined PCL patterns, or with a user-defined pattern.

Chapter 15 - Raster Graphics

This chapter describes how to download raster graphics to the printer , and includes various techniques for reducing the amount of data needed to define the raster image.

Chapter 16 - Status Readback

This chapter describes the PCL status readback features. Status readback enables you to obtain PCL status information from the printer, such as: available printer (user) memory, a list of fonts and symbol sets, and the ID numbers of macros and user-defined patterns.

viii

Chapter 17 - An Introduction to HP-GL/2 Vector

Graphics

This chapter introduces basic information for HP-GL/2. It lists the vector graphics commands, and describes the HP-GL/2 command syntax. An overview of sev eral important topics is also provided, such as the PCL Picture Frame concept, scaling, pen status and location, and absolute vs. relative pen movement.

Chapter 18 - The Picture Frame

This chapter describes how to set up an area on the page for printing vector graphics (the PCL Picture Frame). It discuses the commands necessary to define and position the picture frame, along with the commands used to enter and exit HP-GL/2 mode.

Chapter 19 - The Configuration and Status Group

This chapter describes the commands used to set default conditions and values for programmable HP-GL/2 features. It also explains the commands used for scaling, establishing a soft-clip window, and rotating the HP-GL/2 coordinate system.

Chapter 20 - The Vector Group

This chapter provides information about pen movement and drawing lines, arcs, and circles. It also covers a way to encode coordinates f or increased print speed.

Chapter 21 - The Polygon Group

This chapter explains the polygon mode and how it is used to draw polygons, subpolygons and circles. The commands for drawing and filling wedges and rectangles are also described in this chapter.

Chapter 22 - The Line and Fill Attributes Group

This chapter describes the commands used to vary the line types and fill patterns used to create HP-GL/2 graphics.

Chapter 23 - The Character Group

This chapter contains information about the commands used to print text (labels) in HP-GL/2 mode. This allows y ou to print HP-GL/2 labels in almost any size, slant and direction using proportional or fixed-spaced scalable fonts.

Chapter 24 - Programming Hints

This chapter provides programming information for use during the development of PCL software.

Related Documentation

The following related manuals provide further information about HP LaserJet printers, including their features and functions.

PCL 5 Comparison Guide

This document contains supplemental information for programming PCL 5 LaserJet printers. It identifies how diff erent HP PCL 5 LaserJet printers implement the commands described in the

Language Technical Reference Manual

information on feature sets, paper handling, fonts, and the printer’s control panel.

Intellifont Scalable Typeface Format

This document provides information for designing scalable f onts using Agfa’s Font Access Interchange Standard (FAIS). This document can be obtained from Agfa Division, Miles Inc. by writing to the address below or by phone.

Agfa Division, Miles Inc. Typographic Systems OEM Technical Support 90 Industrial Way Wilmington, MA 01887 (508) 658-5600

HP PCL 5 Printer

. It provides printer-specific

TrueType Font Files

This document, which provides information for designing scalable fonts using Microsoft Corporation’s TrueType font scaling technology has been made availab le in downloadable form on both CompuServe and Internet. Contact Microsoft Corporation for details.

Notice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii

Printing History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .iii

Trademark Credits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .iv

Inside This Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v

What You Can Learn From This Manual. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v

Related Documentation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x

PCL 5 Comparison Guide. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x

Intellifont Scalable Typeface Format

TrueType Font Files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x

Introduction to HP PCL

PCL Printer Language Architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-2

What are Printer Commands?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-3

Control Codes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-3

PCL Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-3

HP-GL/2 Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4

PJL Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-4

Syntax of Escape Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-5

Two-Character Escape Sequences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-5

Parameterized Escape Sequences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-6

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x

The Page

Logical Page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2

Printed Dots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-3

PCL Coordinate System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-4

Units of the PCL Coordinate System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-5

PCL Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-5

Decipoints. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-5

Columns & Rows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-5

Printer Internal Units. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-5

HP-GL/2 Picture Frame. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-6

Printable Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-7

Contents

-1

The Print Environment

Factory Default Environment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2

User Default Environment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-6

Modified Print Environment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-7

Resetting the Print Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-8

Printer Reset. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-8

Cold Reset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-9

PCL Job Control Commands

Printer Reset Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-2

Universal Exit Language Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-3

Number of Copies Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-4

Simplex/Duplex Print Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-5

Left Offset Registration Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-7

Top Offset Registration Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-8

Duplex Page Side Selection Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-10

Job Separation Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-11

Output Bin Selection Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-12

Unit of Measure Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-13

Page Control Commands

Page Size Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-2

PAPER SOURCE COMMAND . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-4

Logical Page Orientation Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-5

Print Direction Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-9

Text Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-11

Left Margin Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-13

Right Margin Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-14

Clear Horizontal Margins Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-15

Top Margin Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-16

Text Length Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-18

Perforation Skip Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-19

Horizontal Motion Index (HMI) Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-20

Vertical Motion Index (VMI) Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-22

Common VMI Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-23

Line Spacing Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-24

Contents-2

Cursor Positioning

Absolute vs. Relative Cursor Positioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-2

Cursor Positioning Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-3

PCL Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-3

Decipoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-4

Columns & Rows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-4

Horizontal Cursor Positioning (Columns) Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-5

Horizontal Cursor Positioning (Decipoints) Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-6

Horizontal Cursor Positioning (PCL Units) Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-7

Horizontal Cursor Positioning Control Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-8

CR - Carriage Return . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-8

SP - Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-8

BS - Backspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-9

HT - Horizontal Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-9

Vertical Cursor Positioning (Rows) Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-10

Vertical Cursor Positioning (Decipoints) Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-11

Vertical Cursor Positioning (PCL Units) Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-12

Half-Line Feed Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-13

Vertical Cursor Positioning Control Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-13

LF - Line Feed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-13

FF - Form Feed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-13

Line Termination Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-14

Push/Pop Cursor Position Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-15

Fonts

Font Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-2

Symbol Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-3

Spacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-4

Pitch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-5

Height . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-5

Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-6

Stroke Weight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-6

Typeface Family . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-7

Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-8

Bitmap Fonts and Scalable Typefaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-9

Internal Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-11

Special Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-11

Contents

-3

PCL Font Selection

Primary and Secondary Fonts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-5

Font Resolution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-5

Symbol Set Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-6

Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-7

7-bit ISO Symbol Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-8

Spacing Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-9

Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-9

Pitch Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-10

Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-11

Height Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-12

Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-13

Style Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-14

Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-15

Stroke Weight Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-16

Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-17

Typeface Family Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-18

Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-19

Orientation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-20

Font Selection Examples. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-21

Bitmap, Fixed-Spaced Font. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-21

Scalable, Proportional-Spaced Font. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-22

Summary of Font Selection by Characteristic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-23

Font Selectionby ID Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-26

Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-27

Select Default Font Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-27

HP-GL/2 Font Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-27

Transparent Print Data Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-28

Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-28

Underline Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-29

Font Management

Downloading Soft Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-2

Temporary vs. Permanent Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-3

Deleting Fonts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-3

Font ID Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-4

Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-4

Font Control Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-5

Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-5

Font Management Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-7

Unbound Scalable Fonts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-8

Bound and Unbound Fonts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-8

Font Selection and Unbound Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-8

Contents-4

User-Defined Symbol Sets

Symbol Set ID Code Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-2

Define Symbol Set. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-4

Header Size (UI). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-5

Encoded Symbol Set Designator (UI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-6

Format (UB) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-6

Symbol Set Type (UB) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-6

First Code (UI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-7

Last Code (UI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-7

Character Requirements (Array of UB) and character requirement . . . . 10-7

Symbol Map (Array of UI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-11

Symbol Set Control Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-12

User-Defined Symbol Set Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-13

Unicode Symbol Index Example. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-13

MSL Symbol Index Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-14

Soft Font Creation

Font Classifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-2

Coordinate System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-4

Bitmap Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-4

Intellifont Scalable Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-4

TrueType Scalable Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-5

Font Header Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-6

Font Header Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-6

Data Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-14

Font Descriptor Size (UI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-15

Header Format (UB) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-15

Font Type (UB) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-15

Style MSB (UI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-16

Baseline Position (UI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-18

Cell Width (UI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-18

Cell Height (UI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-18

Orientation (UB) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-19

Spacing (B) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-20

Symbol Set (UI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-20

Pitch (UI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-21

Height (UI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-22

xHeight (UI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-22

Width Type (SB) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-23

Style LSB (UB) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-23

Stroke Weight (SB) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-23

Typeface (UB) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-24

Serif Style (UB) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-27

Quality (UB) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-28

Placement (SB) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-28

Contents

-5

Underline Position (Distance) (SB). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-29

Underline Thickness (UB). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-29

Text Height (UI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-29

Text Width (UI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-29

First Code (UI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-30

Last Code / Number of Characters (UI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-30

Pitch Extended (UB). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-30

Height Extended (UB). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-31

Cap Height (UI). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-31

Font Number (ULI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-32

Font Name (ASC16) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-33

X Resolution (UI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-33

Y Resolution (UI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-34

Scale Factor (UI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-34

Master Underline Position (SI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-34

Master Underline Thickness (Height) (UI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-34

Font Scaling Technology (UB) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-34

Variety (UB) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-35

OR Threshold (UI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-35

Global Italic Angle (SI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-35

Global Intellifont Data Size (UI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-35

Global Intellifont Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-35

Character Complement (Array of UB) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-35

Checksum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-39

Segmented Font Data (Format 15) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-39

Font Header Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-43

Character Definitions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-48

Character Code Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-49

Character Definition Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-50

Character Descriptor Formats. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-51

Character Descriptor and Data Format for PCL Bitmap Fonts . . . . . . 11-51

Character Descriptor and Data Format for Intellifont Scalable Fonts . . . 11-60

Character Descriptor and Data Format for TrueType Fonts . . . . . . . . . . 11-65

Character Definition Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-70

Macros

Macro Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-3

Macro Invocation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-4

Temporary / Permanent Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-5

Deleting Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-6

Macro ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-6

Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-6

Contents-6

Macro Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-7

Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-8

Macro Control Example. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-9

The PCL Print Model

Command Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-5

Source Transparency Mode Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-6

Pattern Transparency Mode Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-7

Pattern ID (Area Fill ID) Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-8

Select Current Pattern Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-12

User-Defined Pattern Graphics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-13

User-Defined Pattern Implementation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-13

User-Defined Pattern Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-16

Format (Byte 0) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-17

Continuation (Byte 1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-17

Pixel Encoding (Byte 2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-17

Reserved (Byte 3). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-18

Height in Pixels (Bytes 4 and 5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-18

Width in Pixels (Bytes 6 and 7) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-18

Pattern Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-18

Master X Resolution (UI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-18

Master Y Resolution (UI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-18

User-defined Pattern Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-19

Set Pattern Reference Point Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-22

Pattern Control Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-23

PCL Rectangular Area Fill Graphics

Rectangular Area Fill Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-1

Horizontal Rectangle Size (Decipoints) Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-3

Horizontal Rectangle Size (PCL Units) Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-3

Vertical Rectangle Size (Decipoints) Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-4

Vertical Rectangle Size (PCL Units) Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-4

Pattern ID (Area Fill ID) Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-5

Fill Rectangular Area Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-9

Pattern Transparency for Rectangular Area Fill. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-11

Rectangular Area Fill Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-13

Pre-defined Pattern Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-13

User-defined Pattern Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-17

Raster Graphics

Raster Graphics Command Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-4

Raster Graphics Resolution Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-6

Contents

-7

Raster Graphics Presentation Mode Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-8

Raster Height Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-11

Raster Width Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-13

Start Raster Graphics Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-14

Raster Y Offset Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-15

Set Compression Method Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-16

Unencoded (Method 0). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-16

Run-length Encoding (Method 1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-16

Tagged Image File Format Encoding

(Method 2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-17

Delta Row Compression (Method 3) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-20

Example: Delta Row Compression. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-24

Adaptive Compression (Method 5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-25

Transfer Raster Data Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-29

End Raster Graphics Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-30

Raster Graphics Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-31

Status Readback

Memory Status Request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-2

Entity Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-3

Status Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-5

Status Response Syntax. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-6

Set Status Readback Location Type Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-8

Set Status Readback Location Unit Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-9

Inquire Status Readback Entity Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-10

Entity Status Responses. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-11

Font Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-11

Font Extended Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-15

Macro Response. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-16

User-Defined Pattern Response. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-17

Symbol Set Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-18

Entity Error Codes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-19

Free Space Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-21

Memory Status Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-22

Memory Error Response. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-23

Flush All Pages Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-24

Echo Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-25

Echo Response . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-26

Status Readback Programming Hints. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-27

Contents-8

An Introduction to HP-GL/2 Vector Graphics

Learning HP-GL/2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-2

HP-GL/2 Commands and Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-3

Understanding HP-GL/2 Syntax . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-6

Notations Used to Express Syntax. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-8

Omitting Optional Parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-9

Parameter Formats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-10

Using HP-GL/2 With Programming Languages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-13

Example:BASIC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-13

Example:C Programming Language. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-14

The HP-GL/2 Coordinate System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-15

HP-GL/2 & PCL Orientation Interactions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-17

The Vector Graphics Limits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-19

HP-GL/2 Units of Measure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-20

Plotter Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-20

User-units . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-20

Pen Status and Location. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-21

Pen Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-21

Pen Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-23

Scaling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-24

Absolute and Relative Pen Movement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-25

The Picture Frame

Defining the Image Area(PCL Picture Frame). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-2

Automatically Adjusting Image Size to Fit the PCL Picture Frame . . . . . . . . . 18-3

Creating a Page Size-Independent Plot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-3

Typical HP-GL/2 PlotCommand Sequence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-5

Horizontal Picture Frame Size. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-8

Example:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-9

Vertical Picture Frame Size (Decipoints). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-9

Example:To specify a vertical picture frame size of 6.5 inches, send: . . . 18-9

Set Picture Frame Anchor Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-10

Example:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-10

HP-GL/2 Plot Horizontal Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-11

Example: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-11

HP-GL/2 Plot Vertical Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-12

Example:. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-12

Enter HP-GL/2 Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-13

Example: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-13

Enter PCL Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-14

Example: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-14

Default Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-15

Contents

-9

The Configuration and Status Group

Establishing Default Conditions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-3

The Scaling Points P1 and P2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-4

Using the Scale Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-4

Using Scaling Effectively. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-8

Enlarging or Reducing a Picture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-8

Drawing Equal-Size Pictures on a Page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-10

Creating Mirror-Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-12

Adapting the HP-GL/2 Coordinate System to Match the PCL System 19-15

Windowing: Setting Up Soft-Clip Limits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-18

CO, Comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-19

DF, Default Values. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-19

IN, Initialize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-21

IP, Input P1 and P2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-23

IR, Input Relative P1 and P2. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-26

IW, Input Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-29

PG, Advance Full Page. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-33

RO, Rotate Coordinate System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-34

Angle of Rotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-34

RP, Replot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-39

SC, Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-40

For Scaling Types 0 and 1: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-41

For Scaling Type 2: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-44

The Vector Group

Drawing Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-2

Drawing Circles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-4

Drawing Arcs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-5

Angle of Rotation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-7

Drawing Bezier Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-8

AA, Arc Absolute. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-9

AR, Arc Relative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-13

AT, Absolute Arc Three Point. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-16

BR, Bezier Relative. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-19

BZ, Bezier Absolute. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-22

CI, Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-25

PA, Plot Absolute. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-30

PD, Pen Down. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-31

PE, Polyline Encoded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-34

Encoding PE Flag Values and X,Y Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-37

Example: Using the PE Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-41

PR, Plot Relative. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-44

U, Pen Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-46

RT, Relative Arc Three Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-48

Contents-10

The Polygon Group

Using the Polygon Buffer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-2

Drawing Rectangles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-3

Drawing Wedges. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-6

Drawing Polygons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-10

Drawing Subpolygons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-11

Filling Polygons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-12

Drawing Circles in Polygon Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-14

`Approximating Polygon Buffer Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-14

Counting the Points in a Polygon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-15

Counting the Points in a Circle or Arc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-16

EA, Edge Rectangle Absolute. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-17

EP, Edge Polygon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-21

ER, Edge Rectangle Relative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-23

EW, Edge Wedge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-27

FP, Fill Polygon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-31

PM, Polygon Mode Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-34

(PM0) or (PM). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-34

(PM1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-36

(PM2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-37

RA, Fill Rectangle Absolute. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-39

RR, Fill Rectangle Relative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-42

WG, Fill Wedge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-45

The Line and Fill Attributes Group

Using Line Attributes and Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-2

Using Fill Types. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-4

Selecting a “Pen” and Changing Line Width . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-5

AC, Anchor Corner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-6

FT, Fill Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-9

LA, Line Attributes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-15

Line Ends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-17

Line Joins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-17

Miter Limit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-19

LT, Line Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-22

PW, Pen Width . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-29

RF, Raster Fill Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-32

SM, Symbol Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-35

SP, Select Pen. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-38

SV, Screened Vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-39

TR, Transparency Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-42

UL, User-Defined Line Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-44

WU, Pen Width Unit Selection. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-46

Contents

-11

The Character Group

Printing Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-3

Moving to the Carriage Return Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-5

Control Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-6

Default Label Conditions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-7

Enhancing Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-8

Character Size and Slant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-8

Character Spaces and Text Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-8

Label Orientation and Placement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-9

Terminating Labels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-11

Working with the Character Cell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-12

Using Fonts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-15

Printing with Fixed-Spaced and Proportional Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-15

Designating and Selecting Fonts. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-17

Standard and Alternate Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-17

AD, Alternate Font Definition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-18

CF, Character Fill Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-20

CP, Character Plot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-24

DI, Absolute Direction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-29

DR, Relative Direction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-37

Example:Using the DR Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-41

DT, Define Label Terminator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-44

DV, Define Variable Text Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-46

Example:Using theDV Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-49

ES, Extra Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-51

FI, Select Primary Font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-54

Example:Using the FI Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-54

FN, Select Secondary Font. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-56

Example:Using the FN Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-57

LB, Label. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-59

LO, Label Origin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-62

SA, Select Alternate Font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-66

SB, Scalable or Bitmap Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-67

SD, Standard Font Definition. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-68

Kind 1: Symbol Set. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-69

Kind 2: Font Spacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-70

Kind 3: Pitch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-70

Kind 4: Height . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-71

Kind 5: Posture. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-71

Kind 6: Stroke Weight. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-71

Kind 7: Typeface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-72

Example:Using the SD Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-73

SI, Absolute Character Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-74

Example:Using the SI Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-75

SL, Character Slant. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-78

Example:Using the SL Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-79

Contents-12

SR, Relative Character Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-81

Example:Using the SR Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-83

SS, Select Standard Font . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-85

TD, Transparent Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-86

Programming Hints

PCL Command Parsing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-2

Job Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-3

Printer Reset. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-3

PCL Page Control 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-4

Paper Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-4

Page Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-4

Text Area/Margins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-4

HMI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-4

PCL Cursor Positioning. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-5

Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-5

PCL Raster Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-7

Macros. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-8

HP-GL/2 Vector Graphics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-9

Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-10

PCL Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-10

Print Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-10

Print Overrun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-10

Page Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-10

I/O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-11

Troubleshooting Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-12

End-of-Line Wrap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-12

Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-12

Display Functions Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-12

Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-13

Auto Continue Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-14

Common Errors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-15

20 ERROR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-15

21 ERROR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-15

22 ERROR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-15

40 ERROR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-15

Customer Support

Help From Your Organization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Customer Support-1

Help From Your Dealer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Customer Support-1

Help from HP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Customer Support-1

Index

Contents

-13

Contents-14

Introduction to

HP PCL

PCL PRINTER LANGUAGE HISTORY

Hewlett-Packard created the PCL printer language (simply referred to as “PCL” elsewhere in this manual) to provide an economical and efficient way for application programs to control a range of printer features across a number of printing devices. HP has evolved both the definition and implementations of PCL to provide the optimal price and performance balance. PCL 5 represents a new breakthrough in price/performance leadership. Its features were selected in direct response to customer requests. HP will continue to lead enhancements to the PCL printer language to deliver powerful technology advances.

PCL commands are compact escape sequence codes that are embedded in the print job data stream. This approach minimizes both data transmission and command decoding overhead. HP PCL formatters and fonts are designed to quickly translate application output into high-quality, device-specific, raster print images.

PCL printer language commonality from HP printer to HP printer helps to minimize printer support problems and protect HP printer customer investment in applications and printer driver software.

PCL PRINTER LANGUAGE HISTORY

1-1

PCL Printer Language Architecture

PCL printer language structure has been useful to guide language functionality growth and command syntax definition. The PCL printer language has evolved through five major levels of functionality driven by the combination of printer technology developments, changing user needs, and application software improvements. The five phases of the PCL printer language evolution are:

PCL 1

Print and Space

functionality is the base set of functions provided for simple, convenient, single-user workstation output.

PCL 2

EDP (Electronic Data Processing) /Transaction

functionality is a superset of PCL 1. Functions were added for general purpose, multi-user system printing.

PCL 3

Office Word Processing

functionality is a superset of PCL 2. Functions were added for high-quality, office document production.

PCL 4

Page Formatting

functionality is a superset of PCL 3. Functions were added for new page printing capabilities.

PCL 5

Office Publishing

functionality is a superset of PCL 4. New publishing capabilities include font scaling and HP-GL/2 graphics.

The PCL printer language model succeeds because the following points are observed:

z All HP LaserJet printers implement PCL printer language

features consistently.

z HP printers implement the above language feature g roups in v ery

cost-effective formatters.

z HP printers have the ability to ignore most unsupported

commands.

1-2 Introduction to HP PCL

What are Printer Commands?

PCL

printer commands

four general types of HP printer language commands:

control codes

PCL commands

HP-GL/2 commands

PJL commands

provide access to printer features. There are

Control Codes

A control code is a character that initiates a printer function, for example Carriage Return (CR), Line Feed (LF), Form Feed (FF), etc.

PCL Commands

PCL commands provide access to the printer’s PCL control structure. The PCL structure controls all of the printer’s features except those used for vector graphics, which are controlled by the HP-GL/2 commands.

PCL printer commands consist of two or more characters. The first character is always the ASCII escape character, identified by the ? symbol. ? is a special control code which identifies the subsequent string of characters as a printer command. As the printer monitors incoming data from a computer, it “looks” f or this character. When this character appears, the printer reads it and its associated characters as a command to perform and not as data to print.

Note

PCL printer commands (other than single-character control codes) are also referred to as

and

command

throughout this manual.

Once a PCL command sets a parameter, that parameter remains set until that PCL command is repeated with a new value, or the printer is reset to its user default environment. For example, if you send the printer a command to set line spacing to 3 lines/inch, each page prints 3 lines/inch until the printer receives a different Line Spacing command, or the printer is reset.

escape sequence

escape sequences

are used interchangeably

What are Printer Commands?

. The terms

printer

1-3

HP-GL/2 Commands

HP-GL/2, vector graphic commands are two letter mnemonic codes designed to remind you of the function name (such as IN f or Initialize). Following the two letter mnemonic may be one or more parameters, which identify details of how to process the command. For additional information on HP-GL/2 commands, refer to Chapters 17 through 23.

PJL Commands

PJL (Printer Job Language) commands provide a different type of printer control. Unlike PCL and HP-GL/2, which control the placement of dots on the printed page, PJL supplies job-level control. One of the main features PJL offers is the ability to switch printer languages (personalities) between jobs. For example, applications supporting PJL can print one job using PCL, and then print the next job using PostScript or another printer language, without any operator intervention.

PJL also provides two-way communications with the printer. For example, PJL can request inf ormation from the printer such as printer model, configuration, printer status, and job status. PJL also can be used to change the printer’s control panel settings and modify the message displayed on the control panel.

The PJL language is designed to be used by application developers and technical support personnel only.

1-4 Introduction to HP PCL

+ 732 hidden pages