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Author Topic: Difference between PCL5e, PCL6, and Postscript printer drivers?  (Read 45539 times)

superboyac

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Every time I want to install printer drivers, I have the choices of PCL5e, PCL6, and Postscript.  I don't know what the differences are, and even if I did, I don't know which is better.  What are the pros/cons of each, and do I have to pick one or do I install all of them and choose the appropriate one when I print?  Thanks.

Carol Haynes

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PCL is a scripting language for printers (just like Postscript was designed to be for other printers). PCL5e and PCL6 are version 5e and 6 of the code generated.

Depends what your printer supports ... if it supports both it probably doesn't matter too much. Manufacturers often make generic drivers to suit a range of printers. I'd guess the manual may tell you.

If your printer supports PCL5e and you install drivers with PCL6 then there may be some commands sent to the printer that aren't in the PCL5e command set. At best you will get pages printing with a few errors, at worst the printouts will terminate with an error.

If you aren't sure I'd go for PCL5e as I would be surprised if PCL6 wasn't backward compatible with earlier versions.
« Last Edit: May 19, 2006, 05:49 PM by Carol Haynes »

mouser

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yep, what carol says.
sometimes you want to print to a postscript printer if it supports it.
for example if you are printing .ps postscript papers from the web.
so occasionally you will install 2 printer drivers, creating two windows visible printers (one pcl and another postscript), both driving the same physical printer.
i do this with my hp2200.  printer experts might be able to shed more light on this, i just know from experimentation that sometimes tis better to use the postscript driver and sometimes better to use pcl (never seen much dif between pcl 5 and 6), so i install both as different ways of printing to the same printer.

that can also be useful if you want to configure like multiple print drivers for different settings (quality, doublesided, etc).  just because you have 1 physical printer doesnt mean you cant add it 5 times with different settings and treat it like 5 printers as far as windows is concerned.

Carol Haynes

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PCL was originally HP's answer to Adobe's PS format and was in direct competition.

Gradually PS became dominant and now some of HP's printer include support for both.

Edvard

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description of PCL (Printer Control Language)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCL_6

You can also install a PostScript printer on the "File:" port and output .ps files.

$.02