NetWare 4.1/9000 Print Services

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Setting Up and Servicing Printers

Printer Languages

In the printer, a “formatter” converts the print data to dot patterns, storing

enough dots to make a complete physical cycle, usually a single pass of a

print head or a single page. The formatter accepts print data in one or more

forms, sometimes called printer languages. Formatters that handle more than

one such language may include commands to switch between languages, or

they may switch automatically by analyzing the data stream.

Such languages fall into two general categories:

Printer languages such as PCL, HPGL, and ESC-P. These languages use data

streams in which the data consists of (1) text bytes, (2) 2-5 byte command

strings for horizontal and vertical spacing and line- image (vector) graphics,

and (3) strings of bit-image (raster) graphics. This data is easily and quickly

converted.

Page description languages (PDLs), such as PostScript (PS) and PCL-V.

These languages are actually a subset of the printer languages group, but

they use much more complex data streams. Consisting largely of verbose

English phrases and programmatic constructions, PDLs allow more complex

data manipulations than the simpler printer languages, but require more time

to convert.

Choosing the right printers for your network involves more than determining

a printer's output speed. PostScript printers can accommodate most

inconsistencies that PCL printers cannot, so if possible, make sure your

printers are PostScript compatible.