Hewlett-Packard Vancouver Site
 Printing History
Preface and Printing History
 Which printers are covered by this guide1
About this Developer’s Guide
 Special Note HP DeskJet 710C, 720C and 820C Series printers
Special Notes
 Table of Contents
 HP PCL Commands
 Fonts
 HP LaserJet Bitmap Character Definition
 Printer Commands
 Length is set, in number
Setting
How This Developer’s Guide Works
Length set to 66 lines
 Command Option Recognition Grid G
Command Summary D
Command Usage Table E
Command Options F
 Important Point
Detailed Command Description
 History of HP PCL Printer Language
What are Printer Commands?
HP PCL Commands
Introduction to HP PCL
 Two-Character Escape Sequences
Syntax of Escape Sequences
Parameterized Escape Sequences
 Esc & l 1 O
 Esc
 Logical Page, Physical
Text Area
 Current Active Position CAP
Layout
 CAP Reference Point
CAP Position
 Print Environment
 Merged Text and Graphics
 Leverage from Previous Programs
Follow Specifications
Priority of Feature Set Commands
Programming Hints
 Time Savers
Priority of Commands
 Programming Hints
 Print Modes
HP PCL Commands
Testing Commands
Control Codes and Special Character Codes
 Display Functions turned off
Display Functions Mode on
Display Functions Mode OFF
Display Functions turned on
 Text Enhancements
 CR = CR, LF LF = CR, LF FF
CR = CR LF = LF FF = FF
CR = CR, LF LF = LF FF = FF
CR = CR LF = CR, LF FF =
 Disables End-of-Line Wrap
Enables End-of-Line Wrap
End-of-Line Wrap
 Job Control
Reset Esc E
 Printer Control
Gray Balance Default Modes
Gray Balance
 Dry Timer Defaults
Dry Timer
 Best quality selected
EconoFast mode selected
Print Quality
Normal quality selected
 Inkjet Paper
Plain paper
Bond paper
Special paper HP Premium
 HP PCL Commands
 Self-Test Esc z
Printer Diagnostics
 Length Line Values
Control
 Tables
Size
Size set to that indicated
By value index in the following
 Value Description
 Load from tray
Load z-fold media banners
Print current page source is
Unchanged
 Reverse Portrait
Orientation
Portrait
Landscape
 Number of 1/120 inch
Horizontal Motion Index
Increments
 Out of range values
Vertical Motion Index
Number of 1/48 inch increments
Between rows
 Clear Horizontal Margins
Line Spacing
Sets the number of lines printed
Per inch
 Right Margin
Left Margin
Sets the left margin to the left
Edge of the specified column
 Number of lines at the current
Lines-per-inch setting
Top Margin
Top margin is set to specified
 Lines, from the top margin
Disables perforation skip mode
Enables perforation skip mode
Sets length of the text area,
 HP PCL Commands
 Space
Horizontal Positioning Commands
Backspace
Carriage Return
 Horizontal Tab
Formfeed
 Inch
Move CAP Horizontal Decipoints
Moves CAP horizontally by
Specified number of decipoints
 Units
Specified number of columns
Limit
Specified number of HP PCL
 HP PCL Commands
 Column position on a new line
Vertical Positioning Commands
Move CAP Vertical Rows
Moves CAP to the same
 Moves CAP to a new position
Move CAP Vertical Decipoints
Along the vertical axis
 Axis
Move CAP Vertical HP PCL Units
Moves CAP specified number
HP PCL units along the Y
 Font Selection
Font Symbol Set
Font Selection by Attribute
 Symbol Set Name
 TIS TAPCI23
 Current font is set
Fixed spacing
Proportional spacing
Inter character spacing for
 Height for current font is set
Font Height
 Font Style
Specified characteristics are
Applied to font style request
 Matching Algorithm
 Thin
Book or text weight
Ultra thin
Extra thin
 Font with indicated ID is
Font Selection by ID
Selected
 Downloading Fonts
Font ID Esc * c # D
 Download Font
Download Font Esc s # W font definition
 Download Character
Character Code
 Temp, permanent, and soft
Delete all fonts temp
Permanent, and soft
Delete all temporary fonts
 Raster Graphics
Raster Mode
Commands Locked Out of Raster Mode
Commands Allowed in Raster Mode
 Left boundary current vertical
Printer returns to text mode
Command processing
Start graphics at logical
 Graphics data printed at 300 dpi
Graphics data printed at 75 dpi
Graphics data printed at 100 dpi
Graphics data printed at 150 dpi
 Specified number of pixels at
Current resolutiona
Source Raster Width
Raster region width is set to
 Movement
Offset
Cursor is moved specified
Number of raster lines of vertical
 Data is set to the printer.
Raster Data Transfer
Specified number of bytes
Graphics data for a single plane
 Data
Transfer Raster by Row/Block
Following specified number
Data bytes sent to the printer as
 Raster Compression
 Has precedence if it is met before the literal run count
Method 2 Tagged Image File Format Encoding Tiff revision
 Method 3 Delta Row Encoding
Replacement count 1 Left offset from the current byte O
 Delta ROW Example
 Row 3 Esc * b 5 W 000000000000111100100010101010101010
Method 9 Compressed Replacement Delta Row Encoding
Row 1 Esc * b 3 m 2 W 00000001
Row 2 Esc * b 2 W
 Control Bit =
Control Bit
 HP PCL Commands
 Planes, device RGB palette
Color
Single plane K palette
Planes, device CMY palette
 White no ink Black
 Black/Yellow Black/Magenta
 Specified by the given index
Foreground Color
Current palette
 Planes per Row Index Color
 Planes per Row Index Color Printed
 Standard Bitmap Font Definition
Fonts
Format
 Resolution-Specified Bitmap Font Definition
 Font Descriptor Size Uint
Symbol Set Type Ubyte
Descriptor Format Ubyte
 Style MSB Uint
Font Type Ubyte
 Orientation Ubyte
Baseline Position Uint
Cell Width Uint
Cell Height Uint
 Pitch Uint
Symbol Set Uint
Spacing Bool
Character Set UINT16
 Width Type Sbyte
Stroke Weight Sbyte
Height Uint
XHeight Uint
 Typeface Family Value
Typeface LSB/MSB Ubyte
 Quality
Serif Style Ubyte
 Text Height Uint
Placement
Underline Position Sbyte
Underline Thickness Ubyte
 Height Extended Ubyte
First Code Uint
Last Code/Number of Chars Uint
Pitch Extended Ubyte
 Font Name ASC16
Resolution Uint
Cap Height Uint
Font Number Uint
 102
Copyright
Font Scaling Technology
Segment Size
 Resolution UINT16
Bitmap Resolution Segment
103
 104
Stroke Weight UINT32
Character Enhancement Segment
Style UINT32
 105
Sizing UINT16
 106
Dual-Pitch-Space Char Segment
Full-Width-Space Character Code UINT16
Half-Width-Space Character Code
 Format Ubyte
HP LaserJet Bitmap Character Definition
107
 108
Continuation Bool
Descriptor Size Ubyte
Class Ubyte
 109
 Class 2 Compressed Bitmap Character Data 110
 Character Height Uint
Left Offset Sint
Top Offset Sint
Character Width Uint
 Character Data
Delta X Sint
112
 Esc & l # H
Banner Printing
113
 Unloading Continuous Media
Command Sequence
Margins
Moving to a New Logical
 Printing Cutsheet with Z-Fold Media
Power-On with Continuous Media
Power-Off with Continuous Media
Sample HP PCL for a Banner Print Job
 Formatting Program Example
HP PCL Code Samples
116
 117
 118
Commands Sent to Printer
 119
14.3 3-Plane Color Graphics
 120
14.4 4-Plane Color Graphics
 121
 122
Printer Commands
 123
 124
Other Resources for Assistance
HP Developer Exchange
Comments & Feedback