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I've been searching everywhere but it seems like nobody can explain how to check which PCL version our printer use.

I need to know if the HP Color LaserJet MFP M477fdw with the driver hp smart universal printing 2.7.1.1569 supports PCL 6 ?

If yes, how to see which PCL version the printer is using ?

I tried to print the test page but there is no info about PCL on it, I also went in the printer properties under Advanced/Driver, but again no info...

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  • What’s your goal in this? The driver may not use PCL at all.
    – Daniel B
    Commented Oct 11, 2023 at 8:50
  • I need to debug something and we have to print "directly on the printer using PCL 6", from what colleague said, it use PCL
    – JVDev
    Commented Oct 11, 2023 at 8:51

2 Answers 2

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  1. What the printer supports receiving is listed in its specification sheet. It says:

    Print languages
    HP PCL 6, HP PCL 5c, HP postscript level 3 emulation, PCLm, PDF, URF, Native Office

    It's common for network printers to support more than one language – e.g. accepting PCL5(c/e) and PCL6 and PostScript is common.

  2. What the driver produces depends on its configuration. The docs for the "Smart Universal Printing" driver say that it will use PCL6 by default if the printer supports it (but can also use PostScript/PCL3/PCLmS), and that the driver does not support PCL5.

    HP Smart UPD generates PCL6 Page Description Language (PDL) by default if the printer supports it.
    This output can be changed to any other PDL which is supported by the device.

    For PDLs supported by the HP Smart UPD, see the Key differences table in Purpose and scope on page 1. To understand the method for changing the PDL output for HP Smart UPD, see the HP Smart Print Administrator Resource Kit (HP Smart PARK) User Guide on the Manuals page.

Since the default and the best version in common between both the driver and the printer is PCL6 – and since you need a specific tool to change it to PostScript – it's reasonable to assume that PCL6 is being used. The driver could have been set to PostScript if someone else installed it long ago, but you can rule out PCL5 as the driver doesn't support it (even if the printer does).

PCL is no longer a HP-only thing, so both Windows and CUPS have generic drivers available. If in doubt, you can add a new print queue in Windows and select the generic PCL6 driver as "Microsoft > Microsoft PCL6 Class Driver". (There's also a generic PostScript driver, although oddly no PCL5 nor PDF.)

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  • Thank you a lot for this quality answer !
    – JVDev
    Commented Oct 11, 2023 at 8:52
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u1686_grawity has already answered this correctly, but you can see for yourself on the built-in web configuration page…

enter image description here

Artificially composited in Photoshop.
You can access this from the HP Utility app.
I'm on Mac, so I'm not certain this is the correct page, but see https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/hp-universal-print-driver-series-for-windows/503548/model/3271558

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  • Lovely ! Thank you
    – JVDev
    Commented Oct 11, 2023 at 13:43

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