OCR printing on a IBM 4234 IPDS printer

OCR-A and OCR-B are printer-resident fonts in the IPDS 4234 Model 12.  

Use the "FONT" DDS keyword in your printer file and specify the Font Global ID (FGID) of the font you want.  OCR-A is FGID 19 on the 4234/12.  Check the Reference Manual for your printer for a complete list of resident font FGIDs, or print a font test page.

FONT(19)

The Printer Device Programming Guide for your OS version has example DDS, and HLL code (RPG, COBOL, etc.) for AFP printing (here's the V5R3 manual):

http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/iseries/v5r3/topic/books/sc415713.pdf

- Gary Patterson

FGID         Typeface CPI  Print Quality
 
19 (X'0013') OCR-A    10.0 OCR
3  (X'0003') OCR-B    10.0 OCR

                                              

1:
2:
3:
4:

Does PSF/400 need to be installed?

This system does not have the font library  QFNTCPL, so will it still work?

Does the Device Description of 4234 IPDS have to have the field Advanced Function Printing marked *YES?

Device description . . . . . . . . : P1
Option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : *BASIC
Category of device . . . . . . . . : *PRT

Device class . . . . . . . . . . . : *LCL
Device type . . . . . . . . . . . : *IPDS
Device model . . . . . . . . . . . : 0
Advanced function printing . . . . : *YES
AFP attachment . . . . . . . . . . : *WSC
Port number . . . . . . . . . . . : 0
Switch setting . . . . . . . . . . : 6
Online at IPL . . . . . . . . . . : *YES
Attached controller . . . . . . . : CTL01
Font:
Identifier . . . . . . . . . . . : 011
Point size . . . . . . . . . . . : *NONE

No need for PSF/400 for the particular task you specified, though you may need it for more complex formatting.  PSF is needed for AFP printer streams (unless you use Host Print Transform), but not for basic IPDS data streams.  

If you just want to use a resident IPDS font, you can do that without PSF.

The font library is for downloaded fonts.  Does not apply since OCR-A is resident (a printer-resident font, rather than a host-resident font) in your particular printer.

If you have PSF/400, use AFP(*YES), if not, use AFP(*NO).  Without PSF, your formatting options are limited.

http://archive.midrange.com/midrange-l/200608/msg00151.html
http://www-03.ibm.com/support/techdocs/atsmastr.nsf/WebIndex/FQ105644

Also, check out the very useful IBM AS/400 Printing Redbooks for a wealth of practical information on AS/400 printing:

http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/sg242160.pdf   (See chapter 4 - Fonts.  It will probably tell you everything you need to know.)
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg246250.html

- Gary Patterson

For the sake of completeness, here are links to the three "modern" AS/400 printing Redbooks.

AS/400 Printing IV (V3R1 and later):  http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/gg244389.html
AS/400 Printing V (V4R5 and later):  http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg242160.html
iSeries Printing VI - Delivering the Output of e-business (V5R1 and later): http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg246250.html

- Gary Patterson

One of the main problems from the beginning has been that we do not have a Reference Manual for the 4234 printer. Cannot find one anywhere (including IBM, rebooks, etc.) the only they have is one for the 6400 printer which replaced the 4234. I created a short program and printer file with the DDS for my 17 0 field @OCR with a FONT (19) and set the CRTPRTF field Font Identifier to 19 when compiling.

Is there somewhere else you specify the FGID?

The field did not print in OCR but just regular print. We then printed a test page from the printer. It does not look like there is any OCR resident font. Or is there another way I should be creating the test page? See attached file with test print.