[This followup was posted to comp.periphs.printers and a copy was sent
to the cited author.]
petegeo47 said:
Can anyone help? I have an HP LaserJet 1015 and I want to be able to
print "Hello World" in a couple of places/sizes, (for a start anyway)
using PCL.
I am told the file should be sent directly to the printer without it
going via a Windows program, which I understand would change the file.
I'm running XP Pro.
Any clues would be most welcome.
Create a text file with the code you want to print.
If the printer is connected directly to a parallel port, you can do
this:
COPY /b FILENAME PRN
If the printer is on a USB port, you need to share it first. Just
right-click it from start/printers, and turn on sharing, giving it a
simple name (no spaces.)
Create a dummy printer port (optional):
NET USE LPT2 \\yourprinter\printershare (This will not work with
Win9x/ME)
You can then do:
COPY /b filename LPT2
You can also print to yours, or any network printer, like this:
COPY /b filename \\thecomputer\printershare
The '/b' means to do a binary copy (use the file size to know how much
to copy). Without that, Windows will stop at the first Ctrl-Z character
it finds, a legacy of the CP/M operating system MS-DOS was sort-of
emulating. In those days, files were often stored in 256 or 512-byte
blocks without exact byte sizes stored in the directory. The ^Z (Ctrl-Z)
marked the end of a text file so it didn't continue and send junk.
