are PCL specific questions on topic here?

[Mai K. Reiss]

Hello,

I have some questions on how PCL printers - attached by serial line -
reporting error states like "paper empty", "printer is not ready" and
so on:
Q: Is this error reporting done by some hardware RS-232C signals like
DSR/DCD or by sending some type of NAK packet?

Q: Is every printout onto a PCL driven printer 100% graphic? Let me
explain my question a little bit more:
I assume, if I have a document which contains 3 parts:
graphic
plain TT text with a font the printer already knows
plain TT text with a font the printer doesn't know
the PCL communication would only send the 2nd part as plain text plus
some control sequences (for font selection), but the 1st and 3rd are
transmitted as pixel data, right?
Or, is *every* printout first rendered into a raster image and then
transported to the printer (resulting in "Windows only using bitmap
graphic mode of any printer"?).

What, if I use a "generic MicroSoft PCL printer"? MS cannot know about
the fonts installed in the PCL printer, so will this driver send only
bitmaps, no times ascii data? Or is there some type of "here comes the
font" - download into the printer?

Same question about WindowsCE / PPC2003, "generic MicroSoft PCL
printer" again. (Since the driver needs a very long time to prepare a
simple page, I guess, he first renders a full page af bitmap and the
sends this "image" as an picture to the printer, right?

or, ist the question off topic here? So I like you to direct me to the
right place, please ;-)

Mai K. R.

 

[Christoph Lindemann]

You might get better help in "comp.periphs.printers" for PCL related
questions.

But let me answer some questions here.

I have some questions on how PCL printers - attached by serial line -
reporting error states like "paper empty", "printer is not ready" and
so on:
Q: Is this error reporting done by some hardware RS-232C signals like
DSR/DCD or by sending some type of NAK packet?

Q: Is every printout onto a PCL driven printer 100% graphic?
No

Let me
explain my question a little bit more:
I assume, if I have a document which contains 3 parts:
graphic
plain TT text with a font the printer already knows
plain TT text with a font the printer doesn't know
the PCL communication would only send the 2nd part as plain text plus
some control sequences (for font selection), but the 1st and 3rd are
transmitted as pixel data, right?
Or, is *every* printout first rendered into a raster image and then
transported to the printer (resulting in "Windows only using bitmap
graphic mode of any printer"?).

Text is normaly send as text, and the unknown font data is downloaded to the
printer prior to sending the text.
The text can be encoded as single and double byte characters, and the
charset can be depending on the selected font.

Graphics depend on the format, vector graphics can be encoded for the
printer in HP-GL/2

For more information on PCL please see the PCL Technical Reference Manual.

 

[Mai K. Reiss]

Hi Christoph Lindemann,

Text is normaly send as text, and the unknown font data is downloaded to the
printer prior to sending the text.
...
Graphics depend on the format, vector graphics can be encoded for the
printer in HP-GL/2

Thanks a lot, this has been a great help!


I think, it's now on me to read the PCL ref man.

Mai K. R.