  Errant Printer Percent Postscript Autosense? 
 The Question is:
 
I have some very specific text only (not Post-script) files that are only half
 printed to a HP Laserjet5Si printer, before the printer suddenly starts
 interpreting the job as postscript and then fails because, of course, the data
 trying to be interpretted
 as postscript simply isn't.
 
This does not occur on every file - about 1 in 10,000 perhaps, which happen to
 contain many lines starting with a '%' character.
 
I can force a correct printout of such files by sending the escape codes to the
 printer to force PCL rather than Postscript by adding them to the top and
 bottom of the file (Esc%-12345X@PJL LANGUAGE = PCL and Esc%-12345X).
 
However, when I add these escape codes to the existing modules (including the
 'RESET' module)in the system library the printer uses, they are ignored.  I
 have even enclosed these escape codes within a 'EscP' and 'Esc\' as otherwise
 I have read that these
codes are interpretted 'incorrectly' by OpenVMS (being non-ANSI) leading to a
 blank page before the print out starts.
 
We are using LAT as the network protocol for printing.
We have no requirement for Postscript printing from OpenVMS.
 
Is there any way I can successfully force these HP escape codes to the printer
 to force non-Postscript mode using HP's escape codes with modules in a system
 library?
 
Other such codes in these modules are interpretted correctly (e.g. portrait,
 landscape etc).
 
Many thanks.
 
 The Answer is :
 
  This does not appear to be an OpenVMS problem, this appears specific
  to the particular printer involved and its interpretation of the data
  being received.  Please contact the printer vendor for assistance and
  configuration options, and for information on the current firmware
  revision and for details of how the file format determination is
  made (assuming the printer is attempting to sense the format).
  If this is a problem with autosensing within the printer, you are
  left to seek the assistance of the printer vendor, or send data that
  will not trigger the Postscript interpreter, or to prefix the file with
  text from (say) the device control library or with a request for the
  standard print header text (and thus get text other than the existing
  text containing the percent signs to the top of the file).
 
 Answer written or last revised on  7-DEC-2001 
