PCL Typeface List with Escape Sequences

Contents:

• PCL Typeface list
• Questions and Answers (FAQ)

PCL Font header formats: Thanks to Chris Hutchinson of pclparaphernalia.eu

• 0 = bitmap; deprecated since LaserJet 4.
• 20 = resolution-specified bitmap; as format 0, but with addition of X/Y resolution specifiers.
• 10 = Intellifont Bound Scalable; now little used (very little documentation on format).
• 11 = Intellifont Unbound Scalable; now little used (very little documentation on format).
• 15 = TrueType Scalable; also known as PCL Encapsulated TrueType Outline (PCLETTO).
• 16 = Universal; as format 15, but with 4-byte size fields (instead of 2-byte) to allow for ‘large’ fonts.

PCL XL only uses one font format (=0), although that is split into two “scaling technology” values:

• 254 = Bitmap; similar to PCL format 20, but with different encapsulation.
• 0 = TrueType; similar to PCL format 16, but with different encapsulation.

PCL Typeface list with escape sequences on the HP LaserJet 4L printer.

___ Symbol Set

*** Pitch: .10 - 576

- - - Point size: .25 - 999.75

Questions:

• hnguyen at lacsd.org asks: " Hi everyone, my question is how to change Fonts by using PCL command. TIA HN"

  Print a PCL Typeface list from the printer, or read the users guide, or order the PCL Technical Reference Manual from HP. See above.

  How can I get a PCL typeface list from a printer with no front panel?
  
  Send this PJL command:
  EC%-12345X@PJL SET TESTPAGE=PCLTYPELIST
  

• Tim Hunnybun of AIM Professional Systems Ltd asks:

  I am producing a court form and cannot get the laserjet to print a '£' symbol on the form. All other symbols work but the £ just appears as a blank. Can you help ? cheers Tim

  You need a printer font with that symbol. If you want to create your own, take a look at Softy

• vishu67 at hotmail.com asks:

  I have a Kyocera-3750 printer and i am using a DOS based software to print labels, my operating system is windows 98,i need to be able to print japanese character along with some english characters, can anyone help me please. thank u vishy

  This will be difficult or impossible. You would need: Access to the source code of the DOS program or the ability to define escape commands in the text the program prints, and you will need a Japanese character font for the printer.

• marionp at adelphia.net asks:

  I'm just getting into using PCL within old dBase programs. I am having difficulty arranging columns on a printed page with scalable fonts. Is there a command to tell the printer to start printing at a particular col. Sorry to bother you and thanks for a reply.

  James Newton replies: <esc>*p#Y where <esc> is the escape character and # is the number of pixels (usually 300 per inch) from the left edge of the printable area.

  Be sure to use NON-proportional scaleable fonts (Courier, Lucinda or like that).+

  +

• gnazer at allware.cl asks:

  Hi, i'm trying to print a text in a Xerox Printer using PCL5 code, but some text have a very especific way to be, with some specific height and specific weight. i need a way to expand and compress the text just like a picture. for example, if i write the word "HELLO" i need to set the size of the letter and the height and width mannually (height=20 and width=10) and the text will be higher than larger. I don't need to reduce the spacing between every letter of the text.
  
  Thanks for the answer, and i hope you understand me, sorry for my poor english
  
  Gonzalo

  James Newton replies: The problem is that fonts are not specified by height AND width. The fonts that come in the printer have a fixed ratio of height to width and selecting a height will cause each letter to be at that width. The only options are to A) define your own font B) change the character spacing (and therefore the spacing between the letters).+

  +

• ahundley at fujigreenwood.com asks:

  Hi. I have used the barcode escape sequence esc & "0Y" & esc & "(s32V" & esc & "(s0B. With the data I want to barcode afterwards. But it is just printing my data in text. Do I need to create a special font for this? Thanks

  James Newton replies: That depends on the printer you are using. With an actual HP unit, you have to create or purchase a barcode font. I have seen printers that have the barcode fonts built in, but they usually have their own special code for makeing use of them.

  In general, when you send the escape sequence to select a font, the printer will try to find the closest matching font in its memory. In other words, just because the command to select a font is available, that doesn't mean the font is.

  On most HP printers you can get a list of the fonts available in the printer along with the escape sequence for printing them by selecting "PRINT PCL TYPEFACE LIST" or "PRINT PCL FONTS" etc... from the TEST or INFORMATION menu on the printer front panel.+

  +

• ray5_83 at yahoo.com asks:

  Referring to your answer for mliao@nytami.com's question, you mentioned that certain fonts do not have bold version. Can you tell me if Courier font has a bold version, and if possible, can you list down all the font that do not have bold version?
  
  thanks in advance

  James Newton replies: The fonts and variations that are present change with each printer. Use the printer front panel to print a PCL Typeface list and it will show what is available and what command to select it. Other than that, most printers today are back compatible with the LaserJet 4 so a font list from one of those would be helpfull... If anyone has one, and time to type it in, it would be appreciated.+

  +

• raul_leslie at hotmail.com asks:

• I've downloaded a font named 'Lady Copra Narrow' but when I send a page with that font to the HP LaserJet 4050N via lpr from the command window in (win2k), the printed page has the words with a spacing that is too big, about 2 characters from word to word.
  
  I've seen (all) the pcl5 commands and other sources, trying to find some command to control word spacing, but it seems not to exist.
  
  Please could you help me with this issue.
  
  I need to use the same font but with a smaller word spacing.
  
  thanks in advance.
  
  Regards.
  
  Raul C. Leslie.

  James Newton replies: The problem is most likely in the definition of the space character in the font itself. If it is a proportional font, each character can have a different width, includeing a space.+

• gnazer at allware.cl asks:

  Hello, i need to print with pcl a code 128 barcode, but i have a lot of troubles with some features of the code 128 fonts, I need a code 128 font with some special features, specifically i need a font with 5cm (5 centimeters) or 2" or 3" (2 or 3 inches) of height (at least), because i have to print a label with a very big code bar. Do you know how to do that??. Exist maybe a font(s) in the range between 0.25 inches and 2 inches (0.5 inches <CODE 128 font < 2or3 inches) of height??. I tried a lot of demo fonts but all are very small for my needs. Exists an scalable soft font for pcl printers?? (maybe one file with all this features, like true types fonts, for a Xerox printer??, and no separated files with font with different sizes??). If you know a font with the features that i need, how much does it cost, or where can i find it?, If you don't know something like that, somebody know which is the price to make one for me?? I hope you could understand my English Thanks for your time and answers Gonzalo Nazer Montalva Allware Ltda. http://www.allware.cl (+562)4340726 (+569)7899969

  James Newton replies: Barcode fonts can not be scaled because they must maintain the same spaceing left to right no matter what height they are printed at. Standard fonts will become wider when they are scaled to be taller and this would make the barcode unreadable. The trick is this: Print the same bar code again, and again, one on top of the next, to build it up to the height you need. For example, if the font you have is 1/4 inch high, and you need a 1" high barcode, print the same value in the barcode font 4 times, with each printing one line lower than that last.+

• ishuster at cover-all.com asks:

  Within the PCL file, I'd like to insert some tags indicating that whatever is in between these tags should not get printed. In other words, I want to be able to insert certain information in the PCL file, which would not get printed when the file is sent to the printer. I've been looking for that information, but I cannot find anything. I hope you can help me with that. Thanks, i appreciate your help.

  1) Position the cursor off the right edge of the paper 2) Set the print to transparent 3) go ahead and print the data but then draw an opaque white rectangle over the top of it. +

   

• ddgcal at indiatimes.com asks: " I want to print watermark using PCL with my print file(the print file written in PCL). we use ms-dos prompt to print the required files" +
  
  The pattern commands <esc>*c2G<esc>*v2Tcan be used to set the next bit of text to a grey, and you can be confident that changeing back to <esc>*v0T will end the grey text area and allow following text to print correctly. But there are several "gotchas":
  
  First, you must insert the pattern command and the font selection string inside the PCL print file. You cannot append it to the end or pre-pend it to the beginning. if you don't control the code that generates the PCL printout, you will need to search for the start or end of page sequence and replace it with the watermark PCL commands and the original sequence. Be aware that you might accidentally find and replace that sequence in some binary data for a logo, font download or other non-PCL command; the longer the sequence, the better.
  
  Second, you can not rotate PCL text, so often HPGL is used for watermarks instead.
  
  Finally, remember that changeing the font size or other attributes will affect all text printed after that point, so if you are not useing the secondary font already, you might insert a string like <esc>)8U<esc>)s1p48v0s3b4148T<si> to select the font for the watermark followed by a <so> so that you don't have to reselect the original font used in the document.
  
  Here is an example file that works: <esc>E<esc>*c2G<esc>*v2T<esc>&f0S<esc>*p100x100Y<esc>>s8U<esc>)s1p48v0s3b4148T<so>WATERMARK<si><esc>&f1S<esc>*v0TREGULAR TEXT<ff>
  
• mcolombo1 at interfree.it

  Hello, I need 1) the pitch/height ratio (if different, for Times), and 2) the measures of the letters, numbers, symbols, etc. in Times (if possible, also in other fonts), for a given height/pitch.
  Thanks.
  Mario Colombo

  James Newton replies: I would contact a font vendor or typeface expert for that information. Each character will be different since it is a proportional font. If you can find a softfont, the information could be decoded from the files with a LOT of work, but it would be much easier to use a font editor to look at each character and calculate the ratio of hight to width then convert that to pitch to width. One possible program is Softy.+

  +

• Can any tell me the typeface values (S50000T ,(S50001T, (S50002T represents which font. Pls reply..+
• daleh at hilldriversolutions.com asks:

  Hi,
  I am working with a TrueType Bitmap FONT that I intended to download to a printer. I am have trouble figuring out how to calculate the dimension values used in the Format 20 Font Resolution Specified header. The values in particular are: Cell width, Cell Height, Pitch, Height, xHeight. The font is 10 point and the printer resolution is 600 DPI. It seems like it should be a simple calculation but when I compare the header values generated by another printer I can’t figure out how they got their value. The values they get are:
  Cell width = 48
  Cell Height = 127
  Pitch = 6.25
  Height = 30.28
  xHeight = 62
  
  Can someone please give me a few pointers here?
  
  Thanks,
  
  Dale
  
  
  

Comments:

• ramzikas at hotmail.com

  when i print micr cheque nbr i have to change font to 16 dpi problem is all the other character in cheque shown as condensed what i have to do to show others in normal mode

  James Newton of Massmind replies: After printing the MICR check numbers, change the font size back to some lower dpi?

  +

  .