PSF/AIX:Questions on the PCL transform
ITEM: RTA000087393
Q:
ABSTRACT: Questions on the operation of the PCL transform in
PSF/6000
ENVIRONMENT:
SEARCH ARG: psf/6000 pcl
TOPIC THREAD: PRINT
AFP
PSF6000
..
Customer is planning for a PSF/6000 installation that will use the
PCL transform to print PCL input on IPDS printers. Can you help with
the following questions:
Q1) A PCL printer attached to my workstation contains the images of the
fonts that are used in printing the page. In other words the fonts are
resolved at the printer at the time the job is printed.
Now if I want to send this same job to the PSF/6000 server, I assume the
fonts will be resolved at the server during the PCL transform. However,
when I read the announce material for PSF/6000, there is no mention of
any PCL fonts on the server. How are PCL fonts resolved when using the
PCL transform to send PCL input data streams to IPDS output devices?
Are all PCL fonts supported?
Q2) When the PCL transform is used, is the PCL datastream converted to
full page image, or does the transform convert PCL text to IPDS text
and PCL image to IPDS image? I understand that the PCL to IPDS
transform is rather quick - what is the performance of the printer when
sending the converted datastream to the printer?. Thanks
A:
R1) Fonts are built into the PCL interpreter; we emulate an HP printer
in this manner. There are about 45 built-in fonts. Generally other PCL
fonts must be sent added to the interpreter; because there are different
types of fonts, we work with Development on a case-by-case basis when
customers want to add additional PCL soft fonts to the transform.
However, if a customer has a PCL font that already has the right PCL
wrappers to define the resource and make it "permanent", then they can
use one of the two following approaches.
a) This alternative will only last for the duration of the "IPL" (until
the system is rebooted. You can leave the PCL interpreter up and
running all the time (set pcl_server_timeout = 9999), and then download
the desired resident resources once at interpreter startup time, making
them "permanent" until the next re-boot.
b) Create a file in the work directory (as defined in the config file)
called "UserInit", and place into this file the PCL containing the
resources that are to be "permanent". Then every time the interpreter
comes up, it will read and "execute" this file, and whatever resources
are stored here will be available to jobs.
R2) The PCL transform, like the PostScript transform, produces image,
not mixed text and image. This image can be compressed or uncompressed.
The output data stream is AFPDS, not IPDS. There is no published
performance data on the speed of the transform because PCL files can
vary so widely in complexity. However, I can say that the transform is
CPU-intensive. Actual print time performance will depend on the
features of the printer, such as memory and support for compressed
image.
I hope that helps.
S e a r c h - k e y w o r d s:
AIX PSF/6000 PCL TRANSFORM FONTS psf/aix pcl2afp psf pod infoprint
image userinit
WWQA: ITEM: RTA000087393 ITEM: RTA000087393
Dated: 07/1998 Category: XPSF6000
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