HP PCL/PJL reference - Printer Job Language Technical Reference Manual

EN Using PJL 3-1
3
Using PJL
Introduction
This chapter describes how PJL commands are used. After reading
this chapter, you can create basic jobs and perform simple PJL tasks,
such as printer language switching and changing some PJL feature
settings.
To give you an understanding of where to look for more PJL
information, this chapter explains how the manual categorizes PJL
commands into groups of related commands. Each command has a
brief description of its function to help familiarize you with the PJL
language.
Note Each PJL printer supports a different set of PJL commands. See
Appendix A for printer-specific information.
Note For information about products newer than those included in this
book, see the Printer Job Language Technical Reference Addendum,
which includes product-specific information about newer products, as
well as commands and variables added to PJL to support these
newer products.
Overview of How Commands are Used
As previously explained, PJL resides “above” other printer languages
such as PCL and PostScript. PJL commands encapsulate the printer
language jobs, as shown in Figure 3-1. The Universal Exit Language
(UEL) command allows the printer to alternate between interpreting
PJL commands and printer language commands. (Although PCL and
PostScript are shown in Figure 3-1, other printer languages can be
involved.)