Printing Scalable Fonts through Host Print Transform (HPT)

Resolving The Problem

This document provides information about printing scalable fonts through Host Print Transform (HPT) and its AFPDS-to-ASCII Transform code which is the recommended way to print fonts with different point sizes and specifically for printing very large fonts.

This document was last updated on 24 October 2014.


Background Information

The recommended way to print very large fonts is to use scalable fonts. Scalable fonts are fonts that can be scaled (made larger or smaller) by specifying a point size. Point size is measured in 72nds of an inch; therefore, a scalable font that is 1 inch high has a point size of 72, and a scalable font that is 1/2 inch high would have a point size of 36.

Scalable fonts are supported only for spooled files that are generated with the Printer device type (DEVTYPE) parameter set to *AFPDS. *AFPDS spooled files can be printed to IPDS or Intelligent Printer Data Stream printer when using the IBM Print Services Facility/400 (PSF/400) product. *AFPDS spooled files can also be printed to ASCII laser printers that are HP LaserJet or PCL compatible printers or, in some cases, PPDS compatible printers, when using Host Print Transform (HPT). HPT then uses its AFPDS-to-ASCII Transform code to convert the *AFPDS spooled file to an ASCII printer data stream suitable for the PCL or PPDS compatible printer.


Specifying Scalable Fonts using the FONT or FNTCHRSET DDS Keywords

Scalable fonts are supported by the AFPDS-to-ASCII Transform code with HPT. Typically, the scalable font is specified using an externally described printer file with data description specifications (DDS). To print scalable fonts through HPT, use one of the following methods:

o	Use the FONT (Font) DDS Keyword with the font identifier set to 416 and the point size set to the desired size of the font. For example: FONT(416 (*POINTSIZE 12)) Note: The iSeries Printer Device Programming Version 5 (SC41-5713-04) lists font identifier or FGID 416 as a Courier Roman Medium font. Other useful font IDs include: 420 Courier Roman Bold 424 Courier Roman Italic 428 Courier Roman Italic Bold
o	Use the FNTCHRSET (Font Character Set) DDS Keyword with the font character set to CZ6200 and the point size set to the desired size of the font. The AFP Compatibility Fonts ship with the operating system and contain several fonts that can be used with the FNTCHRSET DDS Keyword; however, CZ6200 is the only scalable font that is provided. For example: FNTCHRSET(QFNTCPL/CZ6200 QFNTCPL/T1V10037 (*POINTSIZE 12)) assuming you want to print font character set CZ6200 using the T1V10037 (USA/CANADA - CECP) code page.
o	Order and install the IBM Infoprint Fonts product. Then, use the FNTCHRSET (Font Character Set) DDS Keyword with one of the other available font character sets provided.

Specifying a Width-Value with the FONT and FNTCHRSET DDS Keywords

The FONT (Font) and FNTCHRSET (Font Character Set) DDS Keywords allow both a height-value and width-value to be specified for the POINTSIZE. For example:

FNTCHRSET([library-name/ | &library-name-field/]
font-character-set | &font-character-set-field
[library-name/ | &library-name-field/]
code-page | &code-page-field
[(*POINTSIZE height-value | &height-value-field
width-value | &width-value-field)])

FONT(font-identifier | &font-identifier-field
[(*POINTSIZE height-value | &height-value-field
width-value | &width-value-field)])

The width-value specifies the point size for the width of the font, which allows the font to be printed in a narrow or wider width than normal.

Although this may be supported for both printer-resident and host-resident scalable fonts when using Print Services Facility/400 (PSF/400) to print to an IPDS-capable laser printer, this is only supported with host-resident scalable fonts when using Host Print Transform (HPT) to print to an ASCII laser printer. That means that the FNTCHRSET DDS keyword must be used, for example, with host-resident font CZ6200 which ships with the AFP Compatibility Fonts, when the resulting spooled file will be printed using HPT.

For examples, to print font character set CZ6200 with a height of 36.0 points (1/2 inch tall) and a width of 14.4 points (which is equivalent to about 8.3 CPI), you would specify the following:

FNTCHRSET(QFNTCPL/CZ6200 QFNTCPL/T1000037 (*POINTSIZE 36.0 14.4))


Specifying Scalable Fonts using the CHGPRTF or OVRPRTF Commands

Another option would be to use the Change Printer File (CHGPRTF) or Override with Printer File (OVRPRTF) commands with the Printer device type (DEVTYPE) parameter set to *AFPDS and either the Font identifier (FONT) parameter set to font 416 and point size 12, for example:

OVRPRTF FILE(*PRTF) DEVTYPE(*AFPDS) FONT(416 12) FNTCHRSET(*FONT)
        OVRSCOPE(*JOB)

CHGPRTF FILE(library/prtf-name) DEVTYPE(*AFPDS) FONT(416 12) FNTCHRSET(*FONT)

or the Font character set (FNTCHRSET) parameter set to the font character set, code page and point size, for example:

OVRPRTF FILE(*PRTF) DEVTYPE(*AFPDS)
        FNTCHRSET(QFNTCPL/CZ6200 QFNTCPL/T1V10037 12) OVRSCOPE(*JOB)

CHGPRTF FILE(library/prtf-name) DEVTYPE(*AFPDS)
        FNTCHRSET(QFNTCPL/CZ6200 QFNTCPL/T1V10037 12)


How Characters Per Inch (CPI) Corresponds to Point Size

When dealing with a monospaced font, such as font 416, every character has the same width. In this case, the pitch or Characters Per Inch (CPI) has a direct relationship to the point size:

CPI = 120 / Pointsize

The following chart shows the most common point size and CPI values:

Point Size	Characters Per Inch (CPI)
24	5
12	10
10	12
9	13.3
8	15
7	17.1
6	20

For More Information (References)

For more information, refer to the following Rochester Support Center Incident Summary document:

N1010119: List of Default Font IDs Based on Font Range
N1016757: Documentation for the AFP Font Collection Product (5648-B45)

and refer to the System i Programming DDS for Printer Files publication:

7.2	http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/api/content/ssw_ibm_i_72/rzakd/rzakdpdf.pdf
7.1	http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_ibm_i_71/rzakd/rzakd.pdf
6.1	http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_ibm_i_61/rzakd/rzakd.pdf
5.4	http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_i5_54/rzakd/rzakd.pdf

and the iSeries Printer Device Programming V5R4 (SC41-5713-06) publication:

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/ssw_i5_54/books/sc415713.pdf