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 of the HP PCL 5 
Printer Language Technical Reference Manual (p/n 33459-90903). If you have 
ordered another PCL Technical Reference document, this manual and the PCL 
5 Comparison Guide are the updated replacement documents. 
						

							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, and Ve c t r a are U.S. registered trademarks of 
Hewlett-Packard Company. Resolution Enhancement is a trademark 
of Hewlett-Packard Company. IBM is a registered trademark of 
International Business Machines Corporation. Microsoft, Windows, 
and MS-DOS are U.S. registered trademarks of Microsoft 
Corporation. TrueType and Macintosh are registered trademarks of 
Apple Computer, Inc. Post Scr ip t is a registered trademark of Adobe 
Systems, Inc. Centronics is a U.S. registered trademark of Centronics 
Corporation. ITC Avant Garde Gothic, ITC Benguiat, ITC Bookman, 
ITC Cheltenham, ITC Galliard, ITC Korinna, ITC Lubalin Graph, ITC 
Souvenir, ITC Zapf Chancery and ITC Zapf Dingbats are U.S. 
registered trademarks of International Typeface Corporation. ITC 
Tiffany is a trademark of International Typeface Corporation. Futura is 
a U.S. registered trademark of Fundicion Tipografica Neufville, S.A. 
Serifa is a trademark of Fundicion Tipografica Neufville, S.A. Letraset 
is a registered trademark of Esselte Pendaflex Corporation. Revue 
and University Roman are trademarks of Esselte Pendaflex 
Corporation. Helvetica and Times Roman are trademarks of Linotype 
AG and its subsidiaries. Univers is a U.S. registered trademark of 
Linotype AG and its subsidiaries. Antique Olive is a trademark of 
Monsieur Marcel OLIVE. Arial and Gill Sans are registered 
trademarks of The Monotype Corporation plc. 
						

							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 printers there 
are new features added which supplement the existing PCL base set. 
Features of future printer releases are not covered in this document. 
The new features are described in the latest version of the 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 document.
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 differences in implementation of the PCL 5 
printer language for the various HP LaserJet printers, as described in 
the PCL 5 Comparison Guide.
Non-technical Users 
Many software applications (word processing software, spreadsheets, 
etc.) allow you to embed printer commands as escape sequences in 
the body of your documents. This manual presents the full syntax and 
explanation of all the commands supported by PCL 5 LaserJet 
printers. These commands enable you to take advantage of the 
LaserJet printer’s advanced feature set. 
						

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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 Appendix A for more information. 
Chapter Summaries 
A brief description of each chapter is provided below.
Chapter 1 - Introduction to HP PCL
This chapter gives a brief history of the development of the PCL 
language, describes the PCL language levels (architecture), and 
describes the PCL command structure (control codes and escape 
sequences).
Chapter 2 -  The Page
This chapter introduces the idea of the logical page and identifies the 
area in which printing can occur. It also describes the PCL coordinate 
system and the HP-GL/2 picture frame.
Chapter 3 - The Print Environment 
This chapter introduces the printer’s feature settings, collectively, as 
the print environment. It includes descriptions of the factory default 
environment, user default environment, and the modified print 
environment. The effect of printer reset functions is also described.
Chapter 4 - PCL Job Control Commands 
This chapter describes the commands which provide job control. 
Job control commands are usually grouped together and sent at the 
beginning of a job. Job control includes restoration of the User Default 
Environment, selection of the number of copies of each page to be 
printed, duplex print commands, and unit of measure specification. 
						

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Chapter 5 - Page Control Commands 
This chapter describes the commands providing page format control. 
Page format control allows you to select the page source, size, 
orientation, margins, and text spacing.
Chapter 6 - Cursor Positioning 
This chapter describes how to position the cursor within the logical 
page.
Chapter 7 - Fonts
This chapter describes basic font information including font 
characteristics.
Chapter 8 - PCL Font Selection 
This chapter describes how to select a font for printing using the font 
characteristics commands. The underline feature is described at the 
end of the chapter.
Chapter 9 - Font Management 
This chapter describes font management which provides 
mechanisms for downloading and manipulating soft fonts.
Chapter 10 - User-Defined Symbol Sets
This chapter describes the capability of some PCL 5 printers to 
enable users to define their own symbol sets for special needs.
Chapter 11 - Soft Font Creation 
This chapter describes how to organize font/character data for 
downloading to the printer. 
Chapter 12 - Macros 
This chapter describes macro commands which store a block of PCL 
commands and data which can be used repeatedly without redefining 
the block. The macro function reduces the number of commands that 
must be sent to the printer.  
						

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Chapter 13 - The PCL Print Model 
This chapter describes the PCL print model which allows for special 
effects when printing. 
Chapter 14 - PCL Rectangular Area Fill Graphics 
This chapter describes how to define and fill a rectangular area with 
one of the predefined PCL patterns, or with a user-defined pattern. 
Chapter 15 - Raster Graphics 
This chapter describes how to download raster graphics to the printer, 
and includes various techniques for reducing the amount of data 
needed to define the raster image.
Chapter 16 - Status Readback 
This chapter describes the PCL status readback features. Status 
readback enables you to obtain PCL status information from the 
printer, such as: available printer (user) memory, a list of fonts and 
symbol sets, and the ID numbers of macros and user-defined 
patterns.
Chapter 17 - An Introduction to HP-GL/2 Vector 
Graphics 
This chapter introduces basic information for HP-GL/2. It lists the 
vector graphics commands, and describes the HP-GL/2 command 
syntax. An overview of several important topics is also provided, such 
as the PCL Picture Frame concept, scaling, pen status and location, 
and absolute vs. relative pen movement. 
Chapter 18 - The Picture Frame 
This chapter describes how to set up an area on the page for printing 
vector graphics (the PCL Picture Frame). It discuses the commands 
necessary to define and position the picture frame, along with the 
commands used to enter and exit HP-GL/2 mode.