File Formats: Printer Command Language Format (PCL)/(PCL-XL)

The Printer Command Language (PCL) vector format was developed by Hewlett-Packard specifically to allow computers and printers to communicate with each other. The PCL files consists of commands. The HP printers parse and decode those commands. The PCL format also supports HPGL. For more information about HPGL, refer to PLT.

In the raster toolkits, PCL files are rasterized when loaded but cannot be saved. Loading and saving this format as a vector file are provided in the LEADTOOLS Vector Imaging Pro toolkit and are unlocked when the Vector features are unlocked.

LEAD supports version 3.0, 5.0 and 6.0 of this file format.

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

LEADTOOLS supports loading this format as raster image, vector or SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) document.

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 provides support for:

Raster, text and rectangular area.
Macros.
Enhanced performance of the filter.
HPGL mode in PCL.
Raster fonts.
RTL Raster data.
All compression methods (RLE, TIFF, Delta, Adaptive and Unencoded).
Class 2 Run-Length encoding with line repetition.
Old versions of PCL v.3, besides v.5 and v.6.
Viewing PCL with POSTSCRIPT data (requires the PDF filter).
User-defined and pre-defined patterns.
Unicode symbols.
Detecting non-standard PCL/HPGL files that lack a correct header.
Truetype fonts for both PCL5 and PCL6 (Windows based fonts and soft fonts).

File constants associated with this file format are:

Constant	Read Support	Write Support	Description
FILE_PCL	Yes	Yes	[251] Printer Command Language Hewlett Packard.
FILE_PLT	Yes	Yes	[137] HPGL Hewlett-Packard.
FILE_PCLXL	Yes	No	[349] Printer Command Language XL/6- Hewlett Packard.
FILE_PCL_TEXT_AS_POLYLINE	Yes	Yes	[299] 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