Printer Command Language Format (PCL)

The Printer Command Language vector format was developed by Hewlett-Packard, specifically to provide a means of communication between computers and printers. The PCL files contain the commands and the HP printers parse and decode those commands. This format also includes HPGL. For more information about HPGL, refer to PLT.

This file format is not supported in the non-vector toolkits. Read support and write support for this format are provided in the LEADTOOLS Vector Imaging Pro toolkit and are unlocked when the Vector features are unlocked.

LEAD supports version 3.0 and 5.0 of this file format.

The default extensions used by this format are: PRN, PRT and PCL.

This format is used by Visual PCL, PCLTOOLS, redtitan EscapE and AutoVue.

This file format does not support layers or grouping, but it does support embedded raster objects.

PCL filter supports many features such as:

Support for Raster, text and rectangular area.

Support for Macros.

Enhanced performance of the filter.

Support for HPGL mode in PCL

Raster fonts

RTL Raster data

Support for all compression methods (RLE, TIFF, Delta, Adaptive and Unencoded).

Support for old versions of PCL v.3, besides v.5.

Viewing PJL with POSTSCRIPT data (requires the PDF filter)

Support for user-defined and pre-defined patterns

Support for Unicode symbols

Detecting non-standard PCL/HPGL files that lack a correct header

File constants associated with this file format are:

Constant

Read Support

Write Support

Description

FILE_PCL

Yes

Yes

Printer Command Language – Hewlett Packard.

FILE_PLT

Yes

Yes

HPGL – Hewlett-Packard.

FILE_PCL_TEXT_AS_POLYLINE

Yes

Yes

Used to enforce saving text as polyline

When PCL files are rasterized, they are 24 BPP. You can read and write vector PCL files at 24 BPP.
When PLT files are rasterized, they are 4 BPP.

 

The following table indicates which objects LEAD can load and which objects it can save:

Object:

Load:

Save:

Arc

Supported

Supported

Circle

Supported

Supported

Lines

Supported

Supported

Pie

Supported

Supported

Point

Supported

Supported

PolyBezier

Supported

Not Supported

PolyDraw

Supported

Not Supported

Polygons

Supported

Not Supported

Polyline

Supported

Not Supported

Raster

Supported

Supported

Rectangle

Supported

Supported

Text

Supported

Supported

 

Required DLL: LFPCL. For a listing of the exact DLLs needed, based on the toolkit version, refer to Files To Be Included With Your Application.

Related Formats: CGM - Computer Graphics Metafile, CMX - Corel Presentation Exchange Format, DGN - Intergraph Format, DRW - Micrografx Designer DRaWing, DWF - DWF Format, DWG - DWG Format, DXF - Drawing Interchange Format, EMF - Windows Metafile Formats, GBR - Gerber FormatPCT - Macintosh Pict Format, PDF - Portable Document Format, PLT - PLT / HPGL Format, PS - PostScript Document Format, RTF - Rich Text Format, SHP - ESRI Shape Format, SVG - Scalable Vector Graphics Format, VEC - LEADTOOLS Vector Dump Format, VPG - WordPerfect Vector Format, WMF - Windows Metafile Formats, WMZ - Compressed Windows Metafile Format, E00 - ArcInfo Interchange File Format, MIF - MapInfo Interchange File Format.