Re: Spool file conversion

Each of the solutions has characteristics in the resulting PDF that vary and can affect which to use. And the ability to control how the PDF looks vary.

CPYSPLF has no obvious controls for output - I find that it gives pretty narrow margins - perhaps determined from the PRTF layout, haven't pursued that further
MMAIL (www.easy400.net) is very low cost - Giovanni hopes people contribute $50 annually, as I recall - its CVTSPLFPDF gives pretty nice results - margins look good, esp. - it uses a TIFF and usually results in a larger PDF
ESEND (related to SEQUEL & ABSTRACT, now part of Help Systems) - has conversion to PDF as an output option for attachments from spooled files - my recent comparison for a task here showed results similar to CPYSPLF or the same - I forget - no controls for margins that I found

MMAIL and/or ESEND may have different commands for conversion - and some from the same vendor/source may have different output look & feel.

RJS has several converters - I don't remember how those end up and don't have any of those installed.

Brad Stone's tools, too - I've never worked with them, so can't say what controls or how the final result looks is.

I like having 2 or 3 options, I guess - different needs - if I want something pretty quick and small, I'll probably convert with CPYSPLF and email with one of the others, naming the attachment directly. Right now, if size is less important and I want things to look better, I'll go with MMAIL's CVTSPLFPDF.

HTH
Vern

On 7/19/2015 5:59 AM, Jim Oberholtzer wrote:

Or the IBM free solution:

5770TS1 IBM Transform Services for i
5770TS1 Transforms - AFP to PDF Transform

I like Brad's tools as well, they tend to be a bit friendlier and feature
function rich. Brad's solution actually competes well with Infoprint server
which is a chargeable option of IBM i

--
Jim Oberholtzer
Chief Technical Architect
Agile Technology Architects


-----Original Message-----
From: WEB400 [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Charles Wilt
Sent: Friday, July 17, 2015 3:59 PM
To: Web Enabling the IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries)
Subject: Re: [WEB400] Spool file conversion

For PDF...I'd recommend Brad Stone's tools...

http://www.bvstools.com/

Also Gumbo, but you'll pay more for those.

Charles

On Fri, Jul 17, 2015 at 4:48 PM, Allen, Todd <Todd.Allen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Can anyone advise of options for converting a spool file to another
format (PDF, TIFF, etc)? I realize this can be done in Java with
iText but I'm looking for an IBMi-based solution. I've found several
off-the-shelf solutions with a quick search. I'd like to know if this
is the right route or is there a better open source alternative.

Any guidance is appreciated.

Thanks,
Todd

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