Re: Spool File too Wide - 350 chars per line

[Jim Franz <franz9000@xxxxxxxxx>]

use an external print file, source type PRTF
use font that is not fixed width - helvetica regular is 2304 and bold is
2305. the example below is pointsize 9 but you can go much smaller). There
are many other fonts, just know which are fixed width characters...
use position on the page (x and y coordinates ( not spacea (space after) or
spaceb (space before) - the x & y coordinates can be field values, does not
have to be hardcoded in printer file.

your compile parameters   - 255 is max for page length (not width)
                                             378 is max width

Page size:

  Length--lines per page . . . .   66            .001-255.000

  Width--positions per line  . .   132           .001-378.000

  Measurement method . . . . . .   *ROWCOL       *ROWCOL, *UOM

Lines per inch . . . . . . . . .   6             6, 3, 4, 7.5, 7,5, 8, 9,
12
Characters per inch  . . . . . .   10            10, 5, 12, 13.3, 13,3,
15...

sample
A          R NCBOXPERM1                BOX(4.90 6.44 5.75 7.70 *NARROW)
A                                      FONT(2304 (*POINTSIZE 9))
A            @PERMIT1      16          POSITION(5.06 6.50)
A            @PERMIT2      16          POSITION(5.18 6.50)
A            @PERMIT3      16          POSITION(5.30 6.50)
A            @PERMIT4      16          POSITION(5.42 6.50)
A            @PERMIT5      16          POSITION(5.54 6.50)
A            @PERMIT6      16          POSITION(5.66 6.50)

hope this helps
jim franz

On Tue, Jan 13, 2026 at 3:25 PM Mohan Eashver <mohankva@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Hello and Happy new year to you all,
>
> I need to produce a report [spool file] that is over 350 characters wide.
> That is my 1st goal.
> My 2nd goal is to convert the spool into a PDF & e-Mail to an US Government
> Agency.
> I got a 3rd party tool that will take a spool file as input & convert to
> PDF hence I may be OK & no problem on the 2nd goal.
>
> But I cannot get thru my 1st goal namely the DDS does not allow me to print
> anything beyond 255 characters width.
>
> Here are the 2 messages I get:
> * CPD7807      10        2      Message . . . . :   Length and position
> values cause fields to overlap.
> * CPD7874      30        1      Message . . . . :   Line or position value
> greater than 255.
>
> So, I do not have a way to produce a spool file far wider than 255 Chars.
> This is USDA which is a bureaucratic government Agency hence they are not
> accepting a CSV from us.
>
> Is there a tool that will take a Physical File or a CSV from IFS Directory
> & turn it into a Spool file ?
> OR
> Is there a tool that will take a Physical File or a CSV from IFS Directory
> & turn it into PDF ?
> OR
> Is there another option ?
>
> ----
> Regards,
> Mohan Eashver
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