Re: PCL5 problem - software or hardware ?

"Corporate apparatchik" wrote
Some forms which contain text data and PCL5 codes print out
differently on different printers. Specifically some fairly newish
machines, a HP 1320TN laser and a HP P2015n laser

One example of a command which gives different results is the printing
of the words Packing Slip in the test program below. One printer gives
a completely different font from the other for the same PCL5 string.

The HP printers both show default settings the same:
Font number 0, font pitch 10, font size 12, Symbol set PC-8.
The 1320TN refers to PCL5 whereas the P2015n refers to PCL5e

Is the software or the hardware the problem here ?

Any suggestions of things to try appreciated.

John Marshall
Christchurch NZ

H18.FONT = ESC : '(s18v1p0s+3b0T'
PRINT H18.FONT : 'PACKING SLIP'

Notice that modern HP printers will show
suitable escape strings with each entry of their
sample font table
printouts. Compare these shown strings from the two printers in
question, to see what differs for the font you
are attempting. And see if you can get same-font-same results on both
if you shift your requested sample size to a really common size, like
10v or 12v {10 or 12 points high, meaning respectively 12 or 10 pitch
wide by a happy coincidence -- called Elite and Pica on the IBM Selectric}
The font you favor may not 'reach' to oddly big or small sizes on both printers,
in which case you'll get shunted to some other native font that does reach.

You're asking for a certain vertical size, weight, and "typeface 0", which
really should have been a specific enough request...

Remember that LaserJets {and emulations of same} retain many many
settings even across power outages, like
'print the sheets "toes first" or maybe "head first"'
and
"number of lines top margin" << zero is often a bad choice, causes
loss of a line of data on each page, on all the printers I've used>>
and sadly not all the important settings are available from just the
printer's built-in little menu tree on the LCD panel, instead needs to be
programmed with escape codes.



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