PCLT — PCL 5 Table

The PCLT table was introduced for compatibility with Hewlett-Packard PCL 5 printer language. Use of the PCLT table in OpenType fonts is strongly discouraged. More information on fields in this table can be found in PCL 5 Printer Language Technical Reference Manual, available from Hewlett-Packard Boise Printer Division.

The format for the table is:

Type	Name
uint16	majorVersion
uint16	minorVersion
uint32	fontNumber
uint16	pitch
uint16	xHeight
uint16	style
uint16	typeFamily
uint16	capHeight
uint16	symbolSet
int8	typeface[16]
int8	characterComplement[8]
int8	fileName[6]
int8	strokeWeight
int8	widthType
uint8	serifStyle
uint8	(reserved—set to 0)

majorVersion and minorVersion

The current PCLT table version is 1.0.

fontNumber

This 32-bit number is segmented in two parts. The most significant bit indicates native versus converted format. Only font vendors should create fonts with this bit zeroed. The 7 next most significant bits are assigned by Hewlett-Packard Boise Printer Division to major font vendors. The least significant 24 bits are assigned by the vendor. Font vendors should attempt to ensure that each of their fonts is marked with unique values.

Code	Vendor
A	Adobe Systems
B	Bitstream Inc.
C	Agfa Corporation
H	Bigelow & Holmes
L	Linotype Company
M	Monotype Typography Ltd.

pitch

The width of the space in font design units, as defined by the unitsPerEm field of the 'head' table. Monospace fonts derive the width of all characters from this field.

xHeight

The height of the optical line describing the height of the lowercase x in font design units. This might not be the same as the measured height of the lowercase x.

style

The most significant 6 bits are reserved. The 5 next most significant bits encode structure. The next 3 most significant bits encode appearance width. The 2 least significant bits encode posture.

Structure (bits 5 – 9)

0	Solid (normal, black)
1	Outline (hollow)
2	Inline (incised, engraved)
3	Contour, edged (antique, distressed)
4	Solid with shadow
5	Outline with shadow
6	Inline with shadow
7	Contour, or edged, with shadow
8	Pattern filled
9	Pattern filled #1 (when more than one pattern)
10	Pattern filled #2 (when more than two patterns)
11	Pattern filled #3 (when more than three patterns)
12	Pattern filled with shadow
13	Pattern filled with shadow #1 (when more than one pattern or shadow)
14	Pattern filled with shadow #2 (when more than two patterns or shadows)
15	Pattern filled with shadow #3 (when more than three patterns or shadows)
16	Inverse
17	Inverse with border
18 – 31	(reserved)

Width (bits 2 – 4)

0	normal
1	condensed
2	compressed, extra condensed
3	extra compressed
4	ultra compressed
5	(reserved)
6	expanded, extended
7	extra expanded, extra extended

Posture (bits 0 – 1)

0	upright
1	oblique, italic
2	alternate italic (backslanted, cursive, swash)
3	(reserved)

typeFamily

The 4 most significant bits are font vendor codes. The 12 least significant bits are typeface family codes. Both are assigned by HP Boise Division.

Vendor Codes (bits 12 – 15)

0	(reserved)
1	Agfa Corporation
2	Bitstream Inc.
3	Linotype Company
4	Monotype Typography Ltd.
5	Adobe Systems
6	font repackagers
7	vendors of unique typefaces
8 – 15	(reserved)

capHeight

The height of the optical line describing the top of the uppercase H in font design units. This might not be the same as the measured height of the uppercase H.

symbolSet

The most significant 11 bits are the value of the symbol set “number” field. The value of the least significant 5 bits, when added to 64, is the ASCII value of the symbol set “ID” field. Symbol set values are assigned by HP Boise Division. Unbound fonts, or “typefaces” should have a symbol set value of 0. See the PCL 5 Printer Language Technical Reference Manual or the PCL 5 Comparison Guide for the most recent published list of codes.

Examples

	PCL	decimal
Windows 3.1 “ANSI”	19U	629
Windows 3.0 “ANSI”	9U	309
Adobe “Symbol”	19M	621
Macintosh	12J	394
PostScript ISO Latin 1	11J	362
PostScript Std. Encoding	10J	330
Code Page 1004	9J	298
DeskTop	7J	234

typeface

This 16-byte ASCII string appears in the “font print” of PCL printers. Care should be taken to ensure that the base string for all typefaces of a family are consistent, and that the designators for bold, italic, etc. are standardized.

Example

Times New
Times New	Bd
Times New	It
Times New	BdIt
Courier New
Courier New	Bd
Courier New	It
Courier New	BdIt

characterComplement

This 8-byte field identifies the symbol collections provided by the font, each bit identifies a symbol collection and is independently interpreted. Symbol set bound fonts should have all bits in this field set (except bit 0).

Examples

DOS/PCL Complement	0xFFFFFFFF003FFFFE
Windows 3.1 “ANSI”	0xFFFFFFFF37FFFFFE
Macintosh	0xFFFFFFFF36FFFFFE
ISO 8859-1 Latin 1	0xFFFFFFFF3BFFFFFE
ISO 8859-1,2,9 Latin 1,2,5	0xFFFFFFFF0BFFFFFE

The character collections identified by each bit are as follows:

31	ASCII (supports several standard interpretations)
30	Latin 1 extensions
29	Latin 2 extensions
28	Latin 5 extensions
27	Desktop Publishing Extensions
26	Accent Extensions (East and West Europe)
25	PCL Extensions
24	Macintosh Extensions
23	PostScript Extensions
22	Code Page Extensions

The character complement field also indicates the index mechanism used with an unbound font. Bit 0 must always be cleared when the font elements are provided in Unicode order.

fileName

This 6-byte field is composed of 3 parts. The first 3 bytes are an industry standard typeface family string. The fourth byte is a treatment character, such as R, B, I. The last two characters are either zeroes for an unbound font or a two-character mnemonic for a symbol set if symbol set found.

Examples

TNRR00	Times New (text weight, upright)
TNRI00	Times New Italic
TNRB00	Times New Bold
TNRJ00	Times New Bold Italic
COUR00	Courier
COUI00	Courier Italic
COUB00	Courier Bold
COUJ00	Courier Bold Italic

Treatment flags

R	Text, normal, book, etc.
I	Italic, oblique, slanted, etc.
B	Bold
J	Bold Italic, Bold Oblique
D	Demibold
E	Demibold Italic, Demibold Oblique
K	Black
G	Black Italic, Black Oblique
L	Light
P	Light Italic, Light Oblique
C	Condensed
A	Condensed Italic, Condensed Oblique
F	Bold Condensed
H	Bold Condensed Italic, Bold Condensed Oblique
S	Semibold (lighter than demibold)
T	Semibold Italic, Semibold Oblique

Other treatment flags are assigned over time.

strokeWeight

This int8 field contains the PCL stroke weight value. Only values in the range -7 to 7 are valid:

-7	Ultra Thin
-6	Extra Thin
-5	Thin
-4	Extra Light
-3	Light
-2	Demilight
-1	Semilight
0	Book, text, regular, etc.
1	Semibold (Medium, when darker than Book)
2	Demibold
3	Bold
4	Extra Bold
5	Black
6	Extra Black
7	Ultra Black, or Ultra

Type designers often use interesting names for weights or combinations of weights and styles, such as Heavy, Compact, Inserat, Bold No. 2, etc. PCL stroke weights are assigned on the basis of the entire family and use of the faces. Typically, display faces don’t have a “text” weight assignment.

widthType

This int8 field contains the PCL appearance width value. The values are not directly related to those in the appearance with field of the style word above. Only values in the range -5 to 5 are valid.

-5	Ultra Compressed
-4	Extra Compressed
-3	Compressed, or Extra Condensed
-2	Condensed
0	Normal
2	Expanded
3	Extra Expanded

serifStyle

This uint8 field contains the PCL serif style value. The most significant 2 bits of this byte specify the serif/sans or contrast/monoline characteristics of the typeface.

Bottom 6 bit values:

0	Sans Serif Square
1	Sans Serif Round
2	Serif Line
3	Serif Triangle
4	Serif Swath
5	Serif Block
6	Serif Bracket
7	Rounded Bracket
8	Flair Serif, Modified Sans
9	Script Nonconnecting
10	Script Joining
11	Script Calligraphic
12	Script Broken Letter

Top 2 bit values:

0	(reserved)
1	Sans Serif/Monoline
2	Serif/Contrasting
3	(reserved)