PCL COMMANDS

[Nobody's Hero]

I am trying to send PCL commands directly to a printer. Does anyone out there do such a thing?

It is accepting the commands but it is just printing the command rather than processing it.

[John Poff]

Hi Robert,

I've done things like this before by using the '-o raw' option on my 'lp' command line. Something like:

lp -dmyprinter -o raw somefile.pcl

JP

[Steven E. Protter · Accepted solution]

You have to send escape codes to the printer prior to the commands so they don't print.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start=1&q=http://www.csgnetwork.com/hppclhist.html&e=10342

http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start=2&q=http://www.digitalissues.co.uk/html/software/utils/pcl_page.html&e=10342

How to use passthrough commmands to send stuff directly to the printer.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=U&start=5&q=http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q96/7/95.ASP&e=10342

I've had to work with this stuff a number of times in my time as a sysadmin. I've always hated it because the documentation was written by people with a poor command of how humans process information.

SEP

[John Poff]

Robert,

Are you trying to send the commands from a file at the command line, or from inside a script or program?

JP

[Alexander M. Ermes]

Hi there.
Put the PCL commands in a separate file.
create a little script, that puts this file at the top of a temp file. Copy your text in the line behind the PCL commands.
After this text you should enter the PCL command for a reset to original settings.
Then print the temp file.
Rgds
Alexander M. Ermes

sample


cat LANDSCAPE ${1} > /usr/tmp/out
lp /usr/tmp/out
rm /usr/tmp/out