Hello Jim,
Am 19.07.2025 um 19:06 schrieb Jim Franz <franz9000@xxxxxxxxx>:
look in the GO LICPGM menu, opt 10 to display options loaded
(my v7r5 the licensed program is different than v4r5, but option 8 and 43
should be same
its possible they were optional to install - this system at v7r5 now but
this software goes back to v3 days, maybe even v2
there were ptfs - there even back then was a group ptf for printing
I cannot say which of these options is whats needed, but i remember
installing them in the early days.
Licensed Product
Program Option Description
5770SS1 8 AFP Compatibility Fonts
Thanks for that hint! Yes, they're entirely optional. I indeed have chosen to not install AFP Compatibility Fonts, mainly because documentation states, they are 240 "pel" raster fonts, while common laser printers use even multiples of 300.
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/i/7.3.0?topic=resources-fonts-provided-by-i
Using 240 pel fonts on 300, 600 or 1200 dpi devices would result in uneven scaling, and jagged appearance. I have had exposure to font handling on the Macintosh vs. laser printers in the early 2000's. Some basics in the IBM docs sound familiar, so I'm not starting from zero. For laser printers, using outline fonts (based on mathematical models instead of pixels being set on or off in a given bitmap) usually provides best quality. Drawback is that the printer has to raster those fonts to the actual sizes being used in a given document. (I'm talking about printers here, not those toys which only work on Windows thanks to a GDI driver rastering print jobs to proprietary printer bitmap commands.)
There is also extensive documentation about fonts and their substitutes, lots of tables which (IBM) printer supports which font, etc. No mentioning of HPT.
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/i/7.4.0?topic=information-afp-compatibility-fonts-font-substitution
But here is a single mentioning about 300 dpi.
https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/i/7.4.0?topic=transform-host-print-in-raster-mode
Hence, I'm unsure if those AFP Compatibility Fonts are helping. So I'll install them and do some more tests.
5770SS1 43 Additional Fonts
Sadly, V4R5 does not have this package.
All in all, the whole topic about fonts, HPT, AFP and printing is a deep rabbit hole in itself which I not yet taken my time to delve into.
Researching the topics while I typed this reply provided additional insights. Apparently, HPT has been expanded considerably over time. Some interesting input regarding this here:
https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/language-support-host-print-transform-and-transform-services
Apparently, font substitution is configured in *WSCST objects. I see a lot of these in my QSYS, names hinting to printers and rasterized data formats such as TIFF and GIF. Interesting! I probably should look closer at those WSCST stuff. Fortunately, there is a RTVWSCST command!
Thanks for all those ideas you gave me with your initial pointer!
:wq! PoC
midrange.com
