View PCL files in your browser
HP's printer language, which LaserJets and most office printers speak. Open a PCL file right here, its pages drawn as they'd print. Nothing leaves your device.
Or drop it anywhere on this page
What you'll see
Your print job is drawn page by page inside your browser, as the printer would print it, then opens fitted to your window, with its pages beside it.
- Every page as it prints • Text, rules, pictures and plots
- Page thumbnails • Type a page to go to it
- Show details • The job's name, sender, paper and fonts
- Export • Save as PDF, PNG or JPEG
About PCL
HP made PCL in 1984 for its first LaserJets, and PCL 5, from 1990, became the language most laser printers understand: escape codes that move the cursor, pick fonts, draw rules and send pictures a row at a time, with HP-GL/2 for vector graphics and PJL lines around a job to name it.
PCL files come from Print to file with a PCL driver, and from business systems, banks and old software that print reports and statements straight to a printer and keep the jobs. Computers have no app that opens them, so they're usually sent to a printer as they are.
Filepeek reads the job in your browser with an interpreter of its own, drawing each page with the printer's fonts set in stand-ins of the same widths, the fonts the job downloads, rules and shading, its colors, compressed pictures and HP-GL/2 plots. Show details gives the job's name, its paper, fonts and pictures, and Export saves it as a PDF, or its pages as PNG or JPEG.
Printer Command Language
.pcl
Format
- MIME type
- application/vnd.hp-pcl
- Made by
- HP
- Released
- 1984
Inside the file
- Text
- In the printer's fonts, or ones the job downloads
- Rules
- Lines, boxes and gray shading
- Pictures
- Sent a row at a time, often compressed
- Plots
- HP-GL/2 vector graphics
Opens in every browser
Filepeek opens PCL files in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari, PCL 5 and PCL 5 color alike. On their own, browsers download them, and Windows, macOS, iOS and Android have no app that shows one.
- YouChromeOpens through Filepeek
- YouEdgeOpens through Filepeek
- YouFirefoxOpens through Filepeek
- YouSafariOpens through Filepeek
Apps that open PCL
- WindowsNo app built in opens it • Copy it to a PCL printer
- MacNo app built in opens it
- iPhone and iPadNo app built in opens it
- AndroidNo app built in opens it
Questions
How do I turn a PCL file into a PDF?
Open it here, choose Export, then Save as PDF. Its pages are drawn into the PDF in your browser, so nothing is uploaded.
Why does my PCL file look a little different from the printout?
The printer's built-in fonts aren't on your computer, so Filepeek sets that text in free fonts with the same widths, like Arimo for Arial and Tinos for Times New Roman, and lines break where they did. Fonts the job downloads are drawn as they came.
What's the difference between PCL and PCL XL?
PCL 5 is escape codes and text, and PCL XL, sold as PCL 6, is a binary language HP made in 1996 for printing from Windows. Most printers take both, and Filepeek opens both.
How do I print a PCL file again?
Send it as it is to a printer that speaks PCL, with copy /b on Windows or lpr -o raw on a Mac. Or save it here as a PDF and print that on any printer.