Standard Filter
Standard Filter Action tasks can be used to remove HP Escape characters from data files, as well as to eliminate spacing problems caused by LF-CR end-of-line sequences.
HP escape characters are used in the Hewlett Packard Printer Control Language (HP PCL) to communicate basic page formatting and font selection information from print jobs to HP or HP-compatible printers.
These characters, like other printer control characters that control how printers interpret and print jobs, are not meant to be printed.
If your print job is bound for an HP compatible printer, it may include these characters even when printing to a PostScript printer that does not recognize them. PReS Workflow provides an easy way to automatically filter these characters through its Standard Filter task.
Input
Text-based data files such as line printer data (see Line printer emulation) and ASCII data files (see ASCII emulation) data files, which contain HP PCL control characters.
Processing
All HP PCL characters are removed from the data file. Note that these characters are not interpreted, only stripped out.
Output
The modified data file, with stripped characters, is output from this task. Metadata, Job Info variables and other variables are not modified.
Task properties
General Tab
- Process job using ASCII emulation: Select to use the ASCII emulation to process the job file. This reverses LF-CR end-of-line sequences that may result in unwanted double-spacing.
- Remove and convert HP escape characters: Select to filter HP escape character sequences from the job file.
On Error Tab
For a description of the options on the On Error tab see Using the On Error tab.
Miscellaneous Tab
The Miscellaneous tab is common to all tasks.
It contains a text area (Task comments) that lets you write comments about the task. These comments are saved when the dialog is closed with the OK button and are displayed in The Task Comments Pane.
Check the option Use as step description to display the text next to the icon of the plugin in the Process area.
The tab also provides an option to highlight the task in The Process area with the default color, set in the Preferences (see Colors), or the color selected or defined under Highlight color on this tab.
To revert the selected highlight color to the default color, open this tab, turn the Highlight option off and close the dialog with the OK button; then turn highlighting back on.
Highlighting can also be turned on and off via the task's contextual menu and with the Highlight button on the View ribbon.