HP L5 manual Vertical Writing

Note HP-GL/2 as implemented in HP LaserJet printers has no mechanism for parsing 2-byte characters. Therefore, HP-GL/2 character transformations (e.g. SI and SR commands) cannot be applied to these characters.

Vertical Writing

Vertical writing can be accomplished using the vertical rotated (“-1”) mode of the Character Text Path command (?&c-1T). When using a vertical rotated text path direction, full-width characters are rotated and printed “on their sides.” All other characters are unaffected and the CAP is still advanced in the horizontal direction. The “-1” mode has the effect of transforming a portrait page with horizontal full-width characters into a landscape page with vertical full-width characters. This can be combined with the Print Direction command (?&a#P) to achieve the desired text orientation (e.g. portrait, landscape, reverse portrait, or reverse landscape).

An example of horizontal and vertical rotated writing is shown below. The first line of text is horizontal writing and the second line is vertical rotated writing. Note that the “~” character is replaced with a vertical substitute on the second line. The C program that follows was used to generate the PCL commands for this example.

Printer-Specific Differences 2-53