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7 PCL Output

While the default output is Postscript (possibly EPS), and Postscript can be post-processed to almost anything, it is sometimes desirable to create output directly usable by the specific printer at hand. PCL is currently supported as an output format for this reason. Please note that the Y coordinate for PCL goes from top to bottom, while for Postscript it goes from bottom to top. Consistently, while in Postscript you specify the bottom-left corner as origin, for PCL you specify the top-left corner.

Barcode output for PCL Printers (HP LaserJet and compatibles), was developed using PCL5 Reference manuals from HP. that really refers to these printers:

However, barcode printing uses a very small subset of PCL, probably also LaserJet II should print it without problem, but the resulting text may be horrible.

The only real difference from one printer to another really depends on which font are available in the printer, used in printing the label associated to the bars (if requested).

Earlier LaserJet supports only bitmaps fonts, so these are not "scalable". (Ljet II ?), Also these fonts, when available, have a specified direction, and not all of them are available in both Portrait and Landscape mode.

From LaserJet 4 series, (except 4L/5L that are entry-level printers), Arial scalable font should be available, so it’s the "default font" used by this program.

LaserJet III series printers (and 4L, 5L), don’t feature "Arial" as a resident font, so you should use BARCODE_OUT_PCL_III instead of BARCODE_OUT_PCL., and font the font used will be "Univers" instead of "Arial".

Results on compatible printers, may depend on consistency of PCL5 compatibility, in doubt, try BARCODE_OUT_PCL_III

PJL commands are not used here, as it’s not very compatible.

Tested Printers:


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