Limitations for the AFP to PDF transform

This topic lists the items in the AFP architecture that the AFP to PDF transform does not currently support. Unsupported items are either ignored or error messages are issued. Because the AFP architecture and PSF continue to be enhanced with new functional capabilities, this list might be incomplete after the publication date. IBM® suggests that you test how your AFP applications print on your non-AFP printers to make sure the output is acceptable.

• DBCS fonts in XML and record-format line data
• Global Resource Identifier (GRID)
• Include Page (IPG)
• Internal copy groups
• Invoke master environment group (IMG)
• IOCA: ABIC (non-concatenated) image compression
• Map Color Attribute Table (MCA)
• Map Page (MPG)
• Medium Finishing Control (MFC)
• Offset jogging specified in the form definition
• Preprocess Presentation Object (PPO)
• Presentation Fidelity Control (PFC)

Limitations of viewing and searching with Adobe Reader:

• Text that has been generated by using AFP GOCA output graphic characters cannot be found.
• To preserve the output fidelity of a document, corresponding placement of characters is done in the PDF output document, which can result in additional “space” characters in a character string. This restricts the operation of the Adobe find function.
• The AFP representation of a code page might not match its ASCII representation. This can cause problems searching, especially with raster fonts.
• The printed output might be smaller or larger than expected. For example, the output might be 90% of the original size if the Fit to Page or Fit to paper option is selected in the Adobe Reader Print dialog. To solve this problem, deselect the option.
• Transformed PDF images might look different from the original AFP image, depending on your monitor and printer.
• The transform uses the AFP font encoding to create the PDF document. The characters contained in the document might not be the same as the ASCII character mapping available on the system used for PDF viewing.
• The actual appearance of raster fonts can differ from the printed output. For example, some characters might not be aligned on the character baseline. The appearance might change as higher magnification levels are chosen in Adobe Reader.
• In some versions of Adobe Reader you might need to select Use Greek text below xx pixels to see all output.
• PDF documents contains a unique page number identification that is assigned during the creation of the PDF document. This page number might not correspond to the page numbers used in the AFP input document.

Other limitations include:

• The transform might create bar codes that are larger or smaller than the same bar codes printed on AFP printers. The transform creates bar codes with a resolution of 300 pels per inch. Even though the size of bar codes might be different, the bar codes will scan properly.
• The transform does not check all AFP structured fields in the AFP documents for validity. PSF might check additional structured fields for validity when it prints the AFP documents. Therefore, do not use the AFP to PDF transform to determine if PSF can print an AFP document.