Brother HL-Series Technical Reference Manual page 95

Revision C 16/01/96
• # = 5 indicates that adaptive compression is to be used.
This compression compresses multiple rows (block) into one transfer graphics command.
Most of other compression method compresses only one row to one transfer graphics command.
One transfer graphic command (ESC *b##W) can contain only up to 32,767 bytes.
As mode 5 compression compresses multiple rows, the amount of transferred data may become large.
If compressed data exceeds this limit, please reduce the number of rows in one block.
We can use mode 0 to mode 3 compression to compress each row. We can even compress empty (white) rows
and duplicate rows in this compression.
Command byte
Mode 5 compressed data consists of multiple elements. Each element contains 3 header bytes at the biginning.
The first byte of the header bytes is a command byte.
First byte
0
1
2
3
4
5
Command byte
0 - This element is an uncompressed row. Next two bytes contain byte count of uncompressed data.
Uncompressed data follows the header.
1 - This element identifies compressed row. Compression method is mode 1. Next two bytes (upper
byte first) contain byte count of compressed data. Compressed data follows the header.
2 - This element identifies a compressed row. Compression method is mode 2. Next two bytes
(upper byte first) contain byte count of compressed data. Compressed data follows the header
3 - This element identifies a compressed row. Compression method is mode 3. Next two bytes
(upper byte first) contain byte count of compressed data. Compressed data follows the header
4 - This element identifies multiple empty rows. Next two bytes (upper byte first) contain empty
row count.
5 - This element identifies duplicate rows. Next two bytes (upper byte first) contain duplicate row
count.
• # = 9 Mode 9 compression
Like mode 3 compression, this compression (mode 9) data contains only the difference of the current row from
the preceding row.
Replacement data often consists of a repetition of a particular byte in mode 3 compression.
Mode 9 compression is effective in such cases.
Simple mode 9 compression data consists of a command byte and the replacement data.
A Command byte consists of 3 parts. They are the control bit, the offset count and the replacement count.
The Control bit is the most significant bit (bit 7) of a control byte.
Unencoded
Run-length Encoding
TIFF
Delta Row compression
Empty Row
Duplicate Row
Chapter 2 "PCL" - 80
Second, third byte
Number of a block data
Number of empty row or repetition