PCL files and HP 3700n

[Chris Rendall]

This is what I did so I can print our invoices on plain paper on a color
HP LaserJet.  

I used Microsoft Publisher to design the form, including the color
company logo.  I used the PCL5c print driver for the HP 3700n printer
and I printed the document to disk.  I then used UltraEdit-32 to remove
the print codes I didn't need.

The part that I had a problem with is there was no start and stop raster
graphic codes like in the forms I've created in the past.  

I stripped out the codes I thought I didn't need but the data printed
from filePro was scrambled.  Looking through the file created in
Publisher it looks like it was including the font I used in the document
inside the PCL code and setting that font as the primary font.  I added
a print code 0x0e at the end of the PCL file to switch to the secondary
font and then the data printed correctly from filePro.  

It took me awhile to figure out what was going on with the scrambled
printout, but it was worth the effort.  I now have a color invoice that
prints out on plain paper that looks much better than the preprinted
forms we were using.  

I owe many thanks to Jim Asman and Nancy Palmquist for helping me debug
my printing problems.  I've been re-reading Jim's articles in filePro
Developer's Journal on PCL printing which provided much needed insight.

Chris