HP 5961-0509 HP-GL/2 Units of Measure, Plotter Units, User-units, PlotterUnits EquivalentValue

HP-GL/2 Units of Measure

In HP-GL/2 mode, you can measure along the X,Y axes and express coordinates using two types of units: plotter units and user-units.

Plotter Units

One plotter unit equals 0.025 mm. When specifying distances in plotter units, the printer converts the number of plotter units to equivalent dot coordinates before printing. Under default conditions, the printer uses plotter units.

The following table lists equivalent measurements for plotter units.

Table 17-7

PlotterUnits	EquivalentValue
1 plu =	0.025 mm (≈ 0.00098 in.)
40 plu =	1 mm
1016 plu =	1 in.
3.39 plu =	1 dot @ 300 dpi

User-units

The size of units along the X and Y axes may be redefined using the Scale (SC) command. User-units allow you to customize the coordinate system to represent any value. For example, you could plot the moon cycle for the year by dividing the X-axis into 31 units for days of the month and the Y-axis into 12 units for months of the year. To mark a point on December 25, you would give the coordinate (25,12) rather than calculating the exact location in plotter units.

Before printing, the printer internally converts user-units to dot locations.

17-20An Introduction to HP-GL/2 Vector Graphics EN