HP PCL 5 Book

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PCL 5 Printer Language

Technical Reference Manual

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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 whichis

protected by copyright. All rights are reserved. No part

of this do cument may be photo copied, repro duced, 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 document is the current edition of the technical reference manual

for PCL 5 and earlier printers. It replaces the September 1990 edition of

the

33459-90903). If you have ordered another PCL Technical Reference

document, this manual and the

updated replacement do cuments.

This manual was created using

on an HP Vectra Personal Computer. The bo dy text is

printed in

copywas printed on an HP LaserJet IIISi printer with

Resolution Enhancement technology (RET) and was

then repro duced using standard oset printing.

First Edition | October 1992

HP PCL 5 Printer Language Technical Reference Manual

Century Schoolbook

NOTICE

PCL 5 Comparison Guide

HP Tag/Vectra

fonts. The camera-ready

are the

software

(p/n

iii

Trademark Credits

Intellifont

trademarks of Agfa Division, Miles Inc.

and

Shannon

and

Garth Graphic

are U.S. registered

CG Triumvirate

are trademarks of Agfa Division, Miles Inc.

CG Bodoni,CG Century Schoolbook,CG Goudy Old

Style,CG Mel liza,Microstyle,CG Omega,CG Palacio

CG Times

Agfa Division, Miles Inc.

Division, Miles Inc., is based on

and

CG Trump Mediaeval

CG Times

are products of

, a product of Agfa

Times New Roman

a U.S. registered trademark of Monotype Corporation

plc.

PCL

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Vectra

Hewlett-Packard Company.

a trademark of Hewlett-Packard Company.

are U.S. registered trademarks of

Resolution Enhancement

IBM

is a

registered trademark of International Business Machines

Corporation.

Microsoft,Windows

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MS-DOS

are

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TrueType

of Apple Computer, Inc.

trademark of Adob e Systems, Inc.

registered trademark of Centronics Corp oration.

and

Macintosh

are registered trademarks

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Centronics

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ITC

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Graph,ITC Souvenir,ITC Zapf Chancery

Dingbats

Typeface Corporation.

are U.S. registered trademarks of International

ITC Tiany

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International Typeface Corporation.

Futura

and

ITC Zapf

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registered trademark of Fundicion Tipograca Neufville,

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Serifa

Neufville, S.A.

Esselte Pendaex Corporation.

Roman

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AG and its subsidiaries.

trademark of Linotype AG and its subsidiaries.

Olive

Arial

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Letraset

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and

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and

Gill Sans

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Monotype Corporation plc.

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 existing PCL base set. Features of

future printer releases are not covered in this do cument.

The new features are described in the latest version of

the

PCL 5 Comparison Guide

. Programmers should

familiarize themselves with the information provided

in the

PCL 5 Comparison Guide

in addition to the

information in this do cument.

Experienced Users

This manual was written for people with some

programming experience. Many of the concept

discussions assume some programming knowledge.

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

dierences 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.) allowyou to embed printer

commands as

escape sequences

in the bo dy 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.

Note

Since actual implementation of printer commands within

software applications varies from package to package,

specic examples are not given. For examples of printer

command usage with many popular software packages,

refer to HP's

Software Application Notes,

provided with

the printer. The most currentversions 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.

Chapter Summaries

A brief description of eachchapter is provided below.

Chapter 1 - Introduction to HP PCL

This chapter gives a brief history of the development

of the PCL language, describ es the PCL language

levels (architecture), and describes the PCL command

structure (control codes and escap e sequences).

Chapter 2 - The Page

This chapter introduces the idea of the logical page and

identies the area in which printing can o ccur. It also

describes the PCL co ordinate system and the HP-GL/2

picture frame.

Chapter 3 - The Print Environment

This chapter introduces the printer's feature settings,

collectively, as the printenvironment. It includes

descriptions of the factory default environment,

user default environment, and the modied print

environment. The eect of printer reset functions is also

described.

Chapter 4 - 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 Default Environment,

selection of the number of copies of each page to be

printed, duplex print commands, and unit of measure

specication.

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

fontcharacteristics.

Chapter 8 - Font Selection

This chapter describes how to select a font for printing

using the fontcharacteristics commands. The underline

feature is describ ed 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-Dened Symbol Sets

This chapter describes the capability of some PCL 5

printers to enable users to dene 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.

vii

Chapter 12 - Macros

This chapter describes macro commands which store a

block of PCL commands and data which can b e used

repeatedly without redening the block. The macro

function reduces the number of commands that must be

sent to the printer.

Chapter 13 - The PCL Print Model

This chapter describes the PCL print model which allows

for special eects when printing.

Chapter 14 - PCL Rectangular Area Fill Graphics

This chapter describes how to dene and ll a

rectangular area with one of the predened PCL

patterns, or with a user-dened pattern.

Chapter 15 - Raster Graphics

This chapter describes howtodownload raster graphics

to the printer, and includes various techniques for

reducing the amount of data needed to dene 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-dened patterns.

viii

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

important topics is also provided, such as the PCL

Picture Frame concept, scaling, pen status and lo cation,

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 dene and position

the picture frame, along with the commands used to

enter and exit HP-GL/2 mode.

Chapter 19 - The Conguration 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 ab out pen movement

and drawing lines, arcs, and circles. It also covers a way

to encode coordinates for increased print speed.

Chapter 21 - The Polygon Group

This chapter explains the polygon mode and howitis

used to draw polygons, subpolygons and circles. The

commands for drawing and lling wedges and rectangles

are also describ ed in this chapter.

Chapter 22 - The Line and Fill Attributes Group

This chapter describes the commands used to vary the

line types and ll patterns used to create HP-GL/2

graphics.

Chapter 23 - The Character Group

This chapter contains information ab out the commands

used to print text (lab els) in HP-GL/2 mode. This

allows you to print HP-GL/2 lab els in almost any size,

slant and direction using proportional or xed-spaced

scalable fonts.

Chapter 24 - Programming Hints

This chapter provides programming information for use

during the development of PCL software.

Documentation

The following related manuals provide further

information about HP LaserJet printers, including their

features and functions.

PCL 5 Comparison

Guide

Intellifont Scalable

Typeface Format

TrueTypeFont Files

This document contains supplemental information for

programming PCL 5 LaserJet printers. It identies how

dierent HP PCL 5 LaserJet printers implement the

commands described in the

Technical Reference Manual

HP PCL 5 Printer Language

. It provides printer-specic

information on feature sets, paper handling, fonts, and

the printer's control panel.

This document provides information for designing

scalable fonts using Agfa's Font Access Interchange

Standard (FAIS). This do cument can be obtained from

Agfa Division, Miles Inc. by writing to the address

beloworby phone.

Agfa Division, Miles Inc.

Typographic Systems

OEM Technical Support

90 Industrial Way

Wilmington, MA 01887

(508) 658-5600

This document, which provides information for designing

scalable fonts using Microsoft Corporation's TrueType

font scaling technology has b een made available in

downloadable form on both CompuServe and Internet.

Contact Microsoft Corporation for details.

1. Introduction to HP PCL

PCL Printer Language History . . . . . 1-1

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

2. The Page

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1

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

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

PCL Coordinate System . . . . . . . . 2-5

Units of the PCL Coordinate System . . 2-6

PCL Units . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-6

Decipoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-6

Columns & Rows . . . . . . . . . . 2-6

Printer Internal Units . . . . . . . . 2-6

HP-GL/2 Picture Frame . . . . . . . . 2-7

Printable Area . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-8

Contents-1

3. The PrintEnvironment

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-1

Factory Default Environment . . . . . 3-2

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

Modied PrintEnvironment . . . . . . 3-7

Resetting the PrintEnvironment . . . . 3-8

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

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

4. PCL Job Control Commands

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-1

Printer Reset Command . . . . . . . . 4-3

Universal Exit Language Command . . . 4-4

Number of Copies Command . . . . . . 4-5

Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-5

Simplex/Duplex Print Command . . . . 4-7

Left Oset Registration Command . . . 4-10

Top Oset Registration Command . . . 4-12

Duplex Page Side Selection Command . . 4-15

Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-15

Job Separation Command . . . . . . . 4-16

Output Bin Selection Command . . . . 4-17

Unit of Measure Command . . . . . . 4-18

Contents-2

5. Page Control Commands

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-1

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

Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-3

Paper Source Command . . . . . . . . 5-4

Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-5

Logical Page Orientation Command . . . 5-6

Print Direction Command . . . . . . . 5-11

Text Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-13

Left Margin Command . . . . . . . . 5-15

Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-15

Right Margin Command . . . . . . . . 5-16

Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-16

Clear Horizontal Margins Command . . 5-17

Top Margin Command . . . . . . . . 5-18

Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-19

Text Length Command . . . . . . . . 5-20

Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-20

Perforation Skip Command . . . . . . 5-21

Horizontal Motion Index (HMI) Command 5-22

Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-23

Vertical Motion Index (VMI) Command . 5-24

Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-24

Common VMI Settings . . . . . . . 5-25

Line Spacing Command . . . . . . . . 5-26

Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-26

6. Cursor Positioning

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-1

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 (Decip oints)

Command . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-11

Vertical Cursor Positioning (PCL Units)

Command . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-12

Contents-3

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

Vertical Cursor Positioning Control Codes 6-14

LF - Line Feed . . . . . . . . . . . 6-14

FF - Form Feed . . . . . . . . . . 6-14

Line Termination Command . . . . . . 6-15

Push/Pop Cursor Position Command . . 6-16

7. Fonts

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-1

Font Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-3

Symbol Set . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-4

Spacing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-5

Pitch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-6

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

Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-8

StrokeWeight . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-8

Typeface Family . . . . . . . . . . . 7-9

Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-10

Bitmap Fonts and Scalable Typefaces . . 7-11

Internal Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-13

Special Eects . . . . . . . . . . . . 7-13

8. PCL Font Selection

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-1

Primary and Secondary Fonts . . . . . 8-6

Font Resolution . . . . . . . . . . . 8-6

Symbol Set Command . . . . . . . . . 8-7

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

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

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

Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-10

Pitch Command . . . . . . . . . . . 8-11

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

Height Command . . . . . . . . . . . 8-14

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

Style Command . . . . . . . . . . . 8-16

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

StrokeWeight Command . . . . . . . 8-19

Contents-4

Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-21

Typeface Family Command . . . . . . 8-22

Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-23

Orientation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-24

Font Selection Examples . . . . . . . . 8-25

Bitmap, Fixed-Spaced Font . . . . . 8-25

Scalable, Prop ortional-Spaced Font . . 8-26

Summary of Font Selection by

Characteristic . . . . . . . . . . . 8-28

Font Selection by ID Command . . . . 8-31

Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-32

Select Default Font Command . . . . . 8-33

HP-GL/2 Font Selection . . . . . . . . 8-33

Transparent Print Data Command . . . 8-34

Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8-34

Underline Command . . . . . . . . . 8-35

9. Font Management

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-1

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

Temporary vs. PermanentFonts . . . . 9-3

Deleting Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-4

Font ID Command . . . . . . . . . . 9-5

Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-5

Font Control Command . . . . . . . . 9-6

Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-6

Font Management Example . . . . . . 9-8

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

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

Font Selection and Unbound Fonts . . 9-9

Symbol Collections . . . . . . . . 9-10

Character Complement Numbers . . 9-11

Character Requirements Number . . 9-12

Final Font Selection . . . . . . . . 9-13

Symbol Set Mapping Table . . . . 9-13

Printing a Character . . . . . . . 9-15

Contents-5

10. User-Dened Symbol Sets

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-1

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

Dene Symbol Set . . . . . . . . . . 10-5

Header Size (UI) . . . . . . . . . . 10-7

Encoded Symbol Set Designator (UI) . 10-7

Format (UB) . . . . . . . . . . . . 10-7

Symbol Set Type (UB) . . . . . . . 10-8

First Code (UI) . . . . . . . . . . 10-8

Last Code (UI) . . . . . . . . . . . 10-8

Character Requirements (Array of UB) 10-9

Symbol Map (Array of UI) . . . . . . 10-12

Symbol Set Control Command . . . . . 10-13

User-Dened Symbol Set Examples . . . 10-14

Unicode Symbol Index Example . . . 10-14

MSL Symbol Index Example . . . . . 10-15

11. Soft Font Creation

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-1

Font Classications . . . . . . . . . 11-2

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

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

Intellifont Scalable Fonts . . . . . . 11-5

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

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

Font Header Format . . . . . . . . . 11-7

Data Types . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-17

Font Descriptor Size (UI) . . . . . . 11-17

Header Format (UB) . . . . . . . . 11-17

FontType (UB) . . . . . . . . . . 11-18

Style MSB (UI) . . . . . . . . . . 11-19

Baseline Position (UI) . . . . . . . . 11-21

Cell Width (UI) . . . . . . . . . . 11-21

Cell Height (UI) . . . . . . . . . . 11-21

Orientation (UB) . . . . . . . . . . 11-23

Spacing (B) . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-23

Symbol Set (UI) . . . . . . . . . . 11-24

Pitch (UI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-25

Contents-6

Height (UI) . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-25

xHeight (UI) . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-26

Width Type (SB) . . . . . . . . . . 11-26

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

StrokeWeight (SB) . . . . . . . . . 11-27

Typeface (UB) . . . . . . . . . . . 11-28

Current Usage . . . . . . . . . . 11-28

Vendor Number - Bits 15 - 12 . . 11-28

Typeface Family Number - Bits 11 -

0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-29

Example . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-29

Previous Usage . . . . . . . . . . 11-29

Vendor-Version . . . . . . . . . 11-30

Typeface Base Value . . . . . . 11-30

Serif Style (UB) . . . . . . . . . . 11-31

Quality (UB) . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-32

Placement (SB) . . . . . . . . . . 11-32

Underline Position (Distance) (SB) . . 11-32

Underline Thickness (UB) . . . . . . 11-33

Text Height (UI) . . . . . . . . . . 11-33

Text Width (UI) . . . . . . . . . . 11-33

First Code (UI) . . . . . . . . . . 11-33

Last Code / Number of Characters (UI) 11-34

Pitch Extended (UB) . . . . . . . . 11-34

Height Extended (UB) . . . . . . . 11-35

Cap Height (UI) . . . . . . . . . . 11-35

Font Number (ULI) . . . . . . . . . 11-36

Font Name (ASC16) . . . . . . . . 11-37

X Resolution (UI) . . . . . . . . . 11-38

Y Resolution (UI) . . . . . . . . . 11-38

Scale Factor (UI) . . . . . . . . . . 11-38

Master Underline Position (SI) . . . . 11-38

Master Underline Thickness (Height)

(UI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-38

Font Scaling Technology (UB) . . . . 11-39

Variety (UB) . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-39

OR Threshold (UI) . . . . . . . . . 11-39

Global Italic Angle (SI) . . . . . . . 11-39

Contents-7

Global Intellifont Data Size (UI) . . . 11-39

Global Intellifont Data . . . . . . . 11-39

Character Complement (Array of UB) . 11-40

Checksum . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-43

Segmented Font Data (Format 15) . . 11-45

Segment Identier (UI) . . . . . . 11-46

Segment Size (UI) . . . . . . . . 11-46

Formats of Data Segments . . . . . 11-46

AP (Application Support Segment) 11-46

CC (Character Complement) . . . 11-46

CP, copyright . . . . . . . . . 11-46

GI (Global Intellifont Data) . . . 11-47

GT (Global TrueType Data) . . . 11-47

IF (IntellifontFace Data) . . . . 11-47

PA (PANOSE Description) . . . 11-47

PF (PS-Compatible Font Name) . 11-48

XW (x-windows font name) . . . 11-48

Checksum . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-48

Font Header Examples . . . . . . . . 11-49

Bitmap Example . . . . . . . . . . 11-49

Intellifont Scalable Example . . . . . 11-51

Character Denitions . . . . . . . . . 11-53

Character Code Command . . . . . . . 11-54

Character Denition Command . . . . . 11-55

Character Descriptor Formats . . . . . 11-56

Character Descriptor and Data Format

for PCL Bitmap Fonts . . . . . . 11-57

Format (UB) . . . . . . . . . . . 11-58

Continuation (B) . . . . . . . . . 11-58

Descriptor Size (UB) . . . . . . . 11-58

Class (UB) . . . . . . . . . . . 11-58

Class 1 - Bitmap Data . . . . . . 11-59

Class 2 - Compressed Bitmap Data . 11-59

Orientation (UB) . . . . . . . . . 11-61

Left Oset (SI) . . . . . . . . . . 11-61

Top Oset (SI) . . . . . . . . . . 11-61

Character Width (UI) . . . . . . . 11-62

Contents-8

Character Height (UI) . . . . . . . 11-62

Delta X (SI) . . . . . . . . . . . 11-62

Character Data . . . . . . . . . . 11-62

Character Descriptor and Data Format

for Intellifont Scalable Fonts . . . 11-63

Format (UB) . . . . . . . . . . . 11-66

Continuation (B) . . . . . . . . . 11-66

Descriptor Size (UB) . . . . . . . 11-66

Class (UB) . . . . . . . . . . . 11-67

Class 3 -Intellifont Scalable Character

Contour Data . . . . . . . . . 11-67

Class 4 - Intellifont Scalable

Compound Character Data . . . 11-67

Contour Data Size (UI) . . . . . . 11-68

Metric Data Oset (SI) . . . . . . 11-68

Character Intellifont Data Oset (SI) 11-68

Contour Tree Oset (SI) . . . . . . 11-68

XY Data Oset (SI) . . . . . . . 11-68

Metric Data . . . . . . . . . . . 11-68

Character Intellifont Scalable Data . 11-69

Contour Tree Data . . . . . . . . 11-69

XY Coordinate Data . . . . . . . 11-69

Checksum . . . . . . . . . . . . 11-69

Compound Character Escapement (SI) 11-69

Number of Comp onents (UB) . . . 11-69

Component List . . . . . . . . . 11-70

Character Descriptor and Data Format

for TrueType Fonts . . . . . . . 11-71

Format (UB) . . . . . . . . . . . 11-72

Continuation (B) . . . . . . . . . 11-73

Descriptor Size (UB) . . . . . . . 11-73

Class (UB) . . . . . . . . . . . 11-74

Character Data Size (UI) . . . . . 11-75

Glyph ID (UI) . . . . . . . . . . 11-76

TrueType Glyph Data . . . . . . . 11-76

Checksum (UB) . . . . . . . . . 11-76

Character Denition Examples . . . . . 11-77

Bitmap Portrait Character Example . 11-77

Contents-9

Bitmap Landscape Character Example 11-79

12. Macros

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-1

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

Macro Invocation . . . . . . . . . . . 12-5

Temporary / Permanent Macros . . . . 12-7

Deleting Macros . . . . . . . . . . . 12-7

Macro ID . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-8

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

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

Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12-11

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

13. The PCL Print Mo del

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13-1

Command Sequence . . . . . . . . . . 13-6

Source Transparency Mo de Command . . 13-7

Pattern Transparency Mode Command . 13-8

Pattern ID (Area Fill ID) Command . . 13-9

Select Current Pattern Command . . . . 13-13

User-Dened Pattern Graphics . . . . . 13-14

User-Dened Pattern Implementation . 13-14

Pattern Reference Point. . . . . . 13-16

User-Dened Pattern Command . . . . 13-18

Format (Byte 0) . . . . . . . . . . 13-21

Continuation (Byte 1) . . . . . . . . 13-21

Pixel Encoding (Byte 2) . . . . . . . 13-21

Reserved (Byte 3) . . . . . . . . . 13-21

Height in Pixels (Bytes 4 and 5) . . . 13-21

Width in Pixels (Bytes 6 and 7) . . . 13-21

Pattern Image . . . . . . . . . . . 13-21

Master X Resolution (UI) . . . . . . 13-21

Master Y Resolution (UI) . . . . . . 13-21

User-dened Pattern Example . . . . 13-22

Set Pattern Reference Point Command . 13-25

Pattern Control Command . . . . . . . 13-26

Contents-10

14. PCL Rectangular Area Fill Graphics

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-1

Rectangular Area Fill Procedure . . . 14-2

Horizontal Rectangle Size (Decip oints)

Command . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-3

Horizontal Rectangle Size (PCL Units)

Command . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-4

Vertical Rectangle Size (Decip oints)

Command . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-5

Vertical Rectangle Size (PCL Units)

Command . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-6

Pattern ID (Area Fill ID) Command . . 14-7

Fill Rectangular Area Command . . . . 14-11

Pattern Transparency for Rectangular Area

Fill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14-14

Rectangular Area Fill Examples . . . . 14-16

Pre-dened Pattern Examples . . . . 14-16

Solid Fill (Black/White) . . . . . . 14-16

Shaded Fill . . . . . . . . . . . 14-18

Cross-hatch Fill . . . . . . . . . 14-20

User-dened Pattern Example . . . . 14-22

15. Raster Graphics

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-1

Raster Graphics Command Sequence . . 15-4

Raster Graphics Resolution Command . 15-6

Raster Graphics Presentation Mo de

Command . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-9

Raster Height Command . . . . . . . 15-12

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

Start Raster Graphics Command . . . . 15-17

Raster Y Oset Command . . . . . . . 15-19

Set Compression Metho d Command . . . 15-20

Unencoded (Metho d 0) . . . . . . . 15-20

Run-length Encoding (Method 1) . . . 15-21

Tagged Image File Format Enco ding

(Method 2) . . . . . . . . . . . 15-21

Contents-11

Examples: Run-length and TIFF

Compression . . . . . . . . . 15-25

Delta Row Compression (Metho d 3) . 15-26

Adaptive Compression (Method 5) . . 15-31

Adaptive Compression Operation

Hints . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-34

Transfer Raster Data Command . . . . 15-36

End Raster Graphics Command . . . . 15-38

Raster Graphics Example . . . . . . . 15-39

16. Status Readback

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-1

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

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

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

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

Set Status Readback Lo cation Type

Command . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-9

Set Status Readback Lo cation Unit

Command . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-10

Inquire Status ReadbackEntity Command 16-12

Entity Status Responses . . . . . . . . 16-12

Font Response . . . . . . . . . . . 16-13

Bitmap Fonts . . . . . . . . . . 16-14

Scalable Fonts . . . . . . . . . . 16-16

Unbound Scalable Fonts . . . . . . 16-16

Soft Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-17

Location Type 1 (Currently Selected)

Font... .. .. . .. .. . 16-17

Font Extended Response . . . . . . 16-19

Macro Response . . . . . . . . . . 16-21

User-Dened Pattern Response . . . . 16-22

Symbol Set Response . . . . . . . . 16-23

Entity Error Codes . . . . . . . . . . 16-24

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16-24

ERROR=INVALID ENTITY . . . 16-24

ERROR=INVALID LOCATION . . 16-24

ERROR=NONE . . . . . . . . . 16-25

Contents-12

ERROR=INTERNAL ERROR . . . 16-25

Free Space Command . . . . . . . . . 16-26

Memory Status Response . . . . . . 16-28

Memory Error Resp onse . . . . . . . 16-29

Flush All Pages Command . . . . . . . 16-30

Echo Command . . . . . . . . . . . 16-32

Echo Response . . . . . . . . . . . 16-33

Status Readback Programming Hints . . 16-34

17. An Introduction to HP-GL/2 Graphics

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

HP-GL/2 Commands and Syntax . . . . 17-4

Understanding HP-GL/2 Syntax . . . 17-8

Notations Used to Express Syntax . . 17-10

Mnemonic . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-10

parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-10

[] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-10

[param1,param2 . . . [,param1,param2]] 17-10

params . . . params . . . . . . . . 17-10

text . . . text . . . . . . . . . . . 17-10

(.... ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-10

; . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-11

, . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-11

Omitting Optional Parameters . . . . 17-12

Parameter Formats . . . . . . . . . 17-13

Using HP-GL/2 With Programming

Languages . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-16

Example: BASIC . . . . . . . . . . 17-16

Example: C Programming Language . 17-17

The HP-GL/2 Co ordinate System . . . 17-18

HP-GL/2 & PCL Orientation Interactions 17-21

The Vector Graphics Limits . . . . . . 17-23

HP-GL/2 Units of Measure . . . . . . 17-25

Plotter Units . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-25

User-units . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-25

Pen Status and Location . . . . . . . 17-26

Pen Status . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-26

Pen Location . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-28

Contents-13

Scaling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17-29

Absolute and RelativePen Movement. . 17-31

18. The Picture Frame

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-1

Dening 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 Plot Command Sequence 18-5

Example: Creating and Using a PCL

Picture Frame . . . . . . . . . . 18-7

Horizontal Picture Frame Size (decipoints) 18-10

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

Vertical Picture Frame Size (Decip oints) . 18-11

Example:To specify a vertical picture

frame size of 6.5 inches, send: . . . 18-11

Set Picture Frame Anchor Point . . . . 18-12

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

HP-GL/2 Plot Horizontal Size . . . . . 18-14

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

HP-GL/2 Plot Vertical Size . . . . . . 18-15

Example: . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-15

Enter HP-GL/2 Mo de . . . . . . . . . 18-16

Example: . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18-17

Enter PCL Mode . . . . . . . . . . . 18-17

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

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

Example: Creating a Simple Drawing . 18-21

Contents-14

19. The Conguration and Status Group

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-1

Establishing Default Conditions . . . . 19-3

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

Using the Scale Command . . . . . . . 19-5

Using Scaling Eectively . . . . . . . . 19-9

Enlarging or Reducing a Picture . . . 19-9

Drawing Equal-Size Pictures on a Page 19-11

Creating Mirror-Images . . . . . . . 19-14

Adapting the HP-GL/2 Coordinate

System to Match the PCL System . 19-17

Windowing: Setting Up Soft-Clip Limits 19-20

CO, Comment . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-21

DF, Default Values . . . . . . . . . . 19-21

IN, Initialize . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-24

IP, Input P1 and P2 . . . . . . . . . 19-26

IR, Input Relative P1 and P2 . . . . . 19-29

IW, Input Window . . . . . . . . . . 19-33

PG, Advance Full Page . . . . . . . . 19-37

RO, Rotate Coordinate System . . . . . 19-38

RP, Replot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-44

SC, Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19-45

For Scaling Types 0 and 1: . . . . . . 19-47

For Scaling Type 2: . . . . . . . . . 19-52

20. The Vector Group

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-1

Drawing Lines . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-3

Drawing Circles . . . . . . . . . . . 20-5

Drawing Arcs . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-6

Drawing Bezier Curves . . . . . . . . 20-9

AA, Arc Absolute . . . . . . . . . . 20-11

AR, Arc Relative. . . . . . . . . . . 20-16

AT, Absolute Arc Three Point . . . . . 20-19

BR, Bezier Relative. . . . . . . . . . 20-24

BZ, Bezier Absolute . . . . . . . . . . 20-27

CI, Circle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-31

PA, Plot Absolute . . . . . . . . . . 20-37

PD, Pen Down . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-39

PE, Polyline Encoded . . . . . . . . . 20-41

Encoding PE Flag Values and X,Y

Coordinates . . . . . . . . . . . 20-45

Programming Considerations . . . . . 20-49

PR, Plot Relative. . . . . . . . . . . 20-52

PU, Pen Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20-54

Contents-15

RT, Relative Arc Three Point . . . . . 20-56

21. The Polygon Group

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-1

Using the Polygon Buer . . . . . . . 21-3

Drawing Rectangles . . . . . . . . . . 21-4

Drawing Wedges . . . . . . . . . . . 21-7

Drawing Polygons . . . . . . . . . . 21-12

Drawing Subpolygons . . . . . . . . 21-13

Filling Polygons . . . . . . . . . . 21-15

Even/Odd Fill Metho d . . . . . . 21-15

Non-Zero Winding Fill Metho d . . . 21-16

Drawing Circles in Polygon Mode . . 21-17

Counting the Points in a Polygon . . . 21-18

Counting the Points in a Circle or Arc 21-19

EA, Edge Rectangle Absolute . . . . . 21-20

EP, Edge Polygon . . . . . . . . . . 21-24

ER, Edge Rectangle Relative. . . . . . 21-27

EW, Edge Wedge . . . . . . . . . . . 21-31

FP, Fill Polygon . . . . . . . . . . . 21-36

PM, Polygon Mode Command . . . . . 21-40

(PM0) or (PM) . . . . . . . . . . . 21-41

(PM1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-43

(PM2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21-43

RA, Fill Rectangle Absolute . . . . . . 21-45

RR, Fill Rectangle Relative . . . . . . 21-49

WG, Fill Wedge . . . . . . . . . . . 21-54

Contents-16

22. The Line and Fill Attributes Group

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-1

Using Line Attributes and Types . . . . 22-3

Using Fill Types . . . . . . . . . . . 22-5

Selecting a \Pen" and Changing Line

Width . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-7

AC, Anchor Corner . . . . . . . . . . 22-8

FT, Fill Type . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-11

LA, Line Attributes . . . . . . . . . . 22-21

Line Ends . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-23

Line Joins . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-24

Miter Limit . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-26

LT, Line Type . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-30

PW, Pen Width . . . . . . . . . . . 22-38

RF, Raster Fill Denition . . . . . . . 22-42

SM, Symbol Mode . . . . . . . . . . 22-45

SP, Select Pen . . . . . . . . . . . . 22-49

SV, Screened Vectors . . . . . . . . . 22-51

TR, Transparency Mo de . . . . . . . . 22-55

UL, User-Dened Line Type . . . . . . 22-57

WU, Pen Width Unit Selection . . . . . 22-60

23. The Character Group

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-1

Printing Lab els . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-4

Moving to the Carriage Return Point . 23-6

Control Codes . . . . . . . . . . . 23-8

Default Label Conditions . . . . . . . 23-9

Enhancing Labels . . . . . . . . . . . 23-10

Character Size and Slant . . . . . . 23-10

Character Spaces and Text Lines . . . 23-11

Label Orientation and Placement . . . 23-12

Terminating Labels . . . . . . . . . 23-14

Working with the Character Cell . . . . 23-15

Using Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-19

Printing with Fixed-Spaced and

Proportional Fonts . . . . . . . . 23-20

Designating and Selecting Fonts . . . . 23-22

Standard and Alternate Fonts . . . . 23-22

AD, Alternate Font Denition . . . . . 23-23

CF, Character Fill Mode . . . . . . . 23-26

CP, Character Plot . . . . . . . . . . 23-30

DI, Absolute Direction . . . . . . . . 23-35

DR, Relative Direction . . . . . . . . 23-45

Example: Using the DR Command . . 23-51

DT, Dene Lab el Terminator . . . . . 23-54

DV, Dene Variable Text Path . . . . . 23-56

Example: Using the DV Command . . 23-60

Contents-17

ES, Extra Space . . . . . . . . . . . 23-62

FI, Select Primary Font . . . . . . . . 23-65

Example: Using the FI Command . . 23-66

FN, Select Secondary Font. . . . . . . 23-68

Example: Using the FN Command . . 23-69

LB, Label . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23-71

LO, Label Origin . . . . . . . . . . . 23-75

SA, Select Alternate Font . . . . . . . 23-80

SB, Scalable or Bitmap Fonts . . . . . 23-81

SD, Standard Font Denition . . . . . 23-83

Kind 1: Symbol Set . . . . . . . . . 23-84

Kind 2: Font Spacing . . . . . . . . 23-85

Kind 3: Pitch . . . . . . . . . . . 23-85

Kind 4: Height. . . . . . . . . . . 23-86

Kind 5: Posture . . . . . . . . . . 23-86

Kind 6: Stroke Weight . . . . . . . 23-87

Kind 7: Typeface . . . . . . . . . . 23-88

Example: Using the SD Command . . 23-88

SI, Absolute Character Size . . . . . . 23-90

Example: Using the SI Command . . 23-91

SL, Character Slant. . . . . . . . . . 23-95

Example: Using the SL Command . . 23-97

SR, Relative Character Size . . . . . . 23-99

Example: Using the SR Command . . 23-102

SS, Select Standard Font . . . . . . . 23-104

TD, Transparent Data . . . . . . . . 23-105

Contents-18

24. Programming Hints

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-6

PCL Raster Graphics . . . . . . . . . 24-8

Macros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-9

HP-GL/2 Vector Graphics . . . . . . . 24-10

Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-11

PCL Commands . . . . . . . . . . 24-11

Print Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-11

Print Overrun . . . . . . . . . . . 24-11

Page Protection . . . . . . . . . . 24-12

I/O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-12

Troubleshooting Commands . . . . . . 24-13

End-of-Line Wrap . . . . . . . . . 24-13

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

Display Functions Mo de . . . . . . . 24-14

Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-15

Auto Continue Mode . . . . . . . . 24-15

Common Errors . . . . . . . . . . . 24-16

20 ERROR . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-16

21 ERROR . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-16

22 ERROR . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-16

40 ERROR . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-17

A. Customer Support

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . A-1

Help From Your Organization . . . . A-1

Help From Your Dealer . . . . . . . A-1

Help from HP . . . . . . . . . . . A-2

The CompuServeHPForum . . . . A-2

HP Distribution . . . . . . . . . A-2

HP FIRST Faxback support . . . . A-2

HP's Personal Peripherals Assist Line A-3

Glossary

Index

Contents-19

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 ecientway

for application programs to control a range of printer

features across a number of printing devices. HP has

evolved b oth the denition 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 resp onse 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 co des

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-specic, raster print images.

PCL printer language commonality from HP printer

to HP printer helps to minimize printer support

problems and protect HP printer customer investmentin

applications and printer driver software.

Introduction to HP PCL

PCL PRINTER LANGUAGE HISTORY

1-1

PCL Printer

Language

Architecture

PCL printer language structure has b een useful to

guide language functionality growth and command

syntax denition. The PCL printer language has

evolved through ve major levels of functionality

driven by the combination of printer technology

developments, changing user needs, and application

software improvements. The ve 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

Oce WordProcessing

functionalityis a

superset of PCL 2. Functions were added for

high-quality, oce document production.

PCL 4

Page Formatting

functionality is a superset of

PCL 3. Functions were added for new page

printing capabilities.

PCL 5

Oce Publishing

functionality is a superset of

PCL 4. New publishing capabilities include

font scaling and HP-GL/2 graphics.

The PCL printer language mo del succeeds because the

following points are observed:

All HP LaserJet printers implement PCL printer

language features consistently.

HP printers implement the ab ove language feature

groups in very cost-eective formatters.

HP printers have the ability to ignore most

unsupported commands.

1-2 Introduction to HP PCL

PCL PRINTER LANGUAGE ARCHITECTURE

What are Printer

Commands?

PCL

printer commands

provide access to printer

features. There are four general types of HP printer

language commands:

control codes

PCL commands

HP-GL/2 commands

PJL commands

Control Codes

PCL Commands

Note

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 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 rst character is always the ASCII

escape character, identied by the

symbol.

a special control co de which identies the subsequent

string of characters as a printer command. As the

printer monitors incoming data from a computer, it

\looks" for this character. When this character appears,

the printer reads it and its associated characters as a

command to p erform and not as data to print.

PCL printer commands (other than single-character

control codes) are also referred to as

The terms

printer command

and

escape sequences

escapesequence

are

used interchangeably throughout this manual.

Once a PCL command sets a parameter, that parameter

remains set until that PCL command is rep eated with

a new value, or the printer is reset to its user default

Introduction to HP PCL

1-3

WHAT ARE PRINTER COMMANDS?

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 dierent

Line Spacing command, or the printer is reset.

HP-GL/2 Commands

PJL Commands

HP-GL/2, vector graphic commands are two letter

mnemonic codes designed to remind you of the function

name (suchasINfor Initialize). Following the two

letter mnemonic may b e one or more parameters, which

identify details of how to pro cess the command. For

additional information on HP-GL/2 commands, refer to

Chapters 17 through 23.

PJL (Printer Job Language) commands provide a

dierenttype 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 oers 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 information

from the printer such as printer model, conguration,

printer status, and job status. PJL also can be used to

change the printer's control panel settings and mo dify

the message displayed on the control panel.

1-4 Introduction to HP PCL

WHAT ARE PRINTER COMMANDS?

The PJL language is designed to be used by application

developers and technical support personnel only.

Syntax of Escape

Sequences

There are two forms of PCL escape sequences:

two-character escape sequences and parameterized escape

sequences.

Two-Character

Escape Sequences

Two-character escap e sequences have the following form:

where \X"is acharacter that denes the operation

to be performed. \X"maybe anycharacter from

the ASCII table within the range 48-126 decimal

(\0" through \~" - see Appendix A). For a list of the

two-character escape sequences supported by the printer,

refer to the \PCL Feature Support Matrix" in Chapter 1

of the

PCL 5 Comparison Guide

Following are examples of two-character escape

sequences:

atwo-character escap e sequence used for

resetting the printer.

a two-character escape sequence used for

resetting the left and right margins to the

printer's default settings.

Introduction to HP PCL

SYNTAX OF ESCAPE SEQUENCES

1-5

Parameterized

Escape Sequences

Parameterized escape sequences have the following form:

Xy#z1#z2#z3

...

# Zn[data]

wherey,#,zi(z1, z2, z3

. . . ) and

[data]

optional, depending on the command.

Parameterized Character

the ASCII table within the range 33-47

decimal (\!" through \/") indicating that

the escape sequence is parameterized.

Group Character

- A character from the

ASCII table within the range 96-126 decimal

(\`" through \~") that species the group

type of control b eing performed.

# Value Field

- A group of characters

specifying a numeric value. The numeric

value is represented as an ASCII string of

characters within the range 48-57 decimal

(\0" through \9") that may be preceded bya

\+" or \0" sign and may contain a fractional

portion indicated by the digits after a decimal

point(\."). Numeric value elds are within

the range -32767 to 65535. If an escape

sequence requires a value eld and a value is

not specied, a value of zero is assumed.

maybe

-Acharacter from

1-6 Introduction to HP PCL

SYNTAX OF ESCAPE SEQUENCES

Parameter Character

-Anycharacter from the

ASCII table within the range 96-126 decimal

(\`" through \~"). This character sp ecies

the parameter to which the previous value

eld applies. This character is used when

combining escape sequences.

Termination Character

from the ASCI I table within the range 64-94

decimal (\@" through \^"). This character

species the parameter to which the previous

value eld applies. This character terminates

the escape sequence.

-Anycharacter

Notes

[data]

The following is an example of an escape sequence with a

termination character and no parameter character. This

escape sequence performs a single function.

Some escape sequences shown in this manual contain

spaces between characters for clarity. Do not include

these spaces when using escap e sequences.

Binary Data

graphics data, downloaded fonts, etc.). The

number of bytes of binary data is specied by

the value eld of the escape sequence. Binary

data immediately follows the terminating

character of the escap e sequence.

is eight-bit data (for example,

Also, in the escape sequence a script \`" is used to

indicate a lower case \l" for clarity.

Introduction to HP PCL

SYNTAX OF ESCAPE SEQUENCES

1-7

The following is an example of an escape sequence with

a parameter character and a termination character.

This escape sequence performs two functions. It is the

combination of two commands (

&`1O

and

&`2A

Notice that the \

the second printer command when the two commands

are combined. Also, the upper-case \O" that terminated

the rst command becomes a lower-case \o" parameter

character when these commands are combined.

" and the \&`

" are dropp ed from

1-8 Introduction to HP PCL

SYNTAX OF ESCAPE SEQUENCES

Use these three rules to combine and shorten printer

commands:

1. The rst twocharacters after \

and group character) must be the same in all of the

commands to b e combined. In the example above,

these are \&" and \`".

2. All alphabetic characters within the combined printer

command are lower-case, except the nal letter which

is always upper-case. In the combined example above,

\O" becomes \o". The nal character in the printer

command must always be upper-case to let the

printer know that the command is complete.

3. The printer commands are performed in the order

that they are combined (from left to right). Be sure

to combine commands in the order that they are to

be p erformed.

" (the parameterized

Introduction to HP PCL

SYNTAX OF ESCAPE SEQUENCES

1-9

The Page

Introduction

This chapter describes the PCL coordinate system.

It denes the logical page and the printable area; it

introduces the HP-GL/2 (vector graphics) picture frame,

and identies the b oundaries of each.

The Page

INTRODUCTION

2-1

Logical Page

idxjboundaries The PCL

the PCL addressable area) denes the area in which the

PCL cursor can be positioned. Although the printer do es

not actually have a cursor (like the blinking underline

character used on most computer terminals), the cursor

position refers to the Currently ActivePosition of the

cursor (also referred to as the

\cursor" is the position on the logical page where the

next character will be positioned. The cursor can be

moved to dierent points on the logical page using the

cursor positioning commands (see Chapter 6,

Positioning

of the logical page b ounds.

The size of the logical page for the media (paper,

transparencies, labels, etc.) is dened in Figure 2-4 and

Figure 2-5.

). The PCL cursor cannot be moved outside

logical page

CAP

). The location of the

(also referred to as

Cursor

2-2 The Page

LOGICAL PAGE

Printed Dots

The high quality output achieved by HP LaserJet

printers is due in part to the abilitytolaydown a ne

grid of \dots" on the page. The density of this grid is

referred to as the printer's

HP LaserJet (the \LaserJet Classic") until recently,

all HP LaserJet family printers printed at a resolution

of 300 dots-p er-inch. In a one inch square, the printer

could print a dot anywhere in a grid of up to 300 dots

horizontally by 300 dots vertically, for a total of 90,000

possible dot locations per square inch (3002300 =

90,000).

The LaserJet 4 printer is capable of printing at either

300 or 600 dpi resolution. At 600 dots-per-inch, it

becomes p ossible to print up to 360,000 dots per square

inch (6002600 = 360,000). Print resolution of LaserJet

4 is selectable and can be specied either from the

printer's control panel or programmed through PJL

commands.

resolution.

From the rst

Figure 2-1. 300 vs 600 DPI Dot Sizes

The Page

PRINTED DOTS

2-3

Notes

Refer to Appendix E of the

or the printer

print resolution for a specic HP LaserJet printer.

The printer's physical dot size has no direct bearing

on the size of \PCL Units" used in cursor movements.

PCL Units were previously referred to as \PCL

dots," but

physically printed dots.

also be specied (see the

Chapter 4 for more information).

User's Manual

should not b e confused with the printer's

PCL 5 Comparison Guide

to determine the default

The size of PCL Units can

Unit of Measure Command

2-4 The Page

PRINTED DOTS

PCL Coordinate

System

The PCL co ordinate system is dened as shown in

Figure 2-2.

Figure 2-2. X,Y PCL Coordinates

Note

The point (0,0) is at the intersection of the left edge of

the logical page and the current top margin position.

Since the p oint (0,0) is always at the intersection of the

left edge of the

position, it moves if the top margin is changed, and

rotates around the page if the orientation is changed.

logical page

PCL COORDINATE SYSTEM

and the

current top margin

The Page

2-5

Units of the PCL

Coordinate System

The units of the X-axis of the PCL co ordinate system

may be

the Y-axis may be PCL Units, decipoints, or

PCL Units,decipoints

,or

columns

. The units of

rows

PCL Units

Note

Decipoints

Columns & Rows

These are user-denable units of measure which are

used in PCL commands aecting various PCL cursor

moves. The number of units-per-inch used in PCL cursor

moves is determined by the current setting of the

Measure

command (see \Unit of Measure Command" in

Unit of

Chapter 4).

PCL Units were formerly referred to as \PCL Dots."

They were renamed \PCL Units" to prevent confusion

with the printer's physically printed \dots," which are

determined by the printer's resolution.

In PCL terminology, a decipointis

of a PCL point (a PCL point is

opposed to a typographic point whichis

inch).

720

exactly

inch or one-tenth

inch as

approximately

The width of a column is dened by the current

horizontal motion index (HMI)

rows is dened by the current

(VMI)

described in Chapter 5,

,or

lines-per-inch (lpi)

Page Control Commands

. The distance b etween

vertical motion index

. HMI, VMI and lpi are

Printer Internal Units

Internally, the printer uses a dierent unit of measure.

It maps PCL Units, decipoints, and columns and rows

to this unit of measure. This internal unit is

All positioning is kept in internal units and rounded to

physical dot positions when data is printed.

2-6 The Page

UNITS OF THE PCL COORDINATE SYSTEM

7200

inch.

HP-GL/2 Picture

Frame

In addition to text and raster graphics,

vector graphics

HP-GL/2 vector graphics are incorporated using the

concept of the HP-GL/2 picture frame (see Figure 2-3 ).

Within this picture frame, HP-GL/2 uses its own

coordinate system and units of measure. The HP-GL/2

coordinate system and units are described in detail

in Chapter 17,

Graphics,

can be placed on the PCL logical page.

An Introduction to HP-GL/2 Vector

and Chapter 18,

The PictureFrame

HP-GL/2

Note

If no HP-GL/2 picture frame size is specied (using

the commands described in Chapter 18), then the

default HP-GL/2 picture frame is used. The default

HP-GL/2 picture frame is the current top and bottom

margins and the left and right edges of the logical page.

The HP-GL/2 picture frame rotates with the PCL

page orientation, but is not aected by the PCL print

direction.

Figure 2-3. PCL Logical Page with HP-GL/2 Picture Frame

The Page

HP-GL/2 PICTURE FRAME

2-7

Printable Area

The

printable area

which the printer is able to place a dot. The

page

refers to the size of the media (letter, legal, etc.)

installed in the printer.

The relationship between physical page, logical page,

default picture frame, and printable area is dened in

Figure 2-4 and Figure 2-5.

is the area of the physical page in

physical

2-8 The Page

PRINTABLE AREA

DIMENSIONS

(at 300 DPI - double for 600 DPI)

PAPER SIZE A B C D E F G H

LETTER 2550 3300 2400 3300 75 0 50 150

LEGAL 2550 4200 2400 4200 75 0 50 150

LEDGER 3300 5100 3150 5100 75 0 50 150

EXECUTIVE 2175 3150 2025 3150 75 0 50 150

A4 2480 3507 2338 3507 71 0 50 150

A3 3507 4960 3365 4960 71 0 50 150

COM-10 1237 2850 1087 2850 75 0 50 150

MONARCH 1162 2250 1012 2250 75 0 50 150

C5 1913 2704 1771 2704 71 0 50 150

B5 2078 2952 1936 2952 71 0 50 150

DL 1299 2598 1157 2598 71 0 50 150

Figure 2-4. Portrait Logical Page & Printable Area Boundaries

The Page

PRINTABLE AREA

2-9

DIMENSIONS

(at 300 DPI - double for 600 DPI)

PAPER SIZE A B C D E F G H

LETTER 3300 2550 3180 2550 60 0 50 150

LEGAL 4200 2550 4080 2550 60 0 50 150

LEDGER 5100 3300 4980 3300 60 0 50 150

EXECUTIVE 3150 2175 3030 2175 60 0 50 150

A4 3507 2480 3389 2480 59 0 50 150

A3 4960 3507 4842 3507 59 0 50 150

COM-10 2850 1237 2730 1237 60 0 50 150

MONARCH 2250 1162 2130 1162 60 0 50 150

C5 2704 1913 2586 1913 59 0 50 150

B5 2952 2078 2834 2078 59 0 50 150

DL 2598 1299 2480 1299 59 0 50 150

Figure 2-5. Landscape Logical Page & Printable Area Boundaries

2-10 The Page

PRINTABLE AREA

The HP LaserJet printers p erform pixel-level clipping.

When printing characters or graphics, if any portion of

the character cell or graphic is outside the printable area,

only that portion outside the printable area is clipped

(see Figure 2-6 ).

Notes

Figure 2-6. Printable Area Character Cell Positioning

Pixel level clipping can also o ccur at the logical page

for PCL when the page is positioned using the Left

Registration command.

Pixel level clipping also occurs at the picture frame for

HP-GL/2.

Characters are clipp ed if they fall across a margin

(left, right, top, and bottom). Refer to \Text Area" in

Chapter 5 for additional information.

PRINTABLE AREA

The Page

2-11

The Print Environment

Introduction

The group of all of the printer's current feature settings,

collectively, is referred to as the printenvironment. The

printer maintains four printenvironments: the

Default Environment,

the

Modied Print Environment

Environment

. This chapter describes the Factory

the

User Default Environment,

and the

Factory

Overlay

Default Environment, the User Default Environment,

and the Mo died PrintEnvironment (the Overlay

Environment is described in Chapter 12,

Macros

Default settings refer to the settings programmed into

the printer at the factory or settings selected using the

control panel. The term \default" simply refers to the

settings the printer uses unless printer commands select

other settings.

Each time a job is printed, some of the printer's feature

settings may be changed from their default values to

produce the desired printed output for that job. After

the job prints, the job-sp ecic feature settings are longer

be required, since the next job is likely to have dierent

output requirements. The next job should clear all

previous job settings by performing a reset. This allows

a job to start with the default settings as a known

base set, and vary only those settings that are needed.

Starting with the default environment at the beginning

of each print job eliminates the need to set every feature

each time a job is run.

The Print Environment

INTRODUCTION

3-1

Note

The printenvironment features presented in this chapter

are for a variety of HP LaserJet printers. Not all of the

features are applicable to every printer. To identify

variations and default settings for specic printers, refer

to Chapter 3 of the

PCL 5 Comparison Guide

Factory Default

Environment

Note

A factory default is a feature setting programmed

into the printer at the factory. The group of all of the

printer's feature settings set to their factory settings

is referred to as the Factory Default Environment.

These features are described in this manual. Since the

HP-GL/2 features are used for HP-GL/2 operation

only, the printenvironment features are separated,

for convenience, into two lists or contexts: PCL and

HP-GL/2. Table 3-1 lists typical PCL print environment

features, and Table 3-2 lists typical HP-GL/2 print

environment features.

The factory default settings for the printer features

are not shown here, since they dier depending on the

printer mo del. To identify variations and default settings

for specic printers, refer to Chapter 3 of the

Comparison Guide

PCL 5

3-2 The Print Environment

FACTORY DEFAULT ENVIRONMENT

Table 3-1. Factory Default Print Environment Features | PCL Context

JOB CONTROL FONTS

Number of Copies

Duplex

Binding

2,3

Registration Height

Tray

Manual Feed

Symbol Set

Spacing

Pitch

Style

StrokeWeight

User-dened Units Typeface

PAGE CONTROL

Print Direction

Orientation

Page Size

Underlining Mode

FONT MANAGEMENT

FontID

Character Co de

Paper Source Symbol Set ID

Vertical Motion Index

Horizontal Motion Index

RASTER GRAPHICS

Left Graphics Margin

Top Margin Resolution

Text Length Compression Mode

Left Margin Raster Height

Right Margin Raster Width

Perforation Skip Raster Graphics Presentation Mode

Line Termination

Continued on next page.

The font characteristics are determined by the default font. The default font can b e the factory default font

or the user-selected default font from the printer's control panel or from a font cartridge containing a default

font.

User default values may b e selected by the user from the printer's control panel for these items.

Selectable from the printer control panel if duplex is selected.

Selectable from the printer's control panel if a xed-space scalable font has b een selected as the user default.

Selectable from the printer's control panel if a prop ortional scalable font has b een selected as the user default.

The Print Environment

FACTORY DEFAULT ENVIRONMENT

3-3

Table 3-1.

Factory Default Print Environment Features | PCL Context (continued)

PRINT MODEL PICTURE FRAME

CurrentPattern Picture Frame Width

Source Transparency Mode Picture Frame Height

Pattern Transparency Mo de Picture Frame Anchor Point

Pattern Reference Point

Pattern Rotation HP-GL/2 Plot Vertical Size

RECTANGULAR AREA FILL MACRO

Horizontal Rectangle Size Macro ID

Vertical Rectangle Size

Pattern (Area Fill) ID End-of-Line Wrap

STATUS READBACK

Current Lo cation Type

Current Lo cation Unit

HP-GL/2 plot Horizontal Size

TROUBLESHOOTING

Display Functions

3-4 The Print Environment

FACTORY DEFAULT ENVIRONMENT

Table 3-2.

Factory Default Print Environment Features | HP-GL/2 Context

CHARACTER GROUP

POLYGON GROUP

Symbol Set Polygon Buer

Font Spacing Polygon Mode

Pitch

LINE AND FILL ATTRIBUTE GROUP

Height Line Type

Posture Line Type Repeat Length

StrokeWeight Line Cap

Typeface Line Join

Character Direction Miter Limit

Character Direction Mode Pen Turret

Character Size Mode Pen Width

Character Width Pen Width Selection Mode

Character Height Selected Pen

Character Slant Symbol Mode

Extra Horizontal Space Fill Type

Extra Vertical Space User-dened Line Type

Character Fill Mo de Anchor Corner

Label Origin User-dened Fill Types

Label Terminator

PALETTE EXTENSION

Transparent Data Mo de Number of Pens

Primary FontID Transparency Mode

Secondary FontID Screened Vector

Scalable or Bitmap Font

VECTOR GROUP

CONFIGURATION & STATUS GROUP

Scale Mode

Plotting Mode Window

Pen State Coordinate System Orientation

P1, P2

The Print Environment

FACTORY DEFAULT ENVIRONMENT

3-5

User Default

Environment

There are several PCL features in the printer for which

user defaults may be selected from the printer's control

panel. User default settings are stored in the User

Default Environment and are retained even if the printer

is turned OFF. Some of these features are listed below

(for a complete set of the control panel user default

features refer to Chapter 3 of the

Guide

PCL 5 Comparison

Notes

Number of Copies

Font Selection (Font Source, Font Number, Pitch

Point Size)

Duplex/Simplex

Binding Edge

Tray

Paper (Page Size: Paper and Envelopes)

Manual Feed

Orientation

Symbol Set

For scalable typefaces: xed-space typefaces are selected only by

pitch; and prop ortionally-spaced typefaces are selected only by

point size.

Selectable only if duplex is On.

Refer to \Horizontal Motion Index (HMI) Command"

in Chapter 5 for the implications of setting the user

default font (source, number, pitch or point size).

Refer to the printer

User's Manual

for instructions

on how to select these user defaults from the control

panel.

The PJL (Printer Job Language) \SET" command

overrides the PCL user default environment for the

duration of a PJL job. If PJL is not active, then

the PCL user default environment has precedence.

Refer to \PJL Commands" in Chapter 1 for more

information.

3-6 The Print Environment

USER DEFAULT ENVIRONMENT

Modified Print

Environment

Table 3-3. Items Not Included in Modified Print Environment

PCL Context HP-GL/2 Context

Overlay environment HP-GL/2 overlayenvironment

Current cursor p osition Duplex registration

Cursor position stack Polygon buer

Downloaded fonts/macros

User-dened patterns

The current printer feature settings constitute the

Modied PrintEnvironment. Whenever a feature setting

is altered using escap e sequences, the new setting is

recorded in the Modied PrintEnvironment.

The Mo died Print Environment is saved during a macro

calloroverlay

A Mo died PrintEnvironment consists of the current

settings for the items listed in Table 3-1 and Table 3-2,

with the exception of the items listed in Table 3-3,

below.

and restored upon its completion.

Note

Not all of the Modied PrintEnvironment features are

applicable to every printer. To identify variations and

default settings for specic printers, refer to the

Comparison Guide

The Print Environment

MODIFIED PRINT ENVIRONMENT

PCL 5

3-7

Resetting the Print

Environment

Resets are used to return the printer to a known

environment. Depending on the type of reset p erformed,

the printer returns to either the User Default

Environment or the Factory Default Environment.

Printer Reset

Note

A Printer Reset restores the User Default Environment

and deletes temporary fonts, macros, user-dened symbol

sets, and patterns. A Printer Reset is performed by

sending the

control panel (see the printer

Printer Reset command is describ ed in Chapter 4,

Job Control Commands

The

mayhave been received. The control panel

command, or through the printer's

User's Manual

). The

command prints any partial pages of data that

RESET

PCL

discards any formatted pages which have not yet b een

printed.

Both resets (

and the control panel

the HP-GL/2 settings to their default values.

RESET

) return

used

in HP-GL/2 mo de returns the printer to PCL mode

in addition to resetting the printenvironment. The

HP-GL/2

IN (Initialize)

command resets HP-GL/2

settings to their default values without aecting the

PCL settings (refer to the Initialize command described

in Chapter 19,

Conguration and Status Group

, for

additional information).

Hewlett-Packard strongly recommends the use of both

the

command and the

%012345X

command

(Universal Exit Language/Start of PJL | also referred

to as the

UEL Command

) at the beginning and end

of each job. (The order of these commands is critical.

Refer to Table 4-1 for an example of their usage.)

3-8 The Print Environment

RESETTING THE PRINT ENVIRONMENT

The UEL Command (

eect as the

command, and also enters PJL Mode

%012345X

) has the same

of operation for printers that support PJL (refer to

\Universal Exit Language Command" in Chapter 4

for more information). The

command should b e

included to ensure backward compatibility (the UEL

command is ignored if received by a printer that do es

not support PJL).

Cold Reset

A Cold Reset restores the Factory Default Environment

which includes resetting the control panel items to their

factory default settings. A Cold Reset is performed by

power cycling the printer while holding

08 COLD RESET

is displayed.

ON LINE

until a

The Print Environment

RESETTING THE PRINT ENVIRONMENT

3-9

PCL Job Control Commands

Introduction

A job typically consists of three parts:

Commands providing job control.

Commands providing page control.

Print data.

Table 4-1. Structure of a Typical Job

%012345X

Preamble

Page 1

UEL Command (exit language).

Printer Reset Command.

Job Control Commands.

Page Control Commands.

Data

Page 2

Page Control Commands.

Data.

 

Page n

Page Control Commands.

Data.

%012345X

Printer Reset Command.

UEL Command (exit language).

If anumber of consecutive pages within a job have the same format (such

as margins, VMI, HMI, etc.), the associated page control commands only

need to b e sent once for that group of pages.

PCL Job Control Commands

INTRODUCTION

4-1

This chapter describes the commands providing job

control. Job control commands are usually grouped

together and sent at the b eginning of a job. Page

control commands and data are asso ciated with each

printed page of a job. Job control commands include the

following:

Printer Reset.

Universal End of Language/Start of PJL.

Number of Copies.

Simplex/Duplex Print.

Left and Top Oset Registration.

Duplex Page Side Selection.

Job Separation.

Output Bin Selection.

Unit of Measure.

4-2 PCL Job Control Commands

INTRODUCTION

Printer Reset

Command

Receipt of the Printer Reset command restores the User

Default Environment, deletes temporary fonts, macros,

user-dened symbol sets and patterns. It also prints any

partial pages of data whichmayhave been received.

Note

Hewlett-Packard strongly recommends the use of both

the

command and the

%012345X

command

(Universal Exit Language/Start of PJL | also referred

to as the

UEL Command

) at the beginning and end

of each job. (The order of these commands is critical.

Refer to Table 4-1 for an example.)

The UEL Command (

as the

command, and also enters PJL Mode of

%012345X

) has the same eect

operation for printers that support PJL (refer to the

next section, \Universal Exit Language Command"

for more information). The

command should b e

included to ensure backward compatibility (the UEL

command is ignored if received by a printer that do es

not support PJL).

PCL Job Control Commands

PRINTER RESET COMMAND

4-3

Universal Exit

Language

Command

The Universal Exit Language (

UEL

) command causes

the PCL printer language to shut down and exit.

Control is then returned to the Printer Job Language

(PJL). Both PCL 5 and HP-GL/2 recognize this

command.

%012345X

Note

Default

Range

= N/A

=012345

This command p erforms the following actions:

Prints all data received before the Exit Language

command.

Performs a printer reset (same eect as

Shuts down the PCL 5 printer language processor.

Turns control over to PJL.

Hewlett-Packard strongly recommends the use of both

(printer reset) and

%012345X

(UEL command)

at the b eginning and end of each job. (The order of

these commands is critical. Refer to Table 4-1 for an

example.)

The UEL Command (

eect as the

of operation for printers that support PJL. The

%012345X

) has the same

command, and also enters PJL Mode

command should b e included to ensure backward

compatibility (the UEL command is ignored if received

by a printer that do es not support PJL).

4-4 PCL Job Control Commands

UNIVERSAL EXIT LANGUAGE COMMAND

Number of Copies

Command

The Number of Copies command designates the number

of printed copies of each page.

&`#X

# = Number of copies (1 to 32767 maximum)

Example

Default

Range

This command can be received anywhere within a page

and aects the current page as well as subsequent pages.

To print 3 copies of a page, send:

= 1 (Congurable from control panel)

= 1-32767

(Values>32767 execute as 32767; values<1 are ignored.

Maximum number of copies=99 for LaserJet II, IIP, III,

IIID, I IIP and earlier LaserJet printers.)

&`3X

PCL Job Control Commands

NUMBER OF COPIES COMMAND

4-5

Figure 4-1. Number of Copies

Note

The HP-GL/2 Replot (RP) command is inactive for

PCL 5 printers; use the Number of Copies command for

multiple HP-GL/2 plots. To be eective, the Number

of Copies command must be issued from PCL prior to

closing the page on which the plot is dened.

4-6 PCL Job Control Commands

NUMBER OF COPIES COMMAND

Simplex/Duplex

Print Command

This command designates either simplex or duplex

printing mode for duplex printers. Simplex mode prints

an image on only one side of a sheet (page). Duplex

mode prints images on both sides of a sheet.

&`# S

# = 0 - Simplex

1 - Duplex, Long-Edge Binding

2 - Duplex, Short-Edge Binding

Note

Default

Range

= 0

= 0-2 (Other values ignored)

Long-Edge bound duplexed pages are b ound along the

length of the physical page (see Figure 4-2). Short-edge

bound duplexed pages are bound along the width of the

physical page (see Figure 4-3).

Selecting long-edge binding usually results in font

rotation. This may be a concern if available user

memory is critical.

If this command is received by a printer which does not

contain the duplex feature, it is ignored. Printers which

do not contain the duplex feature print in simplex mode

(front side of sheet) only.

PCL Job Control Commands

SIMPLEX/DUPLEX PRINT COMMAND

4-7

Figure 4-2. Long-Edge Binding Mode

4-8 PCL Job Control Commands

SIMPLEX/DUPLEX PRINT COMMAND

Figure 4-3. Short-Edge Binding Mode

PCL Job Control Commands

SIMPLEX/DUPLEX PRINT COMMAND

4-9

Left Offset

Registration

Command

The Left (long-edge) Oset Registration command

designates the p osition of the logical page across the

width (short side) of the physical page. This command

can be used to adjust the text position on the page to

allow additional room for the page binding.

&`#U

# = The number of decipoints (

720

inch)

Note

Default

Range

=032767 to 32767

The value (#) is a signed number valid to 2 decimal

places. The units are decip oints. Positive values cause

the logical page, regardless of orientation, to move right

along the width of the physical page, except on the back

side (duplex print) of sheets printed in long-edge binding

duplex mode, where positive values cause it to move left

(refer to Figure 4-4 and Figure 4-5).

Negative values cause the logical page, regardless

of orientation, to move left along the width of the

physical page, except on the back side of sheets printed

in long-edge binding duplex mode, where negative

values cause it to move right (refer to Figure 4-4 and

Figure 4-5).

The +/0value is absolute with resp ect to the default

position of the logical page along the width of the

physical page. It is not relative to the present lo cation.

The registration commands may cause data loss by

moving the logical page outside the printable area.

This command has the same eect regardless of

orientation.

This command can be used in both simplex and

duplex mo des.

4-10 PCL Job Control Commands

LEFT OFFSET REGISTRATION COMMAND

PCL Job Control Commands

LEFT OFFSET REGISTRATION COMMAND

4-11

Top Offset

Registration

Command

The Top (short-edge) Oset Registration command

designates the p osition of the logical page along the

length (long side) of the physical page.

&`#Z

# = The number of decipoints (

720

inch)

Note

Default

Range

= 0

=032767 to 32767

The value (#) is a signed number valid to 2 decimal

places. The units are decip oints. Positivevalues cause

the logical page, regardless of orientation, to move down

along the length of the physical page, except on the

backside of sheets printed in short-edge binding duplex

mode, where positive values cause it to move up (refer to

Figure 4-4 and Figure 4-5).

Negative values cause the logical page, regardless

of orientation, to move up, along the length of the

physical page, except on the backside of sheets printed

in short-edge binding duplex mode, where negative

values cause it to move down (refer to Figure 4-4 and

Figure 4-5).

The +/0value is absolute with resp ect to the default

position of the logical page along the length of the

physical page. It is not relative to the current lo cation

of the logical page.

The registration command may cause data loss by

moving the logical page outside the printable area.

This command has the same eect regardless of

orientation.

This command can be used in both simplex and

duplex mo des.

4-12 PCL Job Control Commands

TOP OFFSET REGISTRATION COMMAND

PCL Job Control Commands

TOP OFFSET REGISTRATION COMMAND

4-13

Figure 4-4. Short-Edge Binding Mode Offsets

Figure 4-5. Long-Edge Binding Mode Offsets

4-14 PCL Job Control Commands

TOP OFFSET REGISTRATION COMMAND

Duplex Page Side

Selection

Command

The Duplex Page Side Selection command causes a Form

Feed and designates which side of the sheet to print.

The ability to skip a page while duplexing maybe

required at certain locations in a document. For

example, a chapter typically begins on the front side of a

page.

& a # G

# = 0 - Select next side

1 - Select front side

2 - Select back side

Example

Default

Range

= 0-2 (All other values ignored)

If this command is received by a printer which

does not have duplex or if duplexing is not enabled,

these commands just eject the current page (sheet),

positioning the cursor at the default position on the next

page.

To print on the front side of a page, regardless of the

current side, send the following:

&a1G

In this example, if the printer is currently formatting a

front side, it will stop formatting, eject that page (sheet,

skipping the back side), and begin printing on the next

front page.

PCL Job Control Commands

DUPLEX PAGE SIDE SELECTION COMMAND

4-15

Job Separation

Command

Job separation provides a means of identifying one print

job from others in the printer's output tray. It usually

does this byphysically osetting one print job from the

next.

The Job Separation command toggles the printer's

separation mechanism. This command must be sent

between each job to enable the separation mechanism.

&`1T

HP recommends that the Job Separation command

be included at the end of each job, just b efore the

Printer Reset command. HP also recommends that this

command be included in the programs even though

printers with job separation are not currently being

used. This ensures that if a printer with job separation

is eventually added, job separation will b e p erformed.

If this command is received by a printer which do es not

have job separation, the command is ignored.

Note

It is p ossible to p erform job oset in printers which

do not have a mechanical oset mechanism but have

dual paper trays. In dual bin printers, job oset can

be p erformed by placing colored paper in the second

tray and using Paper Source command to select the tray

to feed a blank sheet of colored paper at the end of a

job. This method should only be used in special cases

where the end user can control its use, for example, the

program should only be available for a dual bin printer

which can always contain colored paper in one tray.

4-16 PCL Job Control Commands

JOB SEPARATION COMMAND

Output Bin

Selection

Command

The

Output Bin Selection

two output paper bins (upper or lower [rear]) for paper

output.

&`#G

#= 1 - Upper Output Bin

2-Lower (Rear) Output Bin

command selects either of the

Note

Default

Range

If this command is received by a printer which does not

contain the dual output bin feature, it is ignored.

= Upper Output Bin

=1,2

PCL Job Control Commands

OUTPUT BIN SELECTION COMMAND

4-17

Unit of Measure

Command

The Unit of Measure command establishes the unit of

measure for

PCL Unit

&u#D

cursor movements.

# = Number of units-per-inch

Default

Range

= 300

= 96, 100, 120, 144, 150, 160, 180, 200, 225, 240, 288, 300,

360, 400, 450, 480, 600, 720, 800, 900, 1200, 1440, 1800,

2400, 3600, 7200.

The value eld denes the number of units-per-inch used

in the following commands:

Vertical Cursor Position (PCL Units).

Horizontal Cursor Position (PCL Units).

Vertical Rectangle Size (PCL Units).

Horizontal Rectangle Size (PCL Units).

In addition, the current unit of measure setting aects

the HMI setting, which in turn determines how cursor

movement values are rounded. This aects the result of

the following commands:

Horizontal Cursor Position (Columns).

Horizontal Tab (HT control code).

Space (SP control co de).

Backspace (BS control code).

Bitmap Character Delta X (\Delta X," Chapter 11).

For example, if the unit of measure is set to 96 (one PCL

Unit =

inch.

4-18 PCL Job Control Commands

UNIT OF MEASURE COMMAND

inch), then the HMI is rounded to the nearest

inch. If the unit of measure is set to 300 (one PCL

inch), the HMI is rounded to the nearest

300

Note

HMI is set either as a result of font selection or through

the use of the HMI command. The rounding b ehavior

just described only applies when the HMI is at its

default setting (derived from the currently selected font).

If the HMI Command was used to override the HMI

setting, the rounding behavior described ab ove do es not

apply. (See \Horizontal Motion Index Command" in

Chapter 5 for more information.)

The current unit of measure setting aects all PCL Unit

moves, horizontal and vertical rectangle size, bitmap

and scalable font metrics (how the cursor moves after

printing a character). The Unit of Measure command

does not aect the interpretation of binary raster data

(bitmap fonts, raster graphics or patterns).

Once the units of measure is changed, it stays in eect

until another is selected or the printer is reset. A control

panel or

reset returns the current unit of measure

setting back to the device default setting (300).

The units value is part of the mo died print

environment. As such, it is saved and restored whenever

a macro is called or an overlayinvoked, and defaulted

when establishing the overlayenvironment in preparation

for an overlay.

Note

Values out of range are mapp ed to the supported value

with the minimum relative error. For example, a unit

selection of 4801 would be mapped to 7200, since the

relative error (0.3332) is less than the relative error when

mapped to 3600 (0.3336):

480107200

7200

=0:3332

480103600

3600

=0:3336

PCL Job Control Commands

4-19

UNIT OF MEASURE COMMAND

Figure 4-6 compares a 4-unit vertical and horizontal

cursor move with a unit of measure setting of 100 versus

200 units-per-inch. Note that the cursor move distance is

halved when the Units p er inch is doubled.

Figure 4-6. Cursor Moves at Different Unit of Measure Settings

The printer's physical

on the size of

addition, PCL Units are

control panel or PJL resolution setting.

Note

4-20 PCL Job Control Commands

UNIT OF MEASURE COMMAND

If no other unit of measure value has been specied,

then the default is one Unit equals

case, a cursor movement of 450 Units moves the cursor

1.5 inches, whether printed at 300 or 600 dpi print

resolution.

dot size

PCL Units

has

no direct b earing

used in cursor movements. In

not aected by the current

inch. In this

300

Page Control Commands

Introduction

Note

Page control commands and data are asso ciated with

each printed page of a job. These commands determine

such features as page source, size, orientation, margins,

and text spacing. This chapter describes the commands

providing page format control.

If a number of consecutive pages within a job have the

same format, the asso ciated page control commands

should be sent only once for that group of pages.

Remember, once a PCL command is set, it remains in

eect until changed by another command.

Page Control Commands

INTRODUCTION

5-1

Page Size

Command

The Page Size command designates the size of the paper

which in turn denes the size of the logical page.

&`#A

Note

PAPER:

#= 1 - Executive(7

2 - Letter (8

3 - Legal (8

x 11 in.)

x 14 in.)

x10

in.)

6 - Ledger (11 x 17 in.)

26 - A4 (210mm x 297mm)

27 - A3 (297mm x 420mm)

ENVELOPES:

# = 80 - Monarch (Letter - 3

81 - Com-10 (Business - 4

in.)

x 9

in.)

90 - International DL (110mm x 220mm)

91 - International C5 (162mm x 229mm)

100 - International B5 (176mm x 250mm)

Default

Range

= 2 (Congurable from Control Panel)

= 1, 2, 3, 6, 26, 27, 80, 81, 90, 91, 100 (Other values

ignored)

Refer to the \PCL Feature Support Matrix" in Chapter

1 of the

Manual

PCL 5 Comparison Guide

or the printer

User's

for lists of supp orted paper and/or envelope

sizes on sp ecic printers.

5-2 Page Control Commands

PAGE SIZE COMMAND

Upon receipt of this command any unprinted pages are

printed, the top margin, text length, and left and righ

margins are set to their user defaults, and any automatic

macro overlay is disabled. The cursor is moved to the

left edge of the logical page at the top margin on the

following page (see Figure 5-5 ). Also, certain HP-GL/2

state variables are reset (refer to Table 5-1, under

\Sending a Page Size Command").

The factory default Page Size is

Letter

(A4 for 220v

option printer); however, a user default Page Size maybe

selected from the control panel. The Page Size command

takes precedence over the printer's control panel FORM

setting.

If the Page Size command selection diers from that

of the installed paper tray size and the requested page

size is not currently available in another non-secure

source, then a message is displayed on the control panel

requesting installation of a paper tray of the sp ecied

size.

Note

Example

The Page Size command is not supported on the

LaserJet,LaserJet+

, or the

LaserJet 500+

printers.

To select a legal size page, send:

&`3A

If the current source paper tray is

LETTER

and the

requested page size is not currently available in another

non-secure source the following attendance message is

displayed:

xx1LOAD LEGAL

1xx=A two-letter mnemonic dep ending on the printer.

When the printer senses the existing paper supply has

been removed and replaced with the requested paper

size, the print job continues automatically.

Page Control Commands

PAGE SIZE COMMAND

5-3

Paper Source

Command

The Paper Source command designates the lo cation to

feed paper, or it prints the current page.

&`#H

# = 0 - Print the current page

(paper source remains unchanged).

1 - Feed paper from the a printer-specic tray.

2-Feed paper from manual input.

3-Feed envelope from manual input.

4-Feed paper from lower tray.

5-Feed from optional paper source.

6-Feed envelope from optional envelope. feeder

Must be used in conjunction with Page Size command, envelope

selection.

Note

Default

Range

= Printer Dep endent (Congurable from Control Panel)

= Printer Dep endent

Not all HP LaserJet printers support all possible paper

sources. The implementation of paper source locations

varies slightly from printer to printer. Refer to the \PCL

Feature Support Matrix" in Chapter 1 of the

Comparison Guide

or the printer

User's Manual

PCL 5

for

paper source feature implementation details for specic

HP LaserJet printers.

5-4 Page Control Commands

PAPER SOURCE COMMAND

The Paper Source command causes the current page to

be printed and the cursor to be moved to the left edge of

the logical page at the top margin position for the next

page (see Figure 5-5).

Example

To feed pap er from the manual feed slot, send:

&`2H

If the selection requires operator action (suchas

manually feeding paper), a printer message appears in

the display, prompting for the appropriate action (see

the printer

User's Manual

for specic behavior).

Page Control Commands

PAPER SOURCE COMMAND

5-5

Logical Page

Orientation

Command

Orientation denes the position of the logical page and

the default direction of print with resp ect to the physical

page as shown in Figure 5-1 .

&`#O

#=0-Portrait

1 - Landscape

2 - Reverse Portrait

3 - Reverse Landscape

Notes

Default

Range

= 0-3 (Other values ignored)

This command can be used only once p er page.

To printmultiple directions per page use the Print

Direction command.

This command aects the HP-GL/2 environment

(refer to Table 5-1 and the \HP-GL/2 and PCL

Orientation Interaction" section in Chapter 15 for

additional information).

The Orientation command causes the page length, top

margin, text length, left and right margins, horizontal

motion index (HMI), and vertical motion index (VMI)

to return to their user default values, and disables the

automatic macro overlay. All data received prior to this

command is printed, and a Form Feed and Carriage

Return executed. The cursor is moved to the left edge of

the logical page at the top margin cursor position (see

Figure 5-5).

The factory default orientation is p ortrait. Landscape

orientation may b e selected as the user default

orientation using the control panel.

5-6 Page Control Commands

LOGICAL PAGE ORIENTATION COMMAND

Note

The HP LaserJet 2000, LaserJet IID, LaserJet IIP and

all PCL 5 printers automatically rotate all fonts to the

current orientation.

Table 5-1 shows howchanging certain PCL features

(such as a reset, orientation, page size or page length) or

changing the HP-GL/2 picture presentation directives

(picture frame width or height, horizontal or vertical plot

size, or picture frame anchor point) aect the HP-GL/2

state variables.

Page Control Commands

LOGICAL PAGE ORIENTATION COMMAND

5-7

Table 5-1. HP-GL/2 State Variables

Control Panel Reset:

Changing Orientation

Sending a Page Size Command:

Redenition of the horizontal

and/or vertical picture frame:

Redenition of the Picture

Frame Anchor Point:

executes \IN" command

defaults picture frame

defaults picture frame anchor point

defaults HP-GL/2 plot size

Defaults picture frame anchor point.

Defaults picture frame.

Defaults HP-GL/2 plot size.

Defaults P1 and P2 (\IP;").

Defaults soft-clip window (\IW;").

Clears the p olygon buer (\PM0;PM2;").

Updates the current position to the lower-left

corner of the picture frame (P1).

Defaults P1 and P2 (\IP;").

Defaults soft-clip window (\IW;").

Clears the p olygon buer (\PM0;PM2;").

Updates the current position to the lower-left

corner of the picture frame (P1).

Defaults P1 and P2 (\IP;").

Defaults soft-clip window (\IW;").

Clears the p olygon buer (\PM0;PM2;").

Updates the current position to the lower-left

corner of the picture frame (P1).

Specications of a New

HP-GL/2 Plot Size:

5-8 Page Control Commands

LOGICAL PAGE ORIENTATION COMMAND

Changes the picture frame scaling factor.

Figure 5-1. Page Orientation With Default Print Direction

Page Control Commands

LOGICAL PAGE ORIENTATION COMMAND

5-9

The orientation of the HP-GL/2 picture is also aected

by the logical page orientation. Figure 5-2 illustrates the

eect of logical page orientation on the HP-GL/2 picture

orientation. It is possible to alter the HP-GL/2 picture

orientation within the logical page using the HP-GL/2

RO command (refer to Chapter 21, for additional

information).

Most HP-GL/2 state variables retain their previous

HP-GL/2 value upon receipt of this command (they are

not aected by PCL mode). However, certain changes

to the PCL state can aect the HP-GL/2 state (see

Table 5-1).

Figure 5-2. HP-GL/2 Picture Orientation with Respect to Logical Page Orientation

5-10 Page Control Commands

LOGICAL PAGE ORIENTATION COMMAND

Print Direction

Command

The Print Direction command rotates the logical

page coordinate system

orientation

without performing a page eject.

with respect to the current

This rotation is performed in 90increments in a

counterclockwise

direction. This allows printing in four

directions on the same page.

&a#P

#= 0 - 0rotation.

90 - 90ccw rotation.

180 - 180ccw rotation.

270 - 270ccw rotation.

Default

Range

= 0

= 0, 90, 180, 270 (Other values ignored)

Changing the print direction causes the following:

The print origin moves with the logical page rotation.

For example, rotating a default page (portrait

orientation, 0print direction) 90causes data to print

in the landscap e direction across the \portrait" page.

The margins are translated (when the print direction

changes by90,the left margin b ecomes the new top

margin, the former top margin becomes the new right

margin, etc.)

The cursor position remains at the same physical

location.

All subsequent printing (characters, area ll patterns,

raster images) is rotated to coincide with the new

print direction.

Any current raster graphics end when the print

direction changes.

Print Direction does not default HMI.

Page Control Commands

PRINT DIRECTION COMMAND

5-11

Note

The Print Direction Command does

vector graphic images. HP-GL/2 graphics can be rotated

only with the Orientation command (

HP-GL/2 \RO" command.

not

aect HP-GL/2

&`#O

) or the

5-12 Page Control Commands

PRINT DIRECTION COMMAND

Figure 5-3. Changing Print Direction on a Page

Text Area

Text printing may be restricted to a sp ecic area within

the logical page using the Left Margin, Right Margin,

Top Margin, Text Length, and Perforation Skip Mode

commands. This area is known as the text area.

The left margin denes the distance b etween the left

edge of the logical page and the left edge of the text

area. The right margin denes the distance between the

left edge of the logical page and the right edge of the

text area. The width of the text area is the distance

between the left and right margins. The top margin

denes the distance b etween the top of the logical page

and the top of the text area. The text length denes the

length of the text area which in eect denes the bottom

margin. The perforation region is the distance from the

bottom of the text area to the top of the text area (top

margin) on the next page. The text area is shown in

Figure 5-4.

In general, characters are printed when they fall within

the text area. However, characters can be printed

between the b ottom of the text area and the top of the

text area on the next page only if perforation skip is

disabled. Characters are printed outside the text area

if a cursor move escape sequence p ositions the cursor

outside the text area (but within the printable area).

Characters that fall on (or outside) a margin as a result

of printing a character string, are clipped (not printed).

Notes

Attempting to printcharacters across a margin results

in the characters b eing discarded.

The default text area and the default HP-GL/2 picture

frame are the same.

Page Control Commands

5-13

TEXT AREA

5-14 Page Control Commands

TEXT AREA

Figure 5-4. Text Area Within the Page

Left Margin

Command

The Left Margin command sets the left margin to the

left edge of the specied column.

&a#L

# = Column number

Example

Default

Range

The rst column within a line is column 0, whichis

located at the left edge of the logical page (the HMI

setting denes the distance between columns, which

thereby denes the maximum number of columns on the

logical page). If the value eld sp ecies a column greater

than the current right margin, the command is ignored.

Margins representaphysical position and once set do

not change with subsequentchanges in HMI.

If the cursor is to the left of the new left margin, the

cursor is moved to the new left margin.

To set the left margin to column 5, send:

= Column 0 (Left b ound of logical page)

= 0 - Right margin

&a5L

Page Control Commands

LEFT MARGIN COMMAND

5-15

Right Margin

Command

The Right Margin command sets the right margin to the

right edge of the specied column.

&a#M

# = Column number

Example

Default

Range

= Logical Page right bound

= Current left margin - Logical page right bound

The maximum right column is located at the right edge

of the logical page (the HMI setting denes the distance

between columns, which thereby denes the maximum

number of columns on the logical page). If the value eld

species a column which is greater than the right edge of

the logical page, the right margin is set to the right edge

of the logical page. If the value eld sp ecies a column

less than the left margin, the command is ignored.

Margins representaphysical position and once set do

not change with subsequentchanges in HMI.

If the cursor position is to the right of the new right

margin, the cursor is moved to the new right margin.

To set the right margin to column 45, send:

&a45M

5-16 Page Control Commands

RIGHT MARGIN COMMAND

Clear Horizontal

Margins Command

The Clear Horizontal Margins command resets the left

and right margins. The left margin is set to the left edge

of the logical page (column 0) and the right margin is set

to the right edge of the logical page.

Page Control Commands

CLEAR HORIZONTAL MARGINS COMMAND

5-17

Top Margin

Command

The Top Margin command designates the number of

lines between the top of the logical page and the top of

the text area.

&`#E

# = Number of lines

Default

Range

If logical page length is

inch down from top of logical page

= 0 - Length of logical page (Other values ignored)

of logical page.

inch, then the top margin is set to top

The Top Margin command is ignored if the value eld

(#) is greater than the current logical page length or if

the current VMI is 0 (VMI denes the distance b etween

lines of text).

Receipt of a Top Margin command resets the text length

according to the following equation:

The top margin represents a physical p osition and once

set does not change with subsequentchanges in VMI or

line spacing.

The vertical cursor p osition for the rst line of printis

determined by the currentvalues of the top margin and

VMI using the following equation:

5-18 Page Control Commands

TOP MARGIN COMMAND

Note

The default cursor position is not lo cated at the

intersection of the top margin and the left bound of the

logical page (refer to Figure 5-5). The cursor is actually

positioned down 75% of the VMI distance (0.752VMI)

from the top margin. This positions the cursor at the

relative base line p osition of a character cell for correct

character positioning.

Example

Note

To set the top margin to line 4, send:

&`4E

The rst line of the logical page is line 0.

Figure 5-5. Margin Cursor Positioning

Page Control Commands

TOP MARGIN COMMAND

5-19

Text Length

Command

The Text Length command designates the number of

lines (at a given VMI) within the logical page available

for printing text, the text area. This eectively denes

the bottom margin.

&`# F

# = Number of lines

Note

Default

Range

Maximum text length = INT(logical page length - top margin).

inch less than maximum text length

= Logical page length minus top margin

However, if the max text length is less than

is set to the maximum allowable.

inch, the text length

The value eld (#) sets the text length in lines

referenced from the top margin. If a value greater than

the logical page length minus the top margin is sp ecied

or if the current VMI is 0, the command is ignored.

The user default text length is invoked whenever the

orientation, page length, page size, or top margin is

changed. The user default text length is computed as

follows:

The user default VMI is selectable using the con

trol

panel; VMI is calculated from the FORM menu setting.

Example

5-20 Page Control Commands

TEXT LENGTH COMMAND

To select a text length of 60 lines, send:

&`6;F

Perforation Skip

Command

The perforation region is the distance from the bottom

of the text area of one page to the top of the text area

(top margin) of the next page. When perforation skip

is enabled, a Line Feed or Half-Line Feed, whichwould

move the cursor beyond the bottom of the text area,

causes the cursor to move to the top of the text area on

the next page. When perforation skip is disabled, a Line

Feed or Half-Line Feed allows the cursor to move to the

next line or half-line in the p erforation region, allo wing

printing to continue there.

&`#L

#= 0-Disable

1 - Enable

Note

Default

Range

= 1

= 0-1 (Other values ignored)

Whenever the perforation skip mode is changed, the top

margin and page length are returned to their default

values.

When perforation skip is disabled, some print lines can

fall outside the printable area and be lost. If lines of

data could fall into the unprintable area, perforation skip

should be enabled.

Page Control Commands

5-21

PERFORATION SKIP COMMAND

Horizontal Motion

Index (HMI)

Command

The Horizontal Motion Index (HMI) command

designates the width of the columns.

& k#H

# = Number of

inch increments.

120

Note

Default

Range

= Determined by the pitch value in the default font header.

= 0 - 32767 (valid to four decimal places)

The value eld is valid to 4 decimal places. A value of

zero (0) indicates no horizontal motion.

When xed pitch fonts are selected, all printable

characters including the Space and Backspace characters

are aected by HMI. When prop ortional fonts are

selected, the HMI aects only the Space control co de

character.

HMI is reset to match the new font when any of the font

characteristics are changed and when switching between

primary and secondary fonts with Shift In and Shift Out.

HMI is equal to the pitchvalue in the font

header. The factory default font's HMI is 12

(

120

inch per character, or 10 characters per inch).

When HMI is not sp ecically set using the HMI

command, PCL cursor moves are rounded to the nearest

full increment determined by the current unit of measure

setting. For example, if the unit of measure is set to 96

(one PCL Unit =

the nearest

(one PCL Unit =

nearest

300

inch.

inch), then the HMI is rounded to

inch. If the unit of measure is set to 300

inch), the HMI is rounded to the

300

5-22 Page Control Commands

HORIZONTAL MOTION INDEX (HMI) COMMAND

HP PCL 5 Book

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual

Contents

Introduction to HP PCL

The Page

The Print Environment

PCL Job Control Commands

Page Control Commands