PCL raster color graphics distorted. Code included: what am I missing?

Question

The function below prints a color raster image to a PCL-5 printer. The function was adapted from a 2-color (1bpp) printing function we had that worked perfectly, except for the grainy 2-color printing. The problem is that the image comes out with a large black bar extending from the right of the image to the edge of the page like this:

  IMAGE#########################################
  IMAGE#########AREA COMPLETELY BLACK###########
  IMAGE#########################################

The image itself looks perfect, otherwise.

Various PCL-to-PDF tools don't show the image at all, which leads me to believe I've forgotten do to something. Appropriate resets (\u001bE\u001b%-12345X) were sent before, and page-feeds after.

Any PCL experts out there? I've got the PCL 5 Color Technical Reference Manual, and it's gotten me this far. This last thing is driving me crazy though.

*Edit: I now know what command is causing the problem, but I don't know why:

  stream("\u001b*r0F");

This should keep the image rotated along with the page (portrait, landscape). If I remove this, the problem goes away. I can compensate by rotating the bitmap beforehand, but I really want to know what caused this!

   static void PrintImage()
    {
        // Get an image into memory
        Image original = Image.FromFile("c:\\temp\\test.jpg");
        Bitmap newBitmap = new Bitmap(original, original.Width, original.Height);

        stream(String.Format("\u001b*p{0:d}x*p{1:d}Y", 1000, 1000));// Set cursor.
        stream("\u001b*t300R");                                     // 300 DPI
        stream(String.Format("\u001b*r{0:d}T", original.Height));   // Height
        stream(String.Format("\u001b*r{0:d}S", original.Width));    // Width

        stream("\u001b*r3U");      // 8-bit color palette
        stream("\u001b*r0F");      // Follow logical page layout (landscape, portrait, etc..)
        // Set palette depth, 3 bytes per pixel RGB
        stream("\u001b*v6W\u0000\u0003\u0000\u0008\u0008\u0008");  
        stream("\u001b*r1A");      // Start raster graphics
        stream("\u001b*b0M");      // Compression 0 = None, 1 = Run Length Encoding

        // Not fast, but fast enough.  
        List<byte> colors = new List<byte>();
        for (int y2 = 0; y2 < original.Height; y2++)
        {
            colors.Clear();
            for (int x2 = 0; x2 < original.Width; x2++)
            {
                Color c = newBitmap.GetPixel(x2, y2);
                colors.Add(c.R);
                colors.Add(c.G);
                colors.Add(c.B);
            }

            stream(String.Format("\u001b*b{0}W", colors.Count));     // Length of data to send
            streamBytes(colors.ToArray());                           // Binary data
        }
        stream("\u001b*rB");   // End raster graphics  (also tried *rC -- no effect)
    }

Answer 1

There are a few problems with your code. First off your cursor position code is incorrect, it should read:

"\u001b*p{0:d}x1:d}Y", 1000, 1000

This equates to:

<esc>*p1000x1000Y

you had:

<esc>*p1000x*p1000Y

When joining PCL commands together you match up the same parameterized value and group and then simply add value + parametrized character + value + parametrized character etc. Ensure that the final parametrized character is a capital letter which signifies the end of the PCL command.

Also when defining an image I recommend you also specify the width & hight in decipoints, this should help with the scaling of the image (*r3A) on the page so add this (just after your resolution command should be an okay place for it):

Int32 deciHeight = original.Height / (int)original.HorizontalResolution * 720;
Int32 deciWidth = original.Width / (int)original.VerticalResolution * 720;
stream("\u001b*t{0:d}h{1:d}V", deciHeight, deciWidth));

The other recommendation is to write all of this to file (watch your encodings) and use one of the handful of PCL viewers to view your data vs. always printing it. Should save you some time and a forest or two! I've tried all of them and wold recommend spending the $89 and purchasing pclWorks. They also have a complete SDK if you are going to do a lot of PCL. We don't use that as we hardcode all PCL ourselves but it does look good.

As for rotation, we've had problems on some device, You could just rotate the the jpg first (original.RotateFlip) an then write it out.

I don't have much time today but hope that my comments assist. I can test your code on Monday or Tuesday and work with it and post any further comments.

Keep in mind that even though PCL is a standard its support from manufacturer to manufacturer and device to device can be a problem and vastly different. When doing basic things most devices seem okay; however, if you get into macros or complex graphics you will find difference.

Answer 2

I'm trying to prints a color raster image to a PCL-5 printer too and I found you code. The only part I don't understand is stream and streamBytes. Can you help me? What type of variable are those?

Thanks, sr305

Answer 3

Thank you for the information. I tried and I get black solid rectangle and not image. What was the fixed? if it is not too much to ask. Best,

srina

Answer 4

Very good post. It helps me to convert JPEG to PCL. Output stream should be binary in order to write the data values correctly.