PCL III Help and Reducing File Size

  • Thread starter Thread starter Shoaib
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Shoaib

I am trying to incorporate printing features in one of my projects.
The device that I am working on will transmit data to a printer thru a
Bluetooth link. I have been able to successfully print documents. The
problem is that I want to reduce file size. Currently I am using PCL
III. Here are a few questions that I have:

1- the document contains Plots with text and company's logo. These
graphics make the doc size big aboyt 250KB. Which takes almost 35 secs
to transfer and print. I am using HP's printer for right now. I am
using something on the lines of "Print to file" and then send that
file to the printer. Can I somehow govern how the graphics will be
handled. Can I reduce the size somehow.

2- Will changing the print resolution have any effect on the file
size? if yes then how can i govern it.

3- How can I make the driver to treat text as ascii characters rather
than changing it to graphics.


Thanks,
Shoaib
 
I am trying to incorporate printing features in one of my projects.
The device that I am working on will transmit data to a printer thru a
Bluetooth link. I have been able to successfully print documents. The
problem is that I want to reduce file size. Currently I am using PCL
III. Here are a few questions that I have:

1- the document contains Plots with text and company's logo. These
graphics make the doc size big aboyt 250KB. Which takes almost 35 secs
to transfer and print. I am using HP's printer for right now. I am
using something on the lines of "Print to file" and then send that
file to the printer. Can I somehow govern how the graphics will be
handled. Can I reduce the size somehow.

2- Will changing the print resolution have any effect on the file
size? if yes then how can i govern it.

3- How can I make the driver to treat text as ascii characters rather
than changing it to graphics.


Thanks,
Shoaib
Click to expand...


Assuming you are using Windows you might want to look at getting the
logo turned into a true type font, then it will only get loaded at the
start of the job rather than every time it is printed. You might also
be able to store the logo as a macro on the printer and call it, it
reallys depends on the software you are using.

Tony Edgecombe
www.frogmorecs.com/ng
Software for printing
 
I am trying to incorporate printing features in one of my projects.
The device that I am working on will transmit data to a printer thru a
Bluetooth link. I have been able to successfully print documents. The
problem is that I want to reduce file size. Currently I am using PCL
III. Here are a few questions that I have:

1- the document contains Plots with text and company's logo. These
graphics make the doc size big aboyt 250KB. Which takes almost 35 secs
to transfer and print. I am using HP's printer for right now. I am
using something on the lines of "Print to file" and then send that
file to the printer. Can I somehow govern how the graphics will be
handled. Can I reduce the size somehow.

2- Will changing the print resolution have any effect on the file
size? if yes then how can i govern it.

3- How can I make the driver to treat text as ascii characters rather
than changing it to graphics.
Click to expand...

Some thoughts though I'm no expert. IIRC, the LJIII version of PCL
supported some type of compression to shorten the transmission time. Yes
changing the res should influence the size of the print job, especially for
anything that is bit mapped. As for text, if you restrict the fonts to
those resident in the printer itself, this will help. So that means no True
Type fonts.
 
Assuming you are using Windows you might want to look at getting the
logo turned into a true type font, then it will only get loaded at the
start of the job rather than every time it is printed. You might also
be able to store the logo as a macro on the printer and call it, it
reallys depends on the software you are using.

Tony Edgecombe
www.frogmorecs.com/ng
Software for printing
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply Tony,
It is totally an embedded project. We are going to develop the driver.
We are using Micro C OS. The device sends few pages of reports to the
printer through Bluetooth Link. We want to somehow reduce the file
size. Text is not a problem but when it comes to grpahics we are a
little clueless on how to have graphics but still not use a lot of
space. Can the idea of macro still work? do you have any documentation
on PCLIII? Can we do it with something other than PCL?

Thanks,
Shoaib
 
Thanks for the reply Tony,
It is totally an embedded project. We are going to develop the driver.
We are using Micro C OS. The device sends few pages of reports to the
printer through Bluetooth Link. We want to somehow reduce the file
size. Text is not a problem but when it comes to grpahics we are a
little clueless on how to have graphics but still not use a lot of
space. Can the idea of macro still work? do you have any documentation
on PCLIII? Can we do it with something other than PCL?

Thanks,
Shoaib
Click to expand...

HP has some PCL documentation on their web site.

Tony
 
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