printer command language (HP) (PCL)

Printer Command Language (PCL) is more of a printer control language than a page description language. It was developed by Hewlett Packard for laser prin ters and inkjet prin ters and is considered a quasi- standard for printer control, used by many manufacturers.

In contrast to Postscript, which works with outline fonts and mathematical Bézier curves, the PCL language is oriented to bitmaps. In addition, commands of the description languageHP-GL for vector graphics and font effects are also included in PCL.

PCL has a flexible command structure based on control commands and ASCII characters, it is very powerful and is characterized by high print quality. It can be used equally for fonts and graphics. The functionalities of the different PCL versions include b/w and color printing, printing of bitmap fonts, raster graphics, scalability of fonts and printing in different print directions.

Printer Command Language also exists in vendor-specific implementations, such as Hewlett Packard Printer Control Language ( HP-PCL), which is used as the printer command language for HP-compatible printers.