This is a description of the ESC/P2 raster commands used by the Gimp-Print printer driver, which is a subset of the complete command set. The full documents are found on http://www.ercipd.com/isv/edr_docs.htm. Note that these are not always correct, and are certainly not complete.
All ESCP/2 raster commands begin with the ESC character (0x1b), followed by either one or two command characters and arguments where applicable. Older commands generally have one command character. Newer commands usually have a ‘(’ (left parenthesis) followed by a command character and a byte count for the arguments that follow. The byte count is a 16-bit (2 byte) binary integer, in little endian order.
All arguments listed here are of the form name[bytes] where [bytes] is the number of bytes that comprise the argument. The arguments themselves are usually one, two, or four byte integers, always little endian (the least significant bits come first). Presumably this is to match Intel processors.
In some cases, the same command sequence identifies different versions of the same command, depending upon the number of bytes of arguments.
ESC/P2 Commands
Reset the printer. Discards any output, ejects the existing page, returns all settings to their default. Always use this before printing a page.
Turn on graphics mode. ON should be
1
(turn on graphics mode).
Set basic unit of measurement used by printer. This is
expressed in multiples of 1/3600". At 720 DPI,
UNIT is 5
; at
360 DPI, UNIT is
10
.
Set basic units of measurement used by the printer.
PAGEUNIT is the unit of page
measurement (for commands that set page dimensions and
the like). VUNIT is the unit of
vertical measurement (for vertical movement commands).
HUNIT is the unit of horizontal
movement (for horizontal positioning commands). All of
these units are expressed in
BASEUNIT, which is in reciprocal
inches. Typically, BASEUNIT is
1440
. In 720 DPI mode,
PAGEUNIT, VUNIT,
and HUNIT are all
2
; in 1440×720 DPI mode,
PAGEUNIT and VUNIT
are normally set to 2
;
HUNIT is set to
1
.
Set color or grayscale mode, on printers supporting an
explicit grayscale mode. These printers can be
identified because they are advertised as having more
black nozzles than nozzles of individual colors.
Setting grayscale mode allows use of these extra nozzles
for faster printing. GRAYMODE should
be 0
or 2
for
color, 1
for grayscale.
ZERO should always be
0
.
If MICROWEAVE is
1
, use microweave mode. On older
printers, this is used to turn on microweave; on newer
printers, it prints one row at a time. All printers
support this mode. It should only be used at 720 (or
1440×720) DPI. The Epson Stylus Pro series
indicates additional modes:
2
“Full-overlap”
3
“Four-pass”
4
“Full-overlap 2”
Any of these commands can be used with the high four
bits set to either 3
or
0
.
If DIRECTION is
1
, print unidirectionally; if
0
, print bidirectionally.
On some older printers, this controls the print head
speed. SPEED of
2
is 10 inches/sec;
SPEED of 0
or 1
is 20.
Choose print dotsize. DOTSIZE can
take on various values, depending upon the printer.
Almost all printers support 0
and
2
. Variable dot size printers
allow a value of 16. Other than the
value of 16, this appears to be
ignored at resolutions of 720 DPI and above.
Set the length of the page in “pageunits” (see ESC (U above). The second form of the command allows setting of longer page lengths on new printers (these happen to be the printers that support variable dot size).
Set the vertical page margins of the page in “pageunits” (see ESC (U above). The margins are specified as the top of the page and the length of the page. The second form of the command allows setting of longer page lengths on new printers (these happen to be the printers that support variable dot size).
Set the width and length of the printed page region in “pageunits” (see ESC (U above).
Feed vertically ADVANCE “vertical units” (see ESC (U above) from the current print head position.
Feed vertically ADVANCE “vertical units” (see ESC (U above) from the top margin.
Set horizontal position to OFFSET from the left margin. This command operates on printers of the 740 class and newer (all printers with variable dot size).
Set horizontal position to OFFSET from the left margin. This command operates on printers of the 740 class and newer (all printers with variable dot size).
Set horizontal position to OFFSET from the previous print head position, measured in UNITS. UNITS is measured in inverse inches, and should be set to 1440 in all cases. This operates on all 1440 dpi printers that do not support variable dot size.
Set horizontal position to OFFSET from the previous print head position, measured in “horizontal units” (see ESC (U above). This operates on all variable dot size printers.
Set horizontal position to OFFSET
from the previous print head position, measured in basic
unit of measurement (see ESC (U
above). This is used on all 720 dpi printers, and can
also be used on 1440 dpi printers in lower resolutions
to save a few bytes. Note that
OFFSET may be negative. The range of
values for this command is between
-16384
and
16383
.
Set the ink color. The first form is used on four-color
printers; the second on six-color printers.
DENSITY is 0
for
dark inks, 1
for light.
COLOR is
This command is not used on variable dot size printers in softweave mode.
Print data. COMPRESS signifies the compression mode.
Table 5-2. Compression modes
COMPRESS | Compression mode |
---|---|
0 | No compression |
1 | TIFF compression (incorrectly documented as “run length encoded”) |
2 | TIFF compression with a special command set. |
VSEP depends upon resolution and
printer type. At 360 DPI, it is always
10
. At 720 DPI, it is normally
5
5. On the ESC 600, it is
40
(8 × 5}). On some other
printers, it varies.
HSEP1 is 10
at
360 DPI and 5
at 720 or 1440 DPI
(1440 DPI cannot be printed in one pass; it is printed
in two passes, with the dots separated in each pass by
1/720").
LINES is the number of lines to be
printed. It should be 1
in
microweave and 360 DPI. At 720 DPI softweave, it should
be the number of lines to be actually printed.
WIDTH is the number of pixels to be
printed in each row. Following this command, a carriage
return (13
decimal,
0A hex) should be output to return
the print head position to the left margin.
The basic data format is a string of bytes, with data from left to right on the page. Within each byte, the highest bit is first.
The TIFF compression is implemented as one count byte followed by one or more data bytes. There are two cases:
If the count byte is 128
or
less, it is followed by ([count] + 1) data bytes.
So if the count byte is 0
, it
is followed by 1 data byte; if it is
128
, it is followed by 129 data
bytes.
If the count byte is greater than 128, it is followed by one byte. This byte is repeated (257 - [count]) times. So if [count] is 129, the next byte is treated as though it were repeated 128 times; if [count] is 255, it is treated as though it were repeated twice.
Print data in the newer printers (that support variable dot size), and Stylus Pro models. COLOR is the color.
Table 5-3. Extended Colors
COLOR | Color name |
---|---|
0 | Black |
1 | Magenta |
2 | Cyan |
4 | Yellow |
5 | Alternate black (Stylus C70/C80) |
6 | Alternate black (Stylus C70/C80) |
16 | Gray (“light black”) |
17 | Light magenta |
18 | Light cyan |
COMPRESS signifies the compression mode:
Table 5-4. Compression modes
COMPRESS | Compression mode |
---|---|
0 | No compression |
1 | TIFF compression (incorrectly documented as “run length encoded”) |
2 | TIFF compression with a special command set, or “run length encoding 2” on some printers. |
BITS is the number of bits per pixel.
BYTES is the number of bytes wide for each row (ceiling(BITS × width_of_row, 8)}). Note that this is different from the ESC . command above.
LINES is the number of lines to be
printed. This command is the only way to get variable
dot size printing. In variable dot mode, the size of
the dots increases as the value (1
,
2
, or 3
)
increases.
Set printer horizontal and vertical spacing. It only applies to variable dot size printers in softweave mode (and possibly other high end printers).
BASE is the base unit for this
command; it must be 14400
.
VERTICAL is the distance in these units between printed rows; it should be ((separation_in_nozzles × BASE ÷ 720).
HORIZONTAL is the horizontal separation between dots in a row. Depending upon the printer, this should be either (14400 ÷ 720) or (14400 ÷ 360). The Stylus Pro 9000 manual suggests that the settings should match the chosen resolution, but that is apparently not the case (or not always the case) on other printers.
Enters “remote mode”. This is a special, undocumented command set that is used to set up various printer options, such as paper feed tray, and perform utility functions such as head cleaning and alignment. It does not appear that anything here is actually required to make the printer print. Our best understanding of what is in a remote command sequence is described in a separate section below.
Return the printer ID. This is considered a remote mode command, although the syntax is that of a conventional command. This returns the following information:
@EJL ID\r MFG:EPSON; CMD:ESCPL2,BDC; MDL:[printer model]; CLS:PRINTER; DES:EPSON [printer model]; \f |
After all data has been sent, a form feed byte should be sent.
All newer Epson printers (STC 440, STP 750) require the following command to be sent at least once to enable printing at all. This command specifically takes the printer out of the 1284.4 packet mode communication protocol and enables normal data transfer. Sending it multiple times is is not harmful, so it is normally sent at the beginning of each job:
The proper sequence of initialization commands is:
magic command ESC @ remote mode if needed ESC (G ESC (U ESC (K (if appropriate) ESC (i ESC U (if needed) ESC (s (if appropriate) ESC (e ESC (C ESC (c ESC (S ESC (D (if needed) ESC (V (optional -- this can be accomplished with ESC (v) |
For printing, the proper sequence is:
and repeat for each color:
ESC ($ or ESC (\ or ESC \ ESC (r or ESC r (if needed---not used with "ESC i" and not needed if the color has not changed from the previous printed line) ESC . or ESC i ...data... [return] (0A hex) |
To terminate a page: