HP Pcl 5 Manual

Part I
Click here to access Part II 
on hp.com. 

HP Part No. 5961-0509
Printed in USA
First Edition - October 1992
PCL 5 Printer LanguageTechnical 
Reference Manual 

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

EN iii
Printing History 
This manual was created using HP Tag/Vectra software on an 
HP Vectra Personal Computer. The body text is printed in Helvetica 
fonts. The camera-ready copy was printed on an HP LaserJet IIISi 
printer with Resolution Enhancement technology (REt) and was then 
reproduced using standard offset printing.
First Edition – October 1992
NOTICE
This document is the current edition of the technical reference manual for PCL 
5 and earlier printers. It replaces the September 1990 edition...

iv    EN
Trademark Credits
Intellifont and Garth Graphic are U.S. registered trademarks of Agfa 
Division, Miles Inc. CG Triumvirate and Shannon are trademarks of 
Agfa Division, Miles Inc. CG Bodoni, CG Century Schoolbook, CG 
Goudy Old Style, CG Melliza, Microstyle, CG Omega, CG Palacio, 
CG Times and CG Trump Mediaeval are products of Agfa Division, 
Miles Inc. CG Times, a product of Agfa Division, Miles Inc., is based 
on Times New Roman, a U.S. registered trademark of Monotype 
Corporation plc. PCL,...

EN v
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...

vi    EN
NoteSince actual implementation of printer commands within software 
applications varies from package to package, specific 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 current versions of software 
application notes can be obtained through the HP Forum on 
CompuServe, by fax using the HP FIRST fax service, or through 
HP’s literature distribution. Refer to...

EN vii
Chapter 5 - Page Control Commands 
This chapter describes the commands providing page format control. 
Page format control allows you to select the page source, size, 
orientation, margins, and text spacing.
Chapter 6 - Cursor Positioning 
This chapter describes how to position the cursor within the logical 
page.
Chapter 7 - Fonts
This chapter describes basic font information including font 
characteristics.
Chapter 8 - PCL Font Selection 
This chapter describes how to select a font for printing...

viii    EN
Chapter 13 - The PCL Print Model 
This chapter describes the PCL print model which allows for special 
effects when printing. 
Chapter 14 - PCL Rectangular Area Fill Graphics 
This chapter describes how to define and fill a rectangular area with 
one of the predefined PCL patterns, or with a user-defined pattern. 
Chapter 15 - Raster Graphics 
This chapter describes how to download raster graphics to the printer, 
and includes various techniques for reducing the amount of data 
needed to...