Re: PCL or PostScript

>>  Rival is my word. Wikipedia in Dutch talks about
(translated): 'The 
>> largest counterpart of PCL is PostScript ' (I just
looked it up  ). 
>> Is this a better translation?
>
>  It may be a better translation, but the resulting
statement is equally 
> ignorant and misleading.

The English Wikipedia entry states:
>  Printer Command Language, more commonly referred to as
PCL, is a Page 
> description language (PDL) developed by HP as a printer
protocol and has 
> become a de facto industry standard. Originally
developed for early 
> inkjet printers in 1984, PCL has been released in
varying levels for 
> thermal, matrix printer, and page printers. HP-GL and
PJL are supported 
> by later versions of PCL.
>
>  PCL is occasionally and incorrectly referred to as
Printer Control Language.

Reference to Postscript does not appear until the discussion
of PCL6:
>  PCL 6 was introduced around 1995, and consists of:
>  *    PCL 6 Enhanced: An object-oriented PDL optimized
for printing from 
> GUI interfaces such as Windows and compressed to
optimize throughput. 
> Formerly known as PCL XL.
>  *    PCL 6 Standard: Equivalent to PCL 5e or PCL 5c,
intended to provide 
> backward compatibility.
>  *    Font synthesis: Provides scalable fonts, font
management and storage 
> of forms and fonts.
>
>  PCL 6 Enhanced features new modular architecture that
can be easily 
> modified for future HP printers; faster return to
application; faster 
> printing of complex graphics; more efficient data
streams for reduced 
> network traffic; better WYSIWYG printing; improved
print quality; truer 
> document fidelity; and complete backward compatibility.
In early 
> implementation, HP did not market PCL 6 well, thus
causing quite a bit of 
> confusion in terminology. PCL XL was renamed to PCL 6
Enhanced, but many 
> third party products still use the older term. Some
products may claim to 
> be PCL 6 compliant, but may not include the PCL 5
backward compatibility. 
> PCL 6 Enhanced is primarily generated by the printer
drivers under 
> Windows and CUPS. Due to its structure and compression
methodology, it is 
> rarely used by custom applications.
>
>  PCL 6 Enhanced is a stack-based, object-oriented
protocol, similar to 
> PostScript. It however is restricted to binary encoding
as opposed to 
> PostScript, which can be sent either as binary code or
as plain text. The 
> plain-text commands and code examples shown in the PCL
programming 
> documentation are meant to be compiled with a utlity
like HP's JetASM 
> before being sent to printer. Perhaps because PCL 6 is
designed for small 
> size, operators are not as flexible or orthogonal as
PostScript.
>
>  PCL 6 Enhanced is designed to match the drawing model
of Windows GDI. In 
> this way, the Windows printer driver simply passes
through GDI commands 
> with very little modification, leading to faster
return-to-application 
> times. Microsoft has extended this concept with its
next-generation XPS 
> format, and printer implementations of XPS are being
developed. This is 
> not a new idea: it is comparable with Display
Postscript and Apple's 
> Quartz, and is in contrast to "GDI Printers"
which send the printer a 
> compressed bitmap.


-- 
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~
  Jim Saklad                                    
mailto:jimdociname.com


 
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