RE: Best document formatting language

Arco,

Just wanted to point out that not all AFP to PDF conversion programs are
limited.

I've been quite happy in the past with Gumbo's Spool-A-Matic, the
resulting PDF is 99.9% accurate to the printout from an *IPDS Laser and
the text in the PDF is actual text.  So the PDFs are smaller and
searchable.

http://www.gumbo.com/Licpgm/Spool-a-Matic.html

Also, Brad Stone has one you might want to check out.

http://www.bvstools.com/afptool.html


HTH, 


Charles Wilt
--
iSeries Systems Administrator / Developer
Mitsubishi Electric Automotive America
ph: 513-573-4343
fax: 513-398-1121
 
-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Simonse, Arco
(CMK)
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2005 2:28 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Best document formatting language

Hi all,

I followed the "AS/400 print to PC for almost free" thread with
interest. 
May I ask advice for the following: 
 
I have to develop a new application in RPG. Output of this application
will have text and grapics, and will be send to printer, IFS, email and
fax. Using Infoprint 5722IP1 licensed program will probably not be an
option.
For email we are using Giovanni Perotti's MMAIL, and our faxsolution is
Hylafax, located on a linuxbox.

Currently we create AFPDS spoolfiles and use Giuseppe Costagliola's
AFP2PDF for translation to pdf, after which the documents are sent to
the desired destinations, all with limited succes. The AFP2PDF program
is nice, but limited in function. (text becomes graphics)

I saw the answer from Rich Duzenbury to the "AS/400 print to PC for
almost free" thread. He's using postscript and pdf as document
formatting language. After taking a look to some postscript basics, I
have to admit that it looks good, but I'm not experienced in document
formatting languages. 

So here's my question:
What will be the best document formatting language to create the first
(main) output of an application that can be converted to other formats
_on the iSeries itselves_ ? APFDS, Postscript, PCL, HTML or other?

Thanks,
Arco Simonse
pgmr



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