HP PCL/PJL reference (PCL 5 Printer Language) - Technical Reference Manual Part I

EN Introduction 6-1

Cursor Positioning

Introduction

This section describes the cursor positioning commands.

Although the printer does not actually have a cursor, the PCL

cursor position refers to the Current Active Position (CAP), like

the blinking underline character (cursor) used on most

computers. This “cursor” identifies the current position on the

page; the pointer, where a printing command begins laying out

page data. The cursor can be moved anywhere within the logical

page using a combination of horizontal and vertical cursor

positioning commands and control codes.

In addition to cursor commands positioning the cursor, the cursor

is automatically positioned after certain operations, such as

printing characters and graphics. After printing a character, the

cursor is positioned to the right, at a distance equal to the width

of that character. This is controlled by the character design

described under “Character Width” in Chapter 10, and allows

printing characters without requiring a cursor position command

for each character printed. When printing graphics, the cursor

can also be positioned at a new location. These new positions

are identified in the graphics sections.

HP-GL/2 vector graphics has its own HP-GL/2 cursor (referred

to as the “pen”) that can be positioned within the HP-GL/2

addressable area. For additional information on HP-GL/2 pen

positioning refer to Chapter 17, An Introduction to HP-GL/2

Vector Graphics.