Re: Forms printing -- MIDRANGE-L

I received a scanned image of the document. I was told that the document was scanned at 200dpi. I printed that image and a registration form (numbers in a fixed font). Lots of fields lined up perfectly. I don't know how many didn't. One field has three characters, and they fit completely inside a box. Another box was created much larger than the data it would contain.

Fortunately, the POSITION keyword exists. A light table would be most helpful.

-----Original message-----
From: Charles Wilt charles.wilt@xxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 03 Mar 2011 15:02:11 -0600
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Forms printing

Let me reiterate my warning...

Word and the AFP driver are not the most accurate combination...

Real life example: I had a invoice overlay I was designing, text was
at 8 lpi. I wanted the overlay to include a shaded box for every
other line in the detail section. I wasn't able to get an overlay
created in Word, Excel, and a couple of other Widnows programs and
printer via teh AFP driver to contain 1/8 inch high shaded boxes every
1/8 inch.

I ended up using the green screen Overlay utility included in the AFP
Utilities product I mentioned before.

This was back in 1996 or so....perhaps accuracy has improved.

HTH,
Charles

On Thu, Mar 3, 2011 at 2:45 PM, jmmckee <jmmckee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Thank you so much. This has got to be on of the craziest days I have had in years. Was just now able to read your email. I had not thought about creating the document in Word. Had been fixated on trying to use the original with many font and spacing changes. But, I was told that the form did not have to be an exact match, just had to have the infor in roughly the same place. Only issue with designing a new saner form with Word is getting the letterhead there, and that might not be an issue, either.

John McKee

-----Original message-----
From: Michael Ryan michaelrtr@xxxxxxxxx
Date: Thu, 03 Mar 2011 07:42:40 -0600
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Forms printing

Here are the steps I use:

1. Create/modify MS Word document.
C:\RTR\somedir\somedoc.doc

2. Print individual pages as different overlays using the AFP 300 driver.
Use naming convention of YYMMDDn, where n is the page number.

3. Upload .prn files to \\youri\Overlays IFS directory
Mapped drive or binary FTP

4. Copy from IFS directory to OVERLAYS file.
CPYFRMSTMF FROMSTMF('/overlays/t0805151.prn')

TOMBR('/qsys.lib/mylib.lib/overlays.file/t0805151.mbr')
CVTDTA(*NONE)
ENDLINFMT(*FIXED)
TABEXPN(*NO)

5. Create overlay.
CRTOVL OVL(mylib/T0805151) FILE(OVERLAYS)

On Thu, Mar 3, 2011 at 7:24 AM, jmmckee <jmmckee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Fortunately, this is not a high volume form. Maybe a few hundred a day, but spread out over maybe 60 printers, none are IPDS.

Bad news is I finally got an opportunity to examine the form. Around 120 fields, many boxes with labels. Spacing, both vertical and horizontal, seems to vary. Looked like 5 lines/inch at one point and something between 8 and 12 cpi. I had hoped to use an overlay of the original Lexmark form for both sides. Back side is still likely, as it has two fields and no boxes - just lots of canned text.

I'm not clear on the initial steps of overlay generation. The Redbook says to load the AFP printer driver from Client Access. When I try, I get a message stating it is already loaded, but I don't see the same drivers as listed in the Redbook. That might be because there was a glitch and I installed from the web the Infoprint driver. The CA install share was mysteriously unavailable. Maybe I need to uninstall the Infoprint driver and try installing from the CA share again. We are on v5r4, and stalled, pending removal of the system in a few years (master planning of a corporate office - trash everything).

So, I san the original document into a JPEG file, then print it using any Windows application to a file using AFP driver. Upload file to IBM i, CRTOVL. Is this correct?

John McKee
-----Original message-----
From: Charles Wilt charles.wilt@xxxxxxxxx
Date: Wed, 02 Mar 2011 09:40:46 -0600
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: Forms printing

Note that there are some benefits to using an AFP capable IPDS printer...

With HPT, the overlay (and fonts) are sent as part of the spool data
stream for each spool file.

With IPDS, the overlay (and fonts) are sent as needed and can be
cached on the printer.

Also, my impression is the IPDS data stream is overall a bit more
reliable and easier to configure than HPT.

My preference and IBM's recommendation, is for IPDS printers for
critical and/or high volume printing such as invoices.

Charles

On Wed, Mar 2, 2011 at 7:22 AM, Michael Ryan <michaelrtr@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I usually use the AFP 300 printer driver.

I generate the forms using an overlay, and HPT to a laser printer.
Need to specify *AFPDS for the printer file, but just a regular laser
printer.

On Tue, Mar 1, 2011 at 10:44 PM, jmmckee <jmmckee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

The redbook, http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/sg242160.pdf is easy enough to read. But, I have a couple of questions:

1) I have an existing blank form. I am assuming that the form would need to be scanned and then printed to a file using the AFP printer. Which one would I use?

2) Is an IPDS printer required, or would an AFPDS printer file work when directed to a laser printer. The form has boxes and text with different fonts.

Currently, forms are being generated by a forms chip inside a Lexmark printer. Would really be nice to not be tied to a specific printer model, which is no longer manufactured.

John McKee

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