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PCL 5 Comparison Guidefor theHP LaserJet IIIHP LaserJet IIIDHP LaserJet IIISiHP LaserJet IIIPHP LaserJet 4 FamilyHP LaserJet 4000 seriesHP Color LaserJetHP Color LaserJet 5/5MHP LaserJet 5 FamilyHP LaserJet 6 FamilyHP DeskJet 1200CHP DeskJet 1600CPrintersEdition 1E1097HP Part No. 5021-0378Printed in U.S.A. 10/97

All Rights Reserved. This document contains proprietaryinformation which is protected by copyright. No part of thisdocument may be photocopied, reproduced, or translated toanother language without the prior written consent ofHewlett-Packard Company.WarrantyThe information contained in this document is subject tochange without notice.Hewlett-Packard makes no warranty of any kind withregard to this material, including, but not limited to, theimplied warranties of merchantability and fitness for aparticular purpose.Hewlett-Packard shall not be liable for errors containedherein or for incidental consequential damages inconnection with the furnishing, performance, or use of thismaterial. Copyright 1997 Hewlett-Packard Companyii

PrintingInformationThis manual was created using text formatting software ona personal computer. The camera-ready copy was printeddirect to film and reproduced using standard offset printing.Trademark CreditsIntellifont is a U.S. registered trademark of Agfa Division,Miles Incorporated. CG Times is a product of AgfaCorporation, AGFA Compugraphic Division. LaserJet, PCL,DeskJet, Vectra, and Resolution Enhancement are U.S.registered trademarks of Hewlett-Packard Company. IBMis a registered trademark of International BusinessMachines Corporation. Wingdings, MS-Mincho, andMS-Gothic are trademarks, and Microsoft, Windows, andMS-DOS are U.S. registered trademarks of MicrosoftCorporation. Centronics is a U.S. registered trademark ofCentronics Corporation. ITC Zapf Dingbats is a U.S.registered trademark of International Typeface Corporation. Helvetica and Times Roman are trademarks ofLinotype AG and its subsidiaries.Univers is a U.S. registered trademark of Linotype AG andits subsidiaries. PostScript and the PostScript logo areregistered trademarks of Adobe Systems, Inc. in the U.S.and other countries. Arial, Times New Roman andMonotype are U.S. registered trademarks of MonotypeCorporation plc. Macintosh is a registered trademark andTrueType is a trademark of Apple Computer, Inc. ESC/P isa trademark of Seiko-Epson Corporation.iii

ConventionsThis manual uses the following conventions:Bold indicates a term defined in the glossary.Italic refers to a related document, or is used foremphasis.The cursive letter l is used in some examples todistinguish the letter “l” from the numeral “1” (one).A slash zero 0 is used in some examples and escapesequences to distinguish the letter “O” from the number“0”.0x XX represents a hexadecimal number (XX).The character indicates that the current line of code isa continuation of the previous line.NoteivNotes contain important information set off from the text.

Contents1 Printer FeaturesPCL Feature Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-3PCL 5 Technical Reference Manual Corrections . . . . . . . 1-5PCL Feature Support Matrix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-6Printable Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-262 Printer-Specific DifferencesHP LaserJet III and IIID Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1HP LaserJet IIISi Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2HP LaserJet IIIP Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2Raster Graphics Adaptive Compression (IIIP) . . . . . . . 2-4HP LaserJet 4 Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-4Configuration Command (AppleTalk) . . . . . . . . . . . 2-7HP LaserJet 4Si Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-10HP LaserJet 4L Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-11HP LaserJet 4ML Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-12Logical Operations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-13Logical Operations and Transparency Interactions . . . . 2-15Logical Operation Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-17Pixel Placement Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-25Pixel Placement Command (HP-GL/2) . . . . . . . . . . . 2-28Merge Control Command (HP-GL/2) . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-29HP LaserJet 4P and 4MP Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-31HP LaserJet 4PJ Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-32Text Parsing Method Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-33Character Text Path Direction Command . . . . . . . . . 2-34Font Header Format 16 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-35

New Font Format Header Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-36Description of Font Header Segments . . . . . . . . . . . 2-37HP LaserJet 4PJ Programming Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-49Paper Size . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-60HP LaserJet 4 Plus and 4M Plus Printers . . . . . . . . . . 2-60HP LaserJet 4V and 4MV Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-62Font Header Format 16 Bitmap Font Support . . . . . . . . 2-63Font Header Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-63Character Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-68Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-69HP Color LaserJet Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-70AppleTalk Configuration Command . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-71HP LaserJet 4LJ Pro Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-72HP LaserJet 4LC Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-72HP LaserJet 5P and 5MP Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-73HP LaserJet 5L Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-74HP LaserJet 5Si and 5SiMx Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-75Paper (Media) Source Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-76Output Bin Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-78Alphanumeric ID Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-79HP DeskJet 1200C Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-85Updated Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-86Enter HP-GL/2 Mode Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-87Media Type Command. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-88Print Quality Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-89Negative Motion Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-90HP DeskJet 1600C Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-91HP LaserJet 5 and 5M Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-97Text Parsing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-97Two-Byte HP-GL/2 Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-98Label Mode Command . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-98Contents-2

Vertical Writing with Proportional Fonts . . . . . . . . . 2-101HP Color LaserJet 5 and 5M Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-103HP LaserJet 6P/ 6MP Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-105HP LaserJet 5Si Mopier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-105HP LaserJet 6L Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-106HP LaserJet 4000 series Printers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-1063 Internal Typefaces/Fonts and Symbol SetsBitmap Fonts and Symbol Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-2Scalable Typefaces and Symbol Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-3Typeface Selection Differences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-124 Print Environment5 Memory UsageOperation of ADC and MEt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-2Image Adapt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-2Additional MEt Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-3ADC and MEt Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-4Recommendations For Sending Data to the Printer . . . . 5-4Raster Graphics Adaptive Compression (Method 5) . . . . . 5-7A Printer CommandsB Internal Symbol Set ChartsISO Substitution Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-21Conversion Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . B-22C Symbol Set and Typeface CodesD MSL/Unicode Symbol IndexesIndexContents-3

Contents-4

1Printer FeaturesIntroductionHewlett-Packard printers which support the PCL 5 printerlanguage contain slightly different feature sets, eachsuitable for that printer’s intended use. Each printerimplements minor variations of PCL 5 as a result of thosedifferences. With new printer releases, new features may beadded with new commands and/or PCL operations whichrequire documentation.The purpose of this guide is to identify the differences inthe implementation of the PCL 5 Printer Language fordifferent HP LaserJet and DeskJet printers, as compared tothat described in the PCL 5 Printer Language TechnicalReference Manual. This guide describes new commands andexceptions to existing commands unique to the printers, aswell as internal typeface/font support and printenvironment settings.Feature Set 1-1

This guide covers the following HP LaserJet printers:Introduction DateLaserJet IIILaserJet IIIDLaserJet IIISiLaserJet IIIPLaserJet 4, 4MLaserJet 4Si, 4SiMxLaserJet 4L, 4MLLaserJet 4P, 4MPLaserJet 4 Plus, 4M PlusLaserJet 4PJLaserJet 4V, 4MVDeskJet 1200CDeskJet 1200/PSColor LaserJetLaserJet 4LCDeskJet 1600CLaserJet 4LJ ProLaserJet 5P, 5MPLaserJet 5LLaserJet 5Si, 5SiMxColor LaserJet 5, 5MLaserJet 5, 5MLaserJet 5Si MopierLaserJet 6P, 6MPLaserJet 6LLaserJet 4000 seriesMarch 1990September 1990February 1991May 1991October 1992April 1993May 1993September 1993May 1994May 1994September 1994May 1993May 1993September 1994March 1995March 1995May 1995May 1995September 1995November 1995March 1996April 1996October 1996October 1996September 1997November 1997This guide also covers the HP 1200C and 1600C DeskJetprinters.1-2 Feature Set

PCL FeatureSupportTable 1-1, the PCL Feature Support Matrix, lists all theprinter commands from the PCL 5 Printer LanguageTechnical Reference Manual and identifies which of thesecommands are supported by the various printers. Moredetailed PCL information for each PCL 5 printer isprovided in Chapter 2.NoteThe PCL 5 Printer Language Technical Reference Manual(part number 5961-0509) was revised for the release of theHP LaserJet 4 printer and contains all PCL languagefeatures up to the HP LaserJet 4 printer.With the introduction of the HP LaserJet 4 printer,Hewlett-Packard enhanced the PCL 5 printer language toprovide some new features. The major improvements to thePCL 5 printer language are listed below.600 dpi support for higher quality printing45 scalable typefaces for greater type varietyTrueType rasterizer (in addition to the Intellifontrasterizer) for fast Windows printing, and for matchingWindows and printer type (easy WYSIWYG)New graphics commands for faster and better curves andshading qualityBi-directional I/O for easier use and sharing by providingprinter status to computer applicationsAutomatic and faster printer language switchingAutomatic I/O switching for faster I/O ratesImproved memory management so most pages print instandard memoryImproved PCL and HP-GL/2 performance for fastergraphics and text printingFeature Set 1-3

NotesIn Table 1-1, if the command value field parameters arenot listed, then all parameters are supported by printersthat support that command.The value in parentheses following a commandparameter identifies the parameter value field value (forexample, the parameter “Letter (2)” indicates that thevalue field to select letter size in the Page Size commandis “2” ).Commands which are not supported (“ns”) by a printerare ignored.1-4 Feature Set