Re: are PCL specific questions on topic here?

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.

--
Christoph Lindemann
Undocumented Printing
http://undocprint.printassociates.com/


.

Relevant Pages

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