Avery Dennison PCL - Manual (Page 7)

PAXAR PCL Users Guide •••• 5
Format Header
The Format Header contains information that pertains to the physical characteristics of
the tag and any other print characteristics. There are several commands that are
necessary for the format header information. The first is ~XA. The XA command is
the start command for a format header. This command is required at the beginning of
every format that is sent to a printer.
The next two commands which must follow the XA command are the ~XW and ~XP
commands. These commands tell the printer the tags web size and pull size. It is
important that these commands are included in the format header because the printer
cannot print the tags correctly if these commands are omitted or are incorrect. These
commands should also be the first format header commands sent to the printer because
other header commands use the size information from these commands.
WEB SIZE
PULL SIZE
For a tag that has a web size of 3" the command would be ~XW3000. (All
measurements are in units of thousandths of an inch.) For a pull size of 2-1/4", the
command would be ~XP2250. If the tag is a sense mark tag, the best way to determine
the pull size is to measure from the leading edge of one sense mark to the leading edge
of the next sense mark on a continuous roll of stock.
Note: When using Pressure Sensitive stock you must use the distance from sense mark
to sense mark for the tag's pull length but remember when you are laying out
the fields that the actual sticker area which is printed on is smaller.
If the information which is to be printed on the stock is to be registered to a sense mark,
the command ~XM must be used to tell the printer what type of sense mark is being
used and the distance from the sense mark to the cut position. The cut position is
determined by measuring from the leading edge of the sense mark to the trailing edge
of the tag/label in the pull direction (see the drawing below). (The "leading edge" and
"trailing edge" are determined by the path of the stock through the printer. The leading
edge arrives at the printhead first and the trailing edge arrives at the printhead last.)
This distance is referred to as the “sense to cut” distance.