Well, assuming you want full color, you have to create a three plane image. It's usually easier to work with CMY when dealing with inks. It would go like...

<esc>*b###V.........................Cyan data
<esc>*b###V.........................Magenta data
<esc>*b###W.........................Yellow data

Note the W in the third row. The V command does not advance the cursor to a new row. The W command does, so it only appears on the last row, thus overlay the color components on top of each other and then advance the row after all three components have been printed.

In BW we advance the row every time with the W command as you would expect.

I would have a look on HP's website for info.

You are responsible for dithering the image. Now if you get a PCL5 color printer, the printer can do the dithering for you.

Jim Asman

Thanks Jim. Well it's a deskjet so it uses PCL 3 enhanced
I think rather than PCL 4 or 5. I've tried to use
Ec*c##h##v20g2P
to shade and it ignores it. I can use chr$(176) or 177 or
178 but can't really get it light enough for what I want.

Is the 'DATA' what you are printing ? like text/chr$()/etc ?
If so, I would assume it's repeated each time.

What's the limit of numbers for the CMY palette
(i.e. for C, M, and Y individually)

Thanks for your fase response.

oops - i meant fast response