HP PCL/PJL reference (PCL 5 Printer Language) - Technical Reference Manual Part I
EN Introduction 3-1
3
The Print 
Environment
Introduction 
The group of all of the printer’s current feature settings, 
collectively, is referred to as the print environment. The printer 
maintains four print environments: the Factory Default 
Environment, the User Default Environment, the Modified 
Print Environment and the Overlay Environment. This chapter 
describes the Factory Default Environment, the User Default 
Environment, and the Modified Print Environment (the Overlay 
Environment is described in Chapter 12, Macros). 
Default settings refer to the settings programmed into the printer 
at the factory or settings selected using the control panel. The 
term “default” simply refers to the settings the printer uses unless 
printer commands select other settings.
Each time a job is printed, some of the printer’s feature settings 
may be changed from their default values to produce the desired 
printed output for that job. After the job prints, the job-specific 
feature settings are longer be required, since the next job is likely 
to have different output requirements. The next job should clear 
all previous job settings by performing a reset. This allows a job 
to start with the default settings as a known base set, and vary 
only those settings that are needed. Starting with the default 
environment at the beginning of each print job eliminates the 
need to set every feature each time a job is run.
Note The print environment features presented in this chapter are for a 
variety of HP LaserJet printers. Not all of the features are applicable 
to every printer. To identify variations and default settings for specific 
printers, refer to Chapter 3 of the PCL 5 Comparison Guide.










