There's a site called fixyourownprinter.com where you might get some
helpful information. While we're on the subject (and it's not really
Non-XyWrite, because if we're going to print directly from XyWrite DOS it
pretty much has to be HP or PostScript, Epson having abandoned ESC/P),
does anyone know if and where one can get a list of the HP PCL character
codes? I've been doing some experiments with the DJ 855C and 5150 using
the XyWrite DOS LJ drivers and am finding that while they work quite well
with the 855C, a lot of the fonts on the 5150 use some other encoding
than ASCII. Or than XyWrite's anyway. I mean things like a cap C coming
out a lc x. If necessary, I could probably do a complete remap (there
appears to be a consistent pattern across fonts), but what a hassle! And
on neither printer can I get smart quotes (and a few other typographic
niceties, like ellipsis points).
I'll have a more complete report when I've done additional testing, but
my preliminary finding is that HP definitely changed the specs between
the 800 and the 5100 series. Google searches on PCL or Intellifont (which
was the original scheme, and I had a list of the codes once but tossed
the manual that contained them. Grrr.) yield the usual plethora of
useless links.