How would you like to modify your print capabilities to incorporate processing based on existing customers previous purchases?

How would you like to develop additional messages to your customer on their statements reflecting promotions or point them to additional discounts, do more than just personalize your output to the intended recipient.

What they are delivering all ready is a document that some one is guarenteed to open, why not take advantage of promotions on these existing transaction-related documents. The are many advantages over promotion that you could do in various other means.

What you are delivering today can be enhanced because you all ready have:
1. Openability. Statements and invoices are expected—they contain important financial information and usually require action. More than 95% of transaction documents are opened and read each month – far more than any other type of direct response effort.
2. Involvement. Bills and statements receive more attention than any other form of communication including television advertisements. Studies show that the average customer invests between one and three minutes for statement review.
3. Trusted Media. While e-security and telephone fraud continue to make headlines, nearly everyone trusts the postal service to send and deliver mail – including highly important documents.
4. Functionality. Statements are often viewed more than once. The paper-based nature of transaction mail helps consumers pay bills, submit expense reports, prepare taxes and file documents.
5. Returns. Statement-based marketing is effective because it targets current customers. A five percent increase in current customer business can translate into as much as a 50 percent increase in bottom-line profits.
6. Customized offers. Statement-based marketing is effective because it enables customized offers to be automatically generated by the transactional data within the document itself

Let me know, there are many ways that I can assist you!

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Have you ever undertook a conversion of a application from one graphic programming language to another?

We undertook a conversion from Printronix Magnum Code to IBM IPDS on a AS400 using RPG and Data Description Specifications. Would this be something for you consider trying?

We did and with great success!!

We converted a manufacturing production ticket application that had a job description log of over a 100 pages and reduced it to around 50 within the application. Making it easier to read and documented it well enough for the customer to make future modifications!

This customer had no familiarity with programming this way. We turned the application around very quickly, pointed out what we were doing, allowed them to get this into production with very little customer modification after going live!

Have you ever programmed barcodes in the Printronix language, whether its the old Magnum Code, CodeV or IGP... converting this within RPG using Data Descriptions Specification to place the data and modified the font characteristics and barcoding.

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Tags: Programming Offering

Have you ever received the following request from someone you have provided a print solution to?

How can I add this to my statement?

It doesn't matter, this could be something like adding a barcode, maybe changing a logo or putting some kind of image or graphic on the page, or how about adding an electronic form?
It doesn't have to be a AFP/IPDS application, maybe its a PCL or PS application. Let me know, I can assist with either programming services or a product that you can install to make this very easy.

Give me a shout out, I can assist you in many ways!

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Tags: Programming Offering

A unique but valueable application we assisted in:

We created a simple RPG Program that pulled from a AS400 DataBase and created 10,000 barcoded labels and also provided various Label Holders for their warehouse and tool crib storage unit so that they could pull from their own inventory application.





We also provided 4000+ magnetic tab holders of various sizes to be used where storage was on metal racks.

Tag stock media was provided that was perforated so as each label was printed it could be separated and stored in the appropriate tag holder.

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Tags: Programming Offering

Allow me to Print for You
Whether you are a large company or small privately owned business, you will need printing products. There is no way you can produce every type of printing efficiently to meet your needs.

I would like to offer my services, providing you with the most efficient means to help you with your printing needs.

With over 20 years in the printing industry, I have the experience and knowledge to manage your printing needs from design, to production, through distribution and invoicing. I will be dedicated not only to providing great quality, but great resources, deliverables, and speed to meet your demand and timeframe.

I have the ability to provide:
catalogs, manuals, books, marketing materials, simple and complex binding
print for promotional needs and fundraising capabilities all printed digitally in monochrome or color in quantities ranging from 25 to 5,000 copies.

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With AFP Printing, there are resources that can be created to change the way a page is formatted. Do you want a field to reflect a specific font or maybe use this same field and represent it as a barcode somewhere else? How about adding the capabilities that allow duplexing or change from portrait to landscape

These capabilities are defined within a Formdef and Pagedef created within a AFP Resouce

Question:
I have several applications that generate output that is formatted with page definitions. Currently the print streams are directed to a continuous forms printer. I want to migrate some of the printing to a cut sheet printer and I am confused about what role the formdefs and pagedefs play. Will I need to modify my applications or page definitions to accommodate the new printers?

Answer:
Page Definitions are used to determine what the formatted page(s) will look like. Think of these pages as virtual pages that are not yet associated with a physical piece of paper. The way you want your application data to look on the page is determined by the instructions within the page definition.

Form Definitions are used to control the physical attributes of printing such as:

• Which side of the paper to print on for duplex printing.
• What sequence the pages will follow for multiple up (N_UP) printing.
• What paper trays are used for cutsheet printing.
• What overlays, if any, are to be associated with particular data printing.

In your case, you should need to be concerned with the formdefs only. The formatting for your pages typically does not need to be altered to accommodate different printers, but, you will need to look at using a different formdef or a different copygroup within your formdef to achieve the results you are looking for when you change printers.

If this is something you can not do, please let me know and I can provide the services to do this for you.

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Information on Printing to AS400 from Various Manufacturers

Each of these printers from one of various manufacturers, I can help you print to the AS400 from each printer, whether the printer is a Microsoft Windows Only printer, whether the printer will work with and how it will work with Personal Communications 5250 (PC5250), Host Print Transform (HPT), Remote Output Queues, *LAN 3812 PJL device descriptions, *LAN 3812 SNMP device descriptions, and *LAN 3812 IPP device descriptions.

Argox USA	Kyocera Mita	Advanced Matrix Technology, Inc
Boca Systems	Kyocera,	Avery Dennison Printer Systems
Brady	Lanier	InfoPrint Solutions Company
Brother	Lexmark	Meto (Checkpoint Systems, Inc)
C.Itoh and Citizen	Microplex	NEC and NEC Unified Solutions
Canon	Minolta-QMS	Oc, Imagistics and Oc Imagistics
Compaq	Monarch/Paxar	Okidata and OKI Printing Solutions
Copystar	Muratec America	Output Technology (OTC)
Cub Printers	Nashuatec	Printer Systems international
Datamax	Oce	Secap Addressing Systems
Decision Data	Olympus	Tally and TallyGenicom
Dymo	Panasonic	TransAct Technologies
Epson	Printek	Unisys
Fujitsu	Printronix	Visara International
Dell	O'Neil	Wasp Barcode Technologies
GENICOM	Rex-Rotary	XANT
Gestetner	Ricoh	Xerox and Fuji Xerox
HP	Riso	Zebra/Eltron
IBM Printing Systems	Samsung
Ikon Office Solutions	Sato
Infotec	Savin
IntelliTech International	Sharp
Intermec	Source Technologies
Kodak	Star Micronics
Konica Minolta	Toshiba

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Tags: AS400 Printing Tips

Here is a brief piece I use to discuss printing off the AS400 / iSeries

There are differences when printing with Ethernet attachment versus Twinax on an AS/400 / iSeries . The main difference is that the host data stream is different. With Twinax the data stream is SCS (SNA Character Stream) with the Ethernet attachment the data stream is TCP/IP - ASCII. The AS/400 Host Print Transform can be configured to handle to transform from SCS to ASCII. As with most ASCII environments, there is no intelligence in the data stream. So, the operator of other software must be used to operate the printer in an ASCII environment.

Improved Options to support TCP/IP ASCII printing are:
1. Use SNMP communications instead of TCP/IP.
2. Use TN3270 / TN5250 support - SNA over Ethernet.
3. Use IPDS - AFP

1. SNMP - Allows the ASCII printer to be defined as a device rather than a Remote OUTQ. This does give some management over the device but not much management capability over the print jobs i.e.. backspace, restart etc..
2. TN5250 - Allows for support of SNA over Ethernet. Gives the printer operator the same basic capabilities as direct Twinax attachment.
3. IPDS / AFP - Allows for a more advanced data stream. Full error recovery down to the last printed page; forward and backspace capability; advanced functions like barcode, graphics, overlays, logos etc...

If what the customer is printing is critical, do they need to guarantee that it printed?

A consistent problem I have discussed with customers who use ASCII printers from their AS400 is the ability to manage the print and make sure it prints.

Host Print Transform which is standard in the OS of the iSeries offers the SCS to ASCII transform, but a couple of the limitations I know about are:

1) Limitations include no page range printing.
2) Controlling the output can also be a problem because of the lack of control over the sending of spool files. Once a spooled file has started sending, a user may have a tough time stopping the printing from the operating system side. Putting the spool file on hold or deleting it may not be successful.
3) No Guarantee that what you are printing actually prints.
4) No Error Recovery between the printer and AS400
5) IPDS is the only way to accomplish this completely
6) Ethernet/TelNet capabilities on the 6500 from the iSeries emulates the Twinax better than any other options.

If you need assistance in configuring any print device to your AS400, please let me know

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Here is an example of how to configure a standard printer on a AS400.

The objective of this information is to help with the capabilities and limitations of *LAN 3812 printer device descriptions, including those that use the PJL print driver (*HPPJLDRV and *IBMPJLDRV), the SNMP print driver (*IBMSNMPDRV), the IPP print driver (*IBMIPPDRV), and the unsupported LPR Print Driver Exit Program (TSPLPRD) utility.

Most of the information in this document applies equally to *LAN 3812 PJL device descriptions, *LAN 3812 SNMP device descriptions, and *LAN 3812 IPP device descriptions, and *LAN 3812 device descriptions that use the unsupported LPR Print Driver Exit Program (TSPLPRD) utility.

Capabilities of Printing through a *LAN 3812 Device Description

The following is a list of the capabilities of using a *LAN 3812 device description to print to a LAN-attached printer:

1) It can be used with virtually any printer attached to an external print server, provided that the printer and print server both support PJL, SNMP or Internet Print Protocol (IPP) printing. An IEEE 1284 (or bidirectional) printer cable might be required between the printer and the print server specifically if the *LAN 3812 PJL device description is used. The main exception is for host-based or Microsoft Windows-only printers that are attached to the LAN or attached to a Windows server.

Note: If the printer and print server support LPR/LPD but do not support PJL, SNMP or IPP (or even if LPR/LPD is preferred), the unsupported LPR Print Driver Exit Program (TSPLPRD) utility can be used to configure a *LAN 3812 device description that uses LPR/LPD from within a printer writer. This option has the benefits of using a *LAN 3812 device description even though it is using the same LPR/LPD protocol that is used for a Remote Output Queue (RMTOUTQ).

2) It can be used with virtually any printer with an internal print server that supports PJL, SNMP, or Internet Print Protocol (IPP) printing. The main exception is for host-based or Windows-only printers that are attached to the LAN using an internal print server.

3) It can be used over a Local Area Network (LAN) or a Wide Area Network (WAN) if the necessary ports are open on all routers and firewalls between the system and the printer or print server.

4) It can be used to print *SCS, *AFPDS (to laser printers), and *USERASCII spooled files, all of which can be converted to an ASCII printer data stream using Host Print Transform (HPT).

Note: *AFPDS spooled files can be converted only to an HP PCL or IBM PPDS printer data stream that is intended for an ASCII laser printer. No conversion to an ASCII printer data stream is done for *USERASCII spooled files. Therefore, they are sent to the printer as is .

5) It is recommended that the SPOOL pool have a minimum of 6250K.

6) *LAN 3812 device descriptions run under a printer writer. Therefore, they automatically have support for page range printing.

7) *LAN 3812 device descriptions run under a printer writer. Therefore, they automatically have support for message CPA3394 - Load form type '&4' device &5 writer &1 .

8) *LAN 3812 device descriptions run under a printer writer. Therefore, *LAN 3812 device descriptions that are configured with the LAN attachment (LANATTACH) parameter set to *IP automatically have support for message CPA4002 - Verify alignment on printer &3 when the Form feed (FORMFEED) parameter in the printer device description is set to *CONT. However, *LAN 3812 device description that are configured with the LAN attachment (LANATTACH) parameter set to *USRDFN, such as when using the LPR Print Driver (TSPLPRD) utility, do not have support for message CPA4002.

9) Additionally, *LAN 3812 SNMP device descriptions will print a single line before message CPA4002 is issued, as is done for twinax printers attached to a local or remote workstation controller, that can be used to verify the alignment prior to answering message CPA4002 and printing the remainder of the spooled file.

10) *LAN 3812 device descriptions run under a printer writer. Therefore, they automatically have support for printing file separators or job separators. File separators can be set up by specifying the File separators (FILESEP) parameter in the spooled file attributes or by specifying the File separators (FILESEP) parameter in the Start Print Writer (STRPRTWTR ) command. Job separators can be set up by specifying the Job separators (JOBSEP) parameter in the output queue description associated with the *LAN 3812 device description (the output queue of the same name is in the QUSRSYS library).

11) The settings in the printer device description have an effect on how the printer writer communicates with the printer and on how the operating system formats spooled files for the printer. This includes, but is not limited to, the settings for the Online at IPL (ONLINE), Attached controller (CTL), Font identifier (FONT), Message queue (MSGQ), and Host print transform (TRANSFORM) parameters.

For example, changing the Message Queue (MSGQ) parameter in the printer device description controls which message queue is used for all writer messages because the Queue for writer messages (MSGQ) parameter in the Start Print Writer (STRPRTWTR ) command defaults to *DEVD.

12) *LAN 3812 device descriptions run under a printer writer. Therefore, the Work with Writers (WRKWTR ) command shows that the writer is started even when the WTR (Writer) parameter is set to the default value of *PRT.
Limitations of Printing through a *LAN 3812 Device Description

The following is a list of the limitations of using a *LAN 3812 device description to print to a LAN-attached printer:

1) The source system must be at V4R1M0 (R410) operating system or later for a *LAN 3812 PJL device description (or at V3R7M0 with certain PTFs), at the V4R3M0 (R430) operating system or later for a *LAN 3812 SNMP device description, or at the V5R2M0 (R520) operating system or later for a *LAN 3812 IPP device description.

2) It does not support message CPA5335 - End of forms on printer &3 .

3) It cannot be used to send *IPDS spooled files because they are not supported by Host Print Transform (HPT).

4) Large spooled files take a long time to go to a held (HLD) status when held on the queue.

5) Large spooled files take a long time to delete after selecting to delete them from the queue.

6) Spooled files can sit in PND (Pending) status or in MSGW (Message Waiting) status with message CPD337F - Remote device rejected an attempt by the writer to open a connection for extended periods of time, depending on the status of the printer and the network. Always check the writer job log, the control panel on the printer, or the printer web access when a spooled file is in PND or MSGW status for an extended period of time.

7) *LAN 3812 device descriptions do not support printing with the Spool the data (SPOOL) parameter set to *NO. LAN attached printing of all sorts (including RMTOUTQs, *LAN 3812 device descriptions, and PC5250 printer sessions) require generating a spooled file by printing with the SPOOL parameter set to *YES. SPOOL(*NO) is allowed only with printers that are twinax attached through either a local or remote workstation controller.

8) *LAN 3812 device descriptions that are configured with the LAN attachment (LANATTACH) parameter set to *USRDFN, such as when using the LPR Print Driver (TSPLPRD) utility, do not have support for message CPA4002 - Verify alignment on printer &3 when the Form feed (FORMFEED) parameter in the printer device description is set to *CONT.

9) Although *LAN 3812 printer device descriptions that are configured with the LAN attachment (LANATTACH) parameter set to *IP automatically have support for issuing message CPA4002 - Verify alignment on printer &3 when the Form feed (FORMFEED) parameter in the printer device description is set to *CONT, *LAN 3812 printer device descriptions that use the PJL, IPP, LEXLINK or Network Station print driver do not support printing the first line of the spooled file so a user can verify that the printer is truly aligned prior to answering message CPA4002 and printing the remainder of the spooled file. This is only supported with *LAN 3812 SNMP device descriptions.

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Tags: AS400 Printing Tips

Why AFP?

First and most importantly, what is AFP? I started in this business back in 1984 when AFP was Advanced Function Printing now I would lean towards Presentation. This would be two different ways to define AFP.

Today, printing has come a long way. With the ability to post application data to a Web Site or send it via email, printing can become a new way to present information.

AFP as a software architecture is implemented in the device-independent AFP data stream. AFP as a hardware architecture is implemented in the device-dependent IPDS data stream. Most importantly it is designed for system-managed printing, where all of the managing of the print process is tracked and controlled  so that every spooled file prints completely and accurately, every time. Itis implemented in software and hardware products that you can get from IBM and other vendors that take advantage of the AFP benefits.

What's advanced about Advanced Function Printing/Presentation?

The hardware and software architecture is integrated among applications, operating systems, and printers. This means you get a total print solution, where all the pieces are designed to work together.

AFP is integrated into IBM Mainframes and Distributed Systems like the AS/400, where each release is built with printer file and document management, plus print management via PSF on the various platforms.

Error recovery is built in to the IPDS data stream.
This is bidirectional so that software and the printer can have conversations. An IPDS printer knows when it has an error like a paper jam and the printer can tell AFP enabled software about it. The software can then take appropriate action: notify the sender, re-route the print job, etc.

External document formatting is built in to the AFP data stream. The formatting of a document can be independent of the application that produces it, and the printer that prints it. This means you can get better looking print output without changing the application that produces the print data.

AFP is the cornerstone for document management applications like print - and-view, archive/retrieve, and COLD (Computer Output to Laser Disk). Today, output can be exported in PDF so that it can be portable for viewing and printing.

AFP products embrace industry standards. For example, compressed images use standard ITU -TSS T.6 Group 4 decompression. PSF sends standard data streams like SCS, PostScript, IPDS, line data, and AFP print files, plus GIF and BMP images-- across TCP/IP networks to IPDS printers. Or, AFP documents can be converted and sent to ASCII printers.

To use advanced function printing (AFP) support on any of the IBM System Server, PSF must be installed. However, if the ASCII data stream is converted through various Transform function built into the operating systems or with optional products, you can use the AFP support without having to install the PSF.

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While I started out to focus entirely on print and the way information is delivered. During my conversations, I have found that there are so many other needs that the people I talk with have. By focusing in on listening to what they need I have found many ways to be of assistance.

My assistance includes finding packaged programs to cover and implement capabilities to meet the needs I understand.

After 20 years with IBM, I recognize the differences between programs that are cadillacs in comparison to those that are like volkswagens. The main objective, in the 90's selling was focused on quality, today I believe that focus is on value.

I have a team of people who can assist in writing programs.
We specialize in AS400 Cobol and RPG Programming, but we are not limited to this. We have the ability to program with Visual Basic as well as .NET(VB & C#), Lotus Domino (Lotus Script & Formula), Java, JavaScript, HTML. 


DataBase Creation and Storing of information within SQL Server, MySQL, DB2, iSeries, etc.

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While companies are trying their best to reduce the amount of printing they do, I have been able to provide printing solutions to my customers and additional support and programming so that they can improve what they print and increase the amount of pages being printed.

The value of understanding how they would like to present the information of what they print and increasing the return of payments through their statements and invoices allow them to continue to focus on their business at hand.

How are you helping them to meet their demands?

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Tags: Printer Offerings

Drawer Selection Considerations

There are several different things to verify when the printer does not print from the desired drawer. The failure could occur because of the attributes of the spooled file, how the printer is configured on the operating system, the settings on the printer, or a hardware problem.

For the purposes of this document, the terms drawer and tray will be used interchangeably. In general, however, the term drawer refers to the source drawer specified in the operating system spooled file, and the term tray refers to the paper tray installed in the printer hardware. When trying to determine why a spooled file did not print from the desired drawer, there are several things to gather to help determine what could be wrong. The information to gather includes a printer configuration page, the attributes of the spooled file, the printer device description or remote output queue description, and the writer joblog. The joblog may have messages about a specific error that is causing it to fail.

The Printer

For the printer, there are several things that can affect which drawer the printer selects. First, check the printer to determine if there are any messages on the printer panel or flashing lights indicating a problem at the printer. Make sure that the drawer requested has paper in it. Then, print out a configuration page for the printer to check the following:

Spooled File Attributes

The following parameters in the spooled file attributes can affect drawer selection:

o Is the printer reporting that the drawer is installed? If the printer does not report that the drawer is installed, this prevents the printer from selecting that drawer. This is a hardware problem with the printer.

o Is the printer reporting the correct paper size (legal, letter, and so on) in the drawer? If the printer reports the wrong paper size in the drawer, it could cause the printer to select a different drawer. Try reseating the paper in the drawer, or check for a hardware problem.

o Is the printer reporting a paper type of PLAIN in the drawer? Many printer models have the ability to set a paper type, such as PLAIN, LETTERHEAD, PREPRINTED and so on. Host Print Transform (HPT) does not specify a paper type, unless a modified Workstation Customizing Object (WSCST) has been created to request a particular paper type, so by default HPT will only print to a drawer that is setup for PLAIN paper. If the preferred paper tray has been assigned a specific paper type, then the printer will most likely choose a different drawer or issue a message to load PLAIN paper in the desired paper tray.

o Is tray re-numbering turned on? If the printer has tray re-numbering turned on, what is the drawer number set to? This could affect what drawer number is used in the Source Drawer parameter of the spooled file attributes.

o Is tray linking or tray switching turned on? Tray linking, or tray switching, is the function that allows paper to be automatically pulled from another drawer when the current drawer runs out of paper. For some printers, when tray linking is turned on, the printer is not able to select a specific drawer to print from because it sees all the drawers as one drawer. In this case, disabling the tray linking allows printing from specific drawers.

o The Page size (PAGESIZE) parameter, which includes the Page length,Page width, and Measurement method.

o The Lines per Inch (LPI) parameter.

o The Characters per Inch (CPI) parameter.

o The Source drawer (DRAWER) parameter.

o The Font identifier (FONT) parameter.

o The Form feed (FORMFEED) parameter.

o The Degree of page rotation (PAGRTT) parameter.

To display the spooled file attributes, use the Work with Spooled Files( WRKSPLF ) or Work with Output Queue (WRKOUTQ ) command, and then select Option 8 (Attributes). The Work with Spooled File Attr ( WRKSPLFA )

command can also be used, but that command requires knowing the settings for the Spooled file (FILE), Job name (JOB), and Spooled file number (SPLNBR) parameters.

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Tags: AS400 Printing Tips

Advanced Function Printing (AFP) is a document format originally defined by IBM to drive its printers and support the typical form printing on laser printers.
Short for Advanced Function Presentation, IBM's AFP platform is a published standard in the print industry for printing variable data at very high speeds with complete integrity. AFP incorporates other industry formats, including EPS, PDF, TIFF, GIF, JPEG, XML, XSL, PostScript, PCL and PPML.to cover the entire range of text, image, graphics, process color, highlight color and monochrome printing. AFP has the capability to print on standard printing device and deliver content via HTML, fax, e-mail or screen.
The original tool to produce this format and to drive the IBM printers was the so called PSF (Print Service Facility), which is still until today found in IBM mainframes. It is driven by the input data to be printed as well as the definitions on how to place the data on the page, the so called PAGEDEF and FORMDEF. This service also allowed to have electronic forms to print on, named OVERLAYS.
PSF is not only able to format the documents, but also to drive AFP or, more precisely, IPDS printers. IPDS stands for Intelligent Print Data Stream. It is a bidirectional format where the software is constantly in control of the printer and knows at all times the status of the pages sent to the printer, making it convenient for high volume production printers, that print 100 pages or more within a minute.
IBM also offered the PSF software to drive the IPDS printers using the AFP format not only on the mainframe, but on all of the their platforms, so there were PSF/390 (for the OS/390 mainframe), PSF/6000 (for the RS/6000 AIX9), PSF/400 (for the AS/400) and PSF/2 running under OS/2. Unfortunately, all of these behaved slightly differently, and IBM renamed PSF then into InfoPrint Manager.
Included with the PSF tools is ACIF (AFP Conversion and Indexing Facility) that allows to produce the AFP documents as a file in order to keep them and print them later, as well as adding and index to the document, very similar to Bookmarks in PDF, used for archiving purposes.
AFP originates in the mid 1980s, when storage space was still an expensive commodity, so it was designed to be very small, which is why still today it is a very popular format to manage high volumes of documents, such as in banking, telecommunication and insurance companies. The format originates from the MVS environment, so it typically uses the EBCDIC based codepages. As with all page description languages (like PostScript, PDF, and PCL), it is necessary to use a viewer in order to display the pages.
One of the more notable features of AFP printers is that output data can be placed at any addressable point on a page. This capability is called all points addressability (APA). APA gives AFP prints the freedom to create output anywhere on a page, as opposed to being limited to just line and character positions.

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Tags: Print Architecture