Changing Legacy PCL Tray Assignments for a New Printer

Posted on | February 14, 2012 | No Comments

How to edit PCL for Printer Migration

Follow the steps listed below to go from an existing printer with multi-tray/bin assignments to a new printer with different tray/bin assignments.

  1. Use PCLCodes.exe that is included with PCLWorks Program or PCL Tool SDK  to disassemble/translate your PCL file into a readable ASCII .TXT file.
  2. Open the .PCL file and the .TXT file in a programmer’s (binary) editor.  It must be a binary editor or you could alter the file in unexpected ways.
  3. Search the .TXT file for a “Select Paper Source” line like: “[ ESC & l 5 H ] Select Paper Source: Optional”.
  4. Now determine how many trays are being assigned.  Each tray has it’s own number (“5″ in the example above).
  5. Search and Replace all the occurrences of “[ESC]&l5H” with the numeric value required by the new printer.
  6. Repeat this process changing the numeric value for all the different tray assignments that you found in the .TXT search.

Additional Methods:

  • PCLFilter.exe Program Method: Use PCLFilter to globally search and replace PCL Escape Codes.
  • PCLXForm Script Progam Method:  Use a custom PCLXForm .tpt script to more selectively change tray assignments.

 

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Category: Error Message Handling Options, Escape Codes, Optimization, Optimize PCL, PCL Printing, PCL Troubleshooting
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