What is the difference between pcl and ps

Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. What are the differences between these drivers? Are their certain advantages to using one type of the other? Becareful, printing from non-Adobe products using a PS driver can cause the printer to print endless pages of PostScript code.

Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Printer Drivers. Ask Question. PCL is supported by many different operating systems which allows for the same printer to work in many different environments.

PostScript language, or PS, is a common printing language also used widely by many different printer manufacturers. It is used heavily in Macintosh platforms and for graphic applications in several platforms. It is a device-independent page description language developed by Adobe, which is used to print and display pictures and text. PostScript 3 includes many enhancements to older versions of PostScript, including improved image quality and color.

The information in the PPD is presented via the printer driver. Home Support. The following information highlights some differences between the PCL and Postscript drivers print queues , which may aid in choising the best one for particular situations.

Note that for Mac and Linux users , PostScript is the only version of queue available - though the new Jan StaffPrint-PS queue is still optimised for performance compared to the previously available queue.

Computing and Information Services. This means that the drivers make use of printer hardware for creating some of the printed output eg graphical items, underlines or fonts. Later, the users used it with various printers such as thermal, matrix and page printers.

In PCL too, there are various versions. PCL 1 provided basic text and graphics printing with a maximum resolution of dpi dots per inch. It is obsolete now. However, the next version, the PCL 2, is still in use with several impact printers.

It has more functionalities, such as data processing and transactions. Also, it supports bitmap fonts. Moreover, its maximum resolution is dpi. PostScript is a page description language.