Byte ; Data - Page 85

2001/10/02 

CHAPTER 2 "PCL" - 65 

<Bitmap continuation data> 

Byte 

Data 

0-1 

Format 

Continuation 

2 

Raster Character Data 

• 

The bytes which follow the header are the raster data that make up the character. 

• 

Attributes are in one of four numerical formats. 

Unsigned integer (UI) 0 to 65535 

Signed integer (SI) –32768 to 32767 

Unsigned byte (UB) 0 to 255 

Boolean - 0 or 1 

• 

Format (UB) - 4 for bitmap fonts.  

• 

Continuation (B) - signifies whether the character data represents a new character (0) or is a continuation of 

the character described by the previous character descriptor block and its data (non-zero). If the continuation 
byte is non-zero the bytes following it are interpreted as character data. 

• 

Descriptor size (UB) - 14 for bitmap fonts.    

• 

Class (UB) - 1 for bitmap fonts, 2 for compressed bitmap fonts. Bitmap fonts are described using 

uncompressed raster data. Compressed bitmap fonts character data is encoded as follows. The first byte of a 
line of data contains the number of times that the line is successively repeated. The second byte indicates the 
number of successive white pixels that start the line and the third byte indicates the number of successive  
black pixels that follow the white pixels. Subsequent even and odd numbered bytes indicate the number of 
successive white and black pixels respectively that make up the line. If there are more than 255 successive 
pixels of a single color this is indicated by a byte set to 255 followed by a byte set to 0 followed by a byte 
indicating the remaining number of pixels of that color.  The width of each line is determined by the character 
width attribute. All rows must contain the same number of pixels. The total number of pixels on each row must 
equal the character width attribute. 

• 

Orientation (UB) - the orientation of the character. 0 = portrait, 1 = landscape, 2 = reverse portrait or 3 = 

reverse landscape. This attribute setting must match the orientation specified in the font descriptor block. 

• 

Left offset (SI) - the distance between the character reference point and the leftmost dot of the character on 

the grid. The offset can be from -16384 to 16383. 

• 

Top offset (SI) - the distance between the character reference point and the topmost dot of the character on 

the grid. The offset can be from -16384 to 16383. 

• 

Character width (UI) - the width of the download character in grid dots. This can be in the range 1 to 16384. 

• 

Character height (UI) - the height of the download character in grid dots. This can be in the range 1 to 16384. 

• 

Delta X (UI) - the horizontal distance from the bottom left hand corner of the character’s grid that the cursor is 

moved after the character is printed. The attribute is specified in units of 1/1200" and can be in the range -
32768 to 32767. 

[Intellifont scalable font data] 

Byte 

Data 

0-1 

Format 

Continuation 

2 - 3 

Descriptor size 

Class 

4 - 5 

Contour Character data 

Last data 

Reserved 

Checksum