Printfil Manual - HP-PCL graphics printing engine (PCL)

Chapter 5.3 - HP-PCL graphics printing engine (PCL)

If your source program does use very complex HP-PCL graphical printer control codes, you can select the PCL printing engine at Configuration -> Standard in place of the GDI printing engine (please see the previous chapter) or the RAW printing engine (that forces you using only PCL capable printers).

This engine, in fact, allows sending prints containing graphical HP-PCL escape sequences to any Windows printer, even if that printer doesn't support the PCL language (including virtual printers, like PDF writers).

To enable it, you need to install GhostPCL in the PC, that's available under both an Open Source AGPL license and a commercial license, as described at the link below.

At this point:

1. Download the Win32 or Win64 version (depending if you're using a 32 or 64 bit Windows version) of GhostPCL:
   
   
   • If you're running Windows 10 or Windows 11: https://www.printfil.com/cgi-bin/connect.cgi?ghostpcl
     
   
   
   • If you're running a previous Windows version, download GhostPCL 9.50 (ghostpcl-9.50-win#error.zip): https://github.com/ArtifexSoftware/ghostpdl-downloads/releases/tag/gs950 (click on Assets to expand the list, if needed).


2. Extract the ZIP file in the root of the same drive where Windows is installed.
   For example, if you have a C:\Windows\ directory, you'll end up to have even a directory named something like C:\ghostpcl-9.50-win32\ or C:\ghostpcl-9.50-win64\

If the print preview is enabled at Configuration -> Standard, instead of using the integrated GDI Printfil's preview, the PCL print will be converted into a PDF file and shown inside the default PDF reader, so that you can eventually print it and/or send it by e-mail, so you also need to install GhostScript as described in Chapter 9 of this manual.

Going through a PDF (internally) is needed even if you wish to print to an A4 sheet, due to sometimes undesirable behavior in the current GhostPCL version.