The value of this variable MUST exactly match the IEEE 1284-2000 Device ID string, except the length field MUST NOT be specified. The value is assigned by the Printer vendor and MUST NOT be localized by the agent. The IEEE 1284-2000 Device ID is a length field followed by a case-sensitive string of ASCII characters defining peripheral characteristics and/or capabilities. For the purposes of this specification, the length bytes MUST NOT be included. The Device ID sequence is composed of a series of keys and values of the form: key: value {,value} repeated for each key As indicated, each key will have one value, and MAY have more than one value. The minimum necessary keys (case-sensitive) are MANUFACTURER, COMMAND SET, and MODEL. (These keys MAY be abbreviated as MFG, CMD, and MDL respectively.) Each implementation MUST supply these three keys

and possibly additional ones as well. Each key (and each value)

is a string of characters. Any characters except colon (:), comma (,), and semi-colon (;) MAY be included as part of the key (or value) string. Any leading or trailing white space in the string is ignored by the parsing program (but is still counted as part of the overall length of the sequence).

An example ID String, showing optional comment and active command set keys and their associated values (the text is actually all on one line): MFG:Xerox; CMD:PCL,POSTSCRIPT,PJL; MDL:WorkCentre Pro 32C; CLS:PRINTER; DES: Xerox WorkCentre Pro 32C