RE: Any example available to print a PDF stored in database

I'm familiar with sending PDF files directly to printers. Like I said, my experience contrasts sharply. It's possible the PDF files themselves are to blame.



-----Original Message-----
From: Eddie Gomez [mailto:gmon750@xxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Friday, September 07, 2018 7:44 PM
To: RPG programming on the IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries) <rpg400-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Any example available to print a PDF stored in database

We had similar drama before we discovered PDF-direct hardware. After that, drama on desktop printers disappeared.

PDF-direct printers (we use only HP) are common and rarely ever advertised as a feature. We bought a cheap ($120) laser printer at BestBuy for our own office (in I.T.) simply to test that theory and we were stunned that it worked perfectly the first time. We essentially swapped out or old 15-year-old HP printer with this new one with zero changes on the AS400 and using PRTSTMF it worked fine first try.

Toner cartridges for some of our old HP printers cost almost as much as these new HP printers. So we are essentially (and slowly) replacing all our printers with those same $120 HP network printers. That way, our AS400 can serve .PDF output files to any printer without getting Windows involved. It’s actually been a huge release of stress for not just I.T., but also for our users, many of whom have given us praise for simplifying things because of it.

I get where you’re coming from. Thankfully, management was completely on board budget-wise after they saw the improvement in productivity that PDF-direct enabled. We wanted to get away from Windows (i.e. Microsoft) constantly throwing a monkey wrench in the machinery.

The Zebra PDF-Direct involved tiny drama (especially the pricing) but once they were up and running, they run themselves. :)

Old, unsupported hardware just wasn’t worth it for us. We were spending way too much time and resources baby-sitting obsolete hardware that enough was enough.

Our PDF printing from our AS400 prints fast. May have JPG images and fancy graphics and barcodes. Goodbye to *IPDS printers and the such. I always hated those.

Hope this helps.