HP 2500 HP PCL/PJL reference - Printer Job Language Technical Reference Manual - Page 19

PCL Jobs When non-PJL printers receive PCL jobs, any PJL commands that precede the initial PCL printer reset command (E) print as ASCII text. When the initial printer reset command is received, it causes a page eject and the PCL job begins on a new page. The end result is a page or more of PJL commands followed by the PCL job, and possibly followed by more PJL commands. The PCL job should print as it would without any PJL commands, as long as the PCL portion of the job begins and ends with a PCL printer reset command. However, a page of PJL commands printed before and probably after the PCL job can be expected. For those PCL applications that do not begin with a PCL printer reset command (or another PCL command that forces a page eject when preceded by printable data), the PJL commands are printed as ASCII text on the same page as the PCL job. A good portion of the job may be unusable due to unpredictable page breaks and overprinted text on the first page. PostScript Jobs When non-PJL printers are running in PostScript mode, PJL commands cause a PostScript error and prevent the job from printing. Pressing the printer's Continue key removes the error message, but the error causes the printer to discard the PostScript job. Other Printer Languages PJL code is interpreted differently when running different printer languages on non-PJL printers. To avoid printing problems, do not use PJL commands when printing to any non-PJL printer, regardless of which printer language is used. EN Introduction to PJL 1-5