PCL is a powerful and useful intranet and Internet document format. PCL is, in fact, less related to XML than it is to either HTML or PDF, because PCL is not about data or data interchange, but, rather, about rendering. PCL is best when precise formatting, ease of document production and simplicity of overall document system development and support are paramount. Nothing but PCL is acceptable, because it is the actual document as it would be printed. PCL has proven to be better for loan application packages, financial documents in general, government documents, many forms of manuals and documentation, bills or invoices, etc.
Many documents have content which includes formatting.
Many documents are already being created as part of a substantial process, resulting in paper - database reports are an excellent example. Since they are already being printed, they are already in PCL and there is essentially no additional effort needed. Using PDF or HTML requires conversion steps that can be expensive, inaccurate and difficult to efficiently implement. All other formats require some sort of conversion process which can and does modify the original appearance. Many documents have thousands of pages of related information.