PCL 3 GUI to PCL 6 driver?

[visitor1904]

Hello,

I just bought the HP Envy 7640 printer but he won't print for my accounting software (DOS-based).

I need a printer with PCL 6 for this, research learned that the HP7640 has PCL 3 GUI as print language.

Is there a way to change the driver or do I need to buy a new printer?

I searched a lot for HP printers, but the ones I need (an all in one with an ethernet cable) all seems to be PCL 3 GUI...

Can someone offer me some help either by tweaking my HP7640 to PCL 6 or pointing out some other HP printers with PCL 6 included?

Kind Regards,

Yanick

[dansdaduk]

Most inkjet devices only support the PCL 3 GUI or PCL 3 Enhanced Page Description Languages; a few of the business-class inkjet models do support other PDLs, including the 'traditional' PCL 5, PCL XL, and PostScript languages.

Most (but not all) modern laser printers support the traditional PDLs; the cheaper ones may only support proprietary 'host-based' languages, or some of the newer (PDF-based) PCL-mobile languages (PCLm/PCLmS).

As an aside - I think it unlikely that a DOS-based application will generate a true PCL 6 (PCL XL) print stream.

What it may be generating is PCL 5 - the confusion arises because some of the early marketing material for PCL 6 'defined' two variants:

• PCL 6 standard - this just meant PCL 5.
• PCL 6 enhanced - this meant PCL XL (a totally different language to PCL 5) - it is now the accepted normal meanig of 'PCL 6'.

[visitor1904]

So now I'm thinking of buying the HP OfficeJet Pro 8730.

The owner of my accounting software tells me the printer must understand PCL 6 standard.

On the www8.hp.com website the specs are:

Printertalen (print languages) HP PCL XL (PCL 6), native PDF, HP Postscript level 3 emulatie

Does this mean that the HP 8730 can print from my accounting software? He has PCL XL (PCL 6) so automaticly also PCL 6 standard?

Kind regards,

Yannick

[dansdaduk]

Since the specification only mentions PCL XL, but not PCL 5, it may be the case that this model does not support the latter Page Description Language - I don't know.

it does seem that (after many years) PCL 5 is being gradually (albeit very slowly) 'marginalised'.

HP supplies Universal Printer Drivers (UPDs), which support many of their products; but from Windows 10 onwards, the PCL 5 variant is discontinued - only the PCL 6 (PCL XL) and PostScript variants are available.

[dansdaduk]

This support page for the UPDs appears to show that the OfficeJet Pro 8730 does not support PCL 5.

Or perhaps it is just that the first version of the UPD to support the printer is version 6.2.0 - but the last PCL 5 variant of the UPD was version 6.1.0.

[visitor1904]

And what about HP PCL 5c? Because on this page they are mentioning that the printer supports PCL 5c: http://www8.hp.com/be/nl/products/printers/product-detail.html?oid=7902053

Meer printmogelijkheden dankzij HP PCL 6, HP PCL 5c, HP PS en scalable TrueType-lettertypen.

In English: more printing possibilities thanks to HP PCL 6, P PCL 5c,...

Does this mean the HP 8730 supports PCL 6 standard?

I can't afford to buy another printer to see my accounting program again not printing...

Thanks for the replies!

[dansdaduk]

PCL5c is the colour equivalent of PCL5e, as would be expected with a colour device.

I don’t work for HP, so I can only usually rely on the same data as you, in published specifications - which do indicate the colour variant of PCL5 is supported (this is effectively an extension of the monochrome PCL5e variant).

You’d have to ask your supplier if this is compatible with their application.

[visitor1904]

The supplier of the program is telling me it use PCL 6 Standard, that's all he can tell. It's an older accounting software and the real founder passed away long time ago.

Wikipedia says:

• 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.'

So if this HP understands HP PCL 6c, this means the same as PCL 6 Standard and it should work...?

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

[dansdaduk]

As I stated before, "PCL6 standard" is usually taken to imply PCL 5 (for which PCL 5e is the monochrome variant, and PCL 5c the colour variant).

As to whether a particular printer will work with the print jobs generated by your old DOS software:

It's not possible to give a definitive answer of yes or no:

• A printer which supports PCL 5 should print most print jobs which use PCL 5 'commands'.
• But there are some differences in exactly which escape sequences are supported (e.g. monochrome devices won't necessarily understand colour sequences - but they should just ignore them).
• There are also some differences in which fonts are available (printer-resident) on different devices, although this is less problematic that the differences between PCL 4 and PCL 5 devices; most modern devices probably have a similar core set of of fonts.