View PCL XL files in your browser
PCL 6, the binary printer language Windows drivers send to most office lasers. Open a PXL 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 XL
HP made PCL XL in 1996 and sold it as PCL 6 Enhanced: a binary language closer to how Windows draws, each page a stream of operators and their attributes for paths, text in fonts the driver downloads, and compressed pictures. Most office printers take it, and Windows' PCL 6 drivers send it.
PXL files come from Print to file with a PCL 6 driver, often named .prn, and from print servers and software that keep jobs to print again. They hold the job ready for one kind of printer, so no app on a computer opens them.
Filepeek reads the stream in your browser with an interpreter of its own, drawing each page's paths, its text in the job's own fonts or stand-ins of the same widths, and its pictures in their colors. Show details gives the paper, what made the job, its resolution and fonts, and Export saves it as a PDF, or its pages as PNG or JPEG.
PCL 6 Enhanced (PCL XL)
.pxl
Format
- MIME type
- application/vnd.hp-pclxl
- Made by
- HP
- Released
- 1996
Inside the file
- Stream
- Binary operators and attributes, a page at a time
- Paths
- Lines, curves, rectangles and ellipses
- Text
- In fonts the driver downloads, or the printer's
- Pictures
- Rows packed by RLE, JPEG or delta rows
Opens in every browser
Filepeek opens PCL XL files in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari, with nothing to install. 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 XL
- WindowsNo app built in opens it • Copy it to a PCL 6 printer
- MacNo app built in opens it
- iPhone and iPadNo app built in opens it
- AndroidNo app built in opens it
Questions
Is PCL XL the same as PCL 6?
Yes. HP calls it PCL 6 Enhanced, and PCL XL is the language's own name. It isn't PCL 5 with more in it but a binary language of its own, and Filepeek opens both.
How do I turn a PXL 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.
Can I print a PXL file again?
Send it as it is to a printer that takes PCL 6, 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.