Extra! User Guide > Terminal Sessions > Printer Sessions > SCS and PCL5 Printer Control Sequences

SCS and PCL5 Printer Control Sequences

The following tables list the SCS and PCL5 printer controls that are supported using GDI Mode. Substitute the appropriate numeric parameter string for the # sign. Numeric parameter strings can include a leading plus or minus sign, any number of decimal digits, and an optional decimal point and fraction. The numeric parameter string can also be empty.

Supported SCS Control Sequences

Table 73

Function

Code

Description

Comment

BEL

0x2F

Bell

Ignored

CR

0x0D

Carriage return

 

FF

0x0C

Form-feed

 

GE

0x08+

Graphic Escape

Prints a hyphen, followed by the next byte treated as an ASCII character

HT

0x05

Horizontal tab

 

IRS

0x1E

Interchange record separator

Treated like NL

LF

0x25

Line feed

 

NL

0x00

Null

Ignored

RFF

0x3A

Required form feed

Treated like FF

RNL

0x06

Required new line

Treated like NL

SA

0x28+

Set attribute

Subfunctions enable/disable underlining and select standard fonts

SHF

0x2B+

Set horizontal format

Sets left and right margins and tabstops

SLD

0x2B+

Set line density

 

SPD

0x2B+

Set print density

 

SVF

0x2B+

Set vertical format

Sets top and bottom margins and vertical tabstops

TRN

0x35

Transparency

Begins a transparency block with EBCDIC-to-ASCII translation. Block may contain both text and PCL5 commands (which will be emulated)

ATRN

0x36

Absolute transparency

Begins an untranslated transparency block

VT

0x0B

Vertical tab

 

NOTE:A plus sign indicates a multi-byte sequence.

Supported PCL5 Control Sequences

Note the following:

  • [ESC] represents the ASCII escape character (hexadecimal 1B).

  • In codes containing an ampersand (&), the character following the ampersand is almost always a lowercase alphabetic character. Be careful not to mistake a lowercase L (l) for the numeral one (1).

Supported PCL5 Font Selection and Characteristics Control Sequences

Table 74 Supported PCL5 Font Selection and Characteristics Control Sequences

Code

Description

Comment

[ESC]&a#P

Print direction

 

[ESC]&l#0

Page orientation

 

[ESC]&d#D

Enable underline

 

[ESC]&d@

Disable underline

 

[ESC](3@

Select primary font as default*

 

[ESC](s#B

Primary font stroke weight*

 

[ESC](s#H

Primary font pitch*

 

[ESC]&k#S

Primary font pitch mode*

Defaults to pica, elite, compressed

[ESC](s#P

Primary font spacing*

 

[ESC](s#S

Primary font style*

 

[ESC](s#T

Primary font typeface family*

 

[ESC](s#V

Primary font height*

 

[ESC]([font_ID])

Primary font symbol set*

Provides support for special fonts (like bar-codes, for example)

* For secondary font, substitute ) for ( in code sequence. For example, [ESC] )3@ selects the secondary font as the default instead of the primary.

Supported PCL5 Positioning Control Sequences

Table 75 Supported PCL5 Positioning Control Sequences

Code

Description

Comment

[ESC]&l#A

Page size (type of paper)

For example, letter, legal, A4, Executive

[ESC]&k#H

Horizontal motion index

Sets column size

[ESC]&l#C

Vertical motion index

Sets row size

[ESC]&a#C

Horizontal cursor positioning (measured in columns)

 

[ESC]*p#X

Horizontal cursor positioning (measured in pixels)*

 

[ESC]&a#H

Horizontal cursor positioning (measured in decipoints)*

 

[ESC]&a#R

Vertical cursor positioning (measured in rows)*

 

[ESC]*p#Y

Vertical cursor positioning (measured in pixels)*

 

[ESC]&a#V

Vertical cursor positioning (measured in decipoints)*

 

[ESC]&f#S

Push/pop cursor position

 

[ESC]&l#D

Line spacing

 

[ESC]&=

Half-line feed

 

[ESC]&l#E

Top margin

 

[ESC]&l#F

Text length

 

[ESC]&a#L

Left margin

 

[ESC]&a#M

Right margin

 

[ESC]9

Clear horizontal margins

 

* Hewlett-Packard LaserJets can position by pixels (300 pixels to an inch), decipoints (720 decipoints to an inch), or rows and columns (as set by the horizontal motion index and the vertical motion index). The actual position is rounded to the nearest pixel.

Supported PCL5 Rectangle Management Control Sequences

Table 76

Code

Description

Comment

[ESC]*c#A

Horizontal rectangle size (measured in pixels)*

 

[ESC]*c#H

Horizontal rectangle size (measured in decipoints)*

 

[ESC]*c#B

Vertical rectangle size (measured in pixels)*

 

[ESC]*c#V

Vertical rectangle size (measured in decipoints)*

 

[ESC]*v#T

Select current pattern

User-defined patterns or transparencies not permitted -- standard patterns only

[ESC]*c#G

Area fill pattern ID

 

[ESC]*c#P

Fill rectangular area

 

[ESC]*v#N

Source transparency mode

Affects how background and foreground combine

[ESC]*v#O

Pattern transparency mode

Affects how background and foreground combine

* Hewlett-Packard LaserJets can position by pixels (300 pixels to an inch), decipoints (720 decipoints to an inch), or rows and columns (as set by the horizontal motion index and the vertical motion index). The actual position is rounded to the nearest pixel.

Supported PCL5 Job/Paper Control Sequences

Table 77

Code

Description

Comment

[ESC]&l#X

Number of copies

Refers to number of copies of each page (does not collate)

[ESC]&l#H

Paper source

For example, upper or lower tray, envelope

[ESC]&l#G

Paper destination

Refers to the upper output bin

[ESC]&l#L

Perforation skip

Controls whether text and graphics are clipped or printed at the top and bottom edges of the physical page

Supported PCL5 Simplex/Duplex Printing

Table 78 Supported PCL5 Simplex/Duplex Printing

Code

Description

Comment

[ESC]&l#S

Simplex/duplex printing

Double-sided printing (Laserjet IID and IIID only)

Supported Miscellaneous PCL5 Control Sequences

Table 79 Supported Miscellaneous PCL5 Control Sequences

Code

Description

Comment

[ESC] &l#P

Page length

 

[ESC] &s#C

End-of-line wrap always disabled; text past end-of-line is truncated

 

[ESC]E

Printer reset

 

Unsupported PCL5 Raster (Bitmap) Graphics Control Sequences

Table 80 Unsupported PCL5 Raster (Bitmap) Graphics Control Sequences

Code

Description

Comment

[ESC] *r#A

Start raster graphics

Functionally identical to Windows bitmap graphics operations

[ESC] *r#F

Raster graphics presentation

 

[ESC] *t#R

Raster graphics resolution

 

[ESC] *r#T

Raster height

 

[ESC] *r#S

Raster width

 

[ESC] *b#Y

Raster Y offset

 

[ESC] *b#M

Set compression mode

 

[ESC] *b#W

Transfer raster data

 

[ESC] *rB

End raster graphics

 

Unsupported PCL5 Rectangle Management Control Sequences

Table 81 Unsupported PCL5 Rectangle Management Control Sequences

Code

Description

Comment

[ESC] c#W

User-defined pattern

 

[ESC] c#Q

User-defined pattern control

 

[ESC] p#R

Set pattern reference point

 

Unsupported PCL5 Soft Font Management Control Sequences

Table 82 Unsupported PCL5 Soft Font Management Control Sequences

Code

Description

Comment

[ESC] *c#D

Assign font ID

 

[ESC] *c#E

Character code

 

[ESC] *c#F

Font control

 

[ESC] (s#W

Character descriptor and data

 

[ESC] )s#W

Font descriptor

 

[ESC] *c#R

Set symbol set

 

[ESC] (f#W

Define symbol set

 

[ESC] *c#S

Symbol set control

 

Unsupported Miscellaneous PCL5 Control Sequences

Table 83 Unsupported Miscellaneous PCL5 Control Sequences

Code

Description

Comment

[ESC]&l#U

Left (long-edge) offset

Measured in decipoints

[ESC]&l#Z

Right (short edge) registration

 

[ESC] &f#X

Macro control

 

[ESC] &f#Y

Assign macro ID

 

[ESC] %#A

Enter PCL mode

 

[ESC] %#B

Enter HP-GL/2 mode

 

[ESC] *c#K

HP-GL/2 plot horizontal size

 

[ESC] *c#L

HP-GL/2 plot vertical size

 

[ESC] *c#T

Set picture frame anchor point

 

[ESC] *c#X

Picture frame horizontal size

 

[ESC] *c#Y

Picture frame vertical size