When to use a PCL driver and when PostScript is the better choice
A Windows print dialog on most office MFPs offers two driver versions of the same machine. PCL on one line. PS or PostScript on the next. Most users pick whichever installed first and never look back. Most of the time that choice does not matter. The few situations where it does matter, it matters by a wide margin, and the difference shows up as either ten times faster printing on routine office documents or as accurate output on graphic design files that PCL silently corrupts.
Two languages. Both have been around for thirty plus years. The choice between them depends on what kind of document is being printed and what device is doing the printing.
What each language actually does
PCL stands for Printer Command Language. Hewlett Packard developed it in the 1980s to drive its laser printers. PCL describes a page as a sequence of commands. Move the cursor here. Place this text. Set this font. Draw this line. The printer interprets these commands one by one and renders the page. PCL 5 is the version that established the office standard in the early 1990s. PCL 6, sometimes called PCL XL, added compression and is the default on most machines today.
PostScript was created at Adobe in 1982. The language describes a page as a small program rather than as a sequence of commands. The printer runs the program and produces the page. Because PostScript is a programming language, it can describe arbitrary geometric shapes, complex font transformations, and color blends that PCL cannot easily represent. PostScript Level 3 is the current version and ships on enterprise office MFPs as either standard or as a paid licensed feature.
From the everyday user perspective, both languages produce printed pages from the same source documents in similar quality. The differences emerge under specific conditions: complex vector graphics, transparency effects, complex font kerning, or non Latin character sets. The deeper read on what an MFP actually does as a category, including how it processes both languages through its controller, sits at The simplest possible explanation of what a multifunction printer does for the foundational view.
Why PCL wins on most office documents
Speed. PCL files are typically two to five times smaller than PostScript files describing the same page, and the printer can begin producing output as it receives the data rather than waiting for a complete program. A 50 page Word document printed via PCL starts coming out of the tray in 8 to 12 seconds. The same document via PostScript often waits 25 to 40 seconds before the first page emerges, particularly on lower segment machines with smaller controller RAM.
Reliability. PCL is simpler. The interpreter on the printer side has fewer edge cases to handle. Documents that fail to print on PostScript drivers, or that produce strange artifacts, sometimes print cleanly on PCL with no other change. Print queues that get stuck on PostScript jobs often clear when the same job is re submitted via PCL.
For everyday Word, Excel, and email attachment printing in a Spanish SMB office, PCL is the right default. The driver loads faster, the print queue handles jobs faster, and the dependency on the printer's PostScript license stays out of the picture entirely. Where Postscript becomes the better choice is in specific scenarios that come up rarely in mainstream office work.
Where PostScript wins
Graphic design files coming out of Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, and Photoshop generate native PostScript output. Sending these files through a PCL driver requires the application to convert the PostScript representation into PCL commands first, and the conversion silently degrades certain effects. Transparency layers flatten incorrectly. Spot colors get approximated. Drop shadows render as banded bitmaps rather than smooth gradients. The output looks subtly wrong in ways that a designer notices immediately and an office worker often does not.
Marketing teams printing brand collateral on coated paper using design files from Adobe Creative Cloud should always run PostScript. The dollar buyout cost of being wrong here is real. A 5,000 piece print run sent through PCL with subtle color shifts is harder to detect than a complete failure, and the customer facing material goes to print before anyone notices.
PostScript also handles complex font situations better than PCL. The simplest possible explanation of what a multifunction printer does is at The simplest possible explanation of what a multifunction printer does, where the controller architecture that processes both languages is described, and worth a look for anyone trying to understand why fonts behave differently between drivers.
Architectural and engineering output, particularly large format prints from AutoCAD or Revit going to a wide format plotter, also typically runs PostScript or PostScript dialect such as HPGL or DesignJet specific languages. PCL on those workflows often misrepresents fine line work and complex hatching patterns.
PDF Direct as the third option
Most office MFPs sold since around 2015 carry a third printing path. PDF Direct. The user sends a PDF file directly to the printer's network address through a print management tool or via a hot folder, bypassing the Windows print dialog entirely. The printer receives the PDF, rasterizes it on its internal controller, and produces the page. No driver involved.
PDF Direct often produces cleaner output than either PCL or PostScript on documents that originated as PDFs, since the chain from source to output skips the conversion stages. PDF Direct also works on machines where PCL or PostScript drivers are missing, broken, or misconfigured. For receptionists who occasionally need to print PDF attachments without dealing with driver setup, sending the file to a queue named after the printer often works without any installed driver at all.
Most enterprise office workflows in 2026 mix all three paths. PCL for native Office documents on Windows desktops. PostScript for design files from Adobe applications. PDF Direct for ad hoc PDFs sent from phones or web browsers. The mix is invisible to most users since the print management software routes each job to whichever path produces the best output. Where the OAuth shift around 2022 changed authentication on these print paths is at A short walk through the history of the photocopier from Carlson to today for the historical context.
Universal print drivers and what they actually solve
HP UPD, Canon Generic Plus, Ricoh PCL Universal, Konica Minolta Universal, Xerox Mobile Print, and similar offerings all market the same idea. One driver that talks to every printer the manufacturer ships. The driver detects the specific model on the network, downloads the relevant capabilities, and presents a single interface to the user. IT teams running fleets across many locations install one universal driver instead of dozens of model specific ones.
The trade off is that universal drivers default to PCL and rarely expose the full PostScript feature set on the underlying printer. Marketing teams who need PostScript behavior often have to install a model specific driver alongside the universal one. The dual driver setup adds complexity but is worth it on machines where the workflow demands PostScript.
Microsoft Universal Print, launched in 2021, is a different category. It runs as a cloud service inside Microsoft 365 and lets registered MFPs accept jobs from any Windows device authenticated to the same tenant. Universal Print uses its own protocol rather than PCL or PostScript, and the printer firmware has to specifically support it. By 2026 most major brand office MFPs ship with Universal Print compatible firmware as standard. The where this fits in the fleet management story tracks the modern authentication standards covered at What the industry copier segments from one through six actually mean for you, where higher segments include Universal Print support natively.
The IPDS and AS400 corner case
Banks, insurance companies, and large utilities running IBM iSeries (formerly AS400) backends often need IPDS support on their MFPs. IPDS stands for Intelligent Printer Data Stream and is IBM's proprietary print language for high volume transactional output. Customer statements. Invoices. Policy documents. Account notices. The mainframe generates IPDS streams at high speed, and the printers connected to that infrastructure need to interpret them.
IPDS is not PCL or PostScript, and most office MFPs do not support it natively. Adding IPDS support typically requires an optional license at 1,000 to 3,000 euros per machine, plus a separate IPDS controller in some cases. For offices that do not run mainframe backends, IPDS is irrelevant. For offices that do, the absence of IPDS support on a candidate machine is a deal breaker rather than a discussion point.
The everyday Spanish SMB office never encounters IPDS. Most Segment 3 and Segment 4 machines do not include the option. A reader being pitched IPDS by a dealer should ask explicitly whether the office workflows actually generate IPDS streams, since the cost of the license adds up across a fleet without obvious benefit if the workflow does not need it.
The decision rule that fits most offices
The dual driver approach catches both common cases without forcing users to think about driver selection. Word, Excel, Outlook, and PDFs default to PCL through the standard print queue. Adobe applications detect the PostScript driver as an option and offer it preferentially. Output quality matches expectations in both workflows without tickets to the IT desk for printing problems.
Where this falls down. Some print management software requires either PCL only or PostScript only across the fleet for consistent metering and chargeback. Pull printing solutions like PaperCut and uniFLOW handle both languages but report better statistics when the fleet is standardized. Offices running serious print management should pick one language as the standard and stick with it across the fleet.
For a Spanish SMB office without that constraint, the dual driver approach is the simplest answer. Install both. Set PCL as default. Move on. The everyday distinction between an MFP that exposes both options and a desktop printer that often supports only one is part of the broader category split covered at How a photocopier differs from a printer an MFP and a copier in everyday office life, since printers in the under 600 euro range tend to ship with only one driver while MFPs above 1,500 euros usually expose both.
PCL is the office default. PostScript is the design and graphics default. PDF Direct works as a fallback when drivers misbehave. Universal print drivers simplify fleet management. IPDS exists for mainframe environments and almost nowhere else. Most users never need to know any of this, but the IT team setting up a new MFP saves hours of help desk tickets by getting the driver setup right the first time.