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Archived This topic has been archived. Information and links in this thread may no longer be available or relevant. If you have a question create a new topic by clicking here and select the appropriate board.

‎04-29-2015 11:05 AM

HP Recommended
Product: PCL 5
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP

Hi,

 

I am trying to create an overlay but the PRN file never comes out right. I believe it has to do with the driver instaled and / or its setting. Can someone help me with producing a proper PRN file. I have tried creating the PRN file with various printer drivers but with no luck. 

 

It will also help, if you can tell me what printer driver and / settings(and on which operating system) were used to create the following analysis of a PRN file(this PRN file works) 

 

 

Offset Type Sequence Description
------------- --------------------- ---------------- ----------------------------------------------------

00000000 PCL Simple <Esc>E Printer Reset
00000002 PCL Parameterised <Esc>&l0S Simplex/Duplex: Simplex
00000007 PCL Parameterised <Esc>*r0F Raster Graphics Presentation: Logical
0000000c PCL Parameterised <Esc>&l0O Orientation: Portrait
00000011 PCL Parameterised <Esc>&l1H Paper Source: id 1 is Printer Dependent
00000016 PCL Parameterised <Esc>&l2a Page Size: Letter
0000001b 8c Vertical Motion Index (8/48 inches)
0000001d 1E Top Margin (1 lines)
0000001f PCL Parameterised <Esc>*t300R Raster Graphics Resolution (300 dots per inch)
00000026 PCL Parameterised <Esc>&l1X Number of Copies (1)
0000002b PCL Parameterised <Esc>*b0M Set Compression Mode: Unencoded
00000030 PCL Control Code <CR> Carriage Return
00000031 PCL Parameterised <Esc>*v0o Pattern Transparency Mode: Transparent
00000036 0T Select Current Pattern: Solid Black
00000038 PCL Parameterised <Esc>*p119X Cursor Position Horizontal (119 PCL units)
0000003f PCL Parameterised <Esc>*p172Y Cursor Position Vertical (172 PCL units)

1 ACCEPTED SOLUTION

Accepted Solutions

‎04-30-2015 12:35 PM - edited ‎04-30-2015 12:38 PM

HP Recommended

>> we use adobe illustrator to open the PDF and save it as a .ai file.

>> This is the file that we use to create the prn file.

>> We open the .ai file in notepad and using the printer driver we "PrintoFile" to get the PRN file

 

This seems unnecessarily convoluted, and (to my mind) erroneous:

 

  • Opening an Adobe Illustrator file in a text editor application such as NotePad will show you the (proprietary) internal structure of that document, interpreted as plain text.
  • It will not display the content of the document as would be shown by just opening it with Adobe Illustrator.
  • Printing from the NotePad view of the content of the file will generate a print job which will show just what NotePad shows - the internal structiure of the .ai document.

You may as well open a bitmap file, or an Excel spreadsheet, using NotePad, and expect it to show you an image, or a spreadsheet grid - obviously, it won't.

 

Why not just open either the original PDF (using a suitable PDF viewer application), or the converted .ai file (using Adobe Illustrator) and 'print to file' direct from that application, to produce your .prn file?

Even then:

  • You'd need to ensure that the .prn file was produced using a PCL5 (not PCL6) printer driver.
  • You'd need to 'clean' the .prn file using the Make Overlay tool (or similar) to produce a file containing sequences acceptable within a PCL5 macro.

 

 

>> ... I created the PRN file exactly the same way as it was always done, somehow the printer doesnt recognise it ...

 

You'd need to provide some (sanitised data) examples to illustrate your point:

  • The .prn file generated by your printer driver.
  • The 'cleaned' version of this (in a .ovl, or similar, file).
  • A capture of the print job 'envelope' which is downloading the overlay, and calling it.

 

View solution in original post

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10 REPLIES 10

‎04-30-2015 05:40 AM

HP Recommended

The analysis you show:

 

Offset        Type                  Sequence         Description
------------- --------------------- ---------------- ----------------------------------------------------
00000000      PCL Simple            <Esc>E           Printer Reset
00000002      PCL Parameterised     <Esc>&l0S        Simplex/Duplex: Simplex
00000007      PCL Parameterised     <Esc>*r0F        Raster Graphics Presentation: Logical
0000000c      PCL Parameterised     <Esc>&l0O        Orientation: Portrait
00000011      PCL Parameterised     <Esc>&l1H        Paper Source: id 1 is Printer Dependent
00000016      PCL Parameterised     <Esc>&l2a        Page Size: Letter
0000001b                                   8c        Vertical Motion Index (8/48 inches)
0000001d                                   1E        Top Margin (1 lines)
0000001f      PCL Parameterised     <Esc>*t300R      Raster Graphics Resolution (300 dots per inch)
00000026      PCL Parameterised     <Esc>&l1X        Number of Copies (1)
0000002b      PCL Parameterised     <Esc>*b0M        Set Compression Mode: Unencoded
00000030      PCL Control Code      <CR>             Carriage Return
00000031      PCL Parameterised     <Esc>*v0o        Pattern Transparency Mode: Transparent
00000036                                   0T        Select Current Pattern: Solid Black
00000038      PCL Parameterised     <Esc>*p119X      Cursor Position Horizontal (119 PCL units)
0000003f      PCL Parameterised     <Esc>*p172Y      Cursor Position Vertical (172 PCL units)

 

looks like that generated by the PRN File Analyse tool in the PCL Paraphernalia application, available via http://www.pclparaphernalia.eu

 

This application also includes a Make Overlay tool to convert a captured .prn file into a viable macro (by removing sequences which are not compatible with macro use).

 

I believe that the orginal versions of the application ran OK on Windows XP - I've no idea whether or not this applies to the current version (which requires .NET 4.0 runtime).

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‎04-30-2015 08:26 AM

HP Recommended
Sorry if i was confusing.i want to know which printer driver and its settings was used to create the actual prn.i attached the analysis from pcl paraphernalia because it was easier to understand
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‎04-30-2015 08:38 AM - edited ‎04-30-2015 10:12 AM

HP Recommended

The sample PCL is somewhat 'vanilla' - it is more-or-less impossible to tell which printer driver was used to generate it.

As the sample doesn't start with a Universal Exit Language escape sequence, followed by PJL commands (the last of which would be an ENTER LANGUAGE command), it is also very likely that the sample was generated either by a bespoke driver, or as a result of the type of 'cleaning' action performed by the Make Overlay (or similar) tool.

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‎04-30-2015 09:16 AM

HP Recommended

Would you be able to tell what settings I should use though? None of the drivers I have used to create the PRN file looks anything like the one I have here. I am not sure if I should be doing a manual install instead of going through the Add Printer->Windows Update way.  I am not sure if I am dealing with the possibility of having to use a very very old printer driver on a very old Windows OS.  

 

My next question is what would your recommendation be, for a printer driver,to get a good enough PRN file that wouldnt have issues on converting to an overlay? The PRN files I create now, (and the subsequent Overlay) ends up printing what I would see when I open the .ai file in a note pad

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‎04-30-2015 10:10 AM

HP Recommended

>> ... None of the drivers I have used to create the PRN file looks anything like the one I have here ...

 

What is the target printer model?

 

Unless it is one that supports PCL5, then use of PCL macros (overlays) is not relevant.

 

This rules out:

  • Most consumer inkjet products, most of which use proprietary languages such as PCL3GUI or PCL3 Enhanced.
  • The cheaper 'host-based' laserjet products, which use proprietary languages such as JetReady (based on stripped down variants of PCL XL).
  • The cheaper 'mobile printing' laserjet products, which use proprietary languages PCLm/PCLmS (a mobile printing solution using PDF structures).
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‎04-30-2015 10:14 AM

HP Recommended

>> ... The PRN files I create now, (and the subsequent Overlay) ends up printing what I would see when I open the .ai file in a note pad ...

 

I've no idea what you mean by this - what is a .ai file?

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‎04-30-2015 11:11 AM

HP Recommended

We developed a process (like a 100 years ago), to convert PDF files to overlays .So,we use adobe illustrator to open the PDF and save it as a .ai file. This is the file that we use to create the prn file. We open the .ai file in notepad and using the printer driver we "PrintoFile" to get the PRN file. 

 

 

 

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‎04-30-2015 11:16 AM

HP Recommended

The target printer is a RIcoh 907Ex. I know Ricoh 907Ex supports PCL6 but for years, we have been using PCL macro created using HP Laserjet printer drivers and it has woked fine till now. This is the first time, this has come to me, and even though , I created the PRN file exactly the same way as it was always done, somehow the printer doesnt recognise it 

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‎04-30-2015 12:35 PM - edited ‎04-30-2015 12:38 PM

HP Recommended

>> we use adobe illustrator to open the PDF and save it as a .ai file.

>> This is the file that we use to create the prn file.

>> We open the .ai file in notepad and using the printer driver we "PrintoFile" to get the PRN file

 

This seems unnecessarily convoluted, and (to my mind) erroneous:

 

  • Opening an Adobe Illustrator file in a text editor application such as NotePad will show you the (proprietary) internal structure of that document, interpreted as plain text.
  • It will not display the content of the document as would be shown by just opening it with Adobe Illustrator.
  • Printing from the NotePad view of the content of the file will generate a print job which will show just what NotePad shows - the internal structiure of the .ai document.

You may as well open a bitmap file, or an Excel spreadsheet, using NotePad, and expect it to show you an image, or a spreadsheet grid - obviously, it won't.

 

Why not just open either the original PDF (using a suitable PDF viewer application), or the converted .ai file (using Adobe Illustrator) and 'print to file' direct from that application, to produce your .prn file?

Even then:

  • You'd need to ensure that the .prn file was produced using a PCL5 (not PCL6) printer driver.
  • You'd need to 'clean' the .prn file using the Make Overlay tool (or similar) to produce a file containing sequences acceptable within a PCL5 macro.

 

 

>> ... I created the PRN file exactly the same way as it was always done, somehow the printer doesnt recognise it ...

 

You'd need to provide some (sanitised data) examples to illustrate your point:

  • The .prn file generated by your printer driver.
  • The 'cleaned' version of this (in a .ovl, or similar, file).
  • A capture of the print job 'envelope' which is downloading the overlay, and calling it.

 

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
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