Due to the variety of requirements in many user applications we provide various ways of handling the print job once it arrives in the Winet program on your PC. In most of our applications we support the following six methods of sending the print data to the Windows printer or another device:

GDIPrintingTypeGDI – Standard Windows printing

GDI (Graphics Device Interface/Independent) printing is the normal Windows printing. Inet sends the print data via the Windows printer driver for your selected printer to the Windows print spooler. If you use GDI printing you can select a font and a variety of properties like paper size, orientation, etc. if supported by your printer driver.

You are recommended to try GDI first. This is the method that should give the least problems. You may need to select a suitable font like Courier New with a size 8 to 10. You may manipulate large or stalledjobs from the Windows printer manager.

FilePrintingTypeFile – Redirect to a file and process

This method allows you to send data to a file on your disk. You may optionally specify an application to post-process the file immediately after it was received. (You may also redirect the data to a hardware port like LPT1 or COM2, but this is not recommended. Rather use the “Direct” method.)

Note for developers: File printing allows you to use any other (external third party) program to process print jobs.

DirectPrintingTypeDirect – Send to printer without changes made by printer driver

This is basically the same as old DOS printing. The printer’s default font will be used and no formatting is done in the PC. If you want to send your own printer escape sequences to the printer this is the recommended method. The data will go through the Windows spooler directly to the printer without modification as in the case with GDI printing.

Use this method if you want to send raw data to the printer. The format of the print job will depend on printer (physical device) – this is not Device Independent printing.
You may manipulate large or stalled jobs from the Windows printer manager.

Note: Some versions of the Generic Text printer driver do not give Windows enough control – especially when printing to a network printer. You may need to install a more intelligent driver even though you do not have such a printer.

Note: Some “host based” drivers for “Windows printers” do not allow old DOS printing. GDI and the other types of printing will work correctly, but for DirectPrintingTypeDirect you’ll need to find a driver that allows DOS printing directly to the printer port.

LPRPrintingTypeLPR – Send to another PC or device running LPD

If you do not have a local printer or if access to a shared Windows printer cause problems, you may use this option to redirect the printing to any other machine or network printer with an LPD print server. It is an effective method of redirecting print jobs with a very low impact on the network bandwidth. It also allows redirecting over multiple platforms or where the network shared printers fail work correctly.

RTFPrintingTypeRTF – Print the data as a Rich Text Format file

To enable you to print documents with rich formatted instructions from your mainframe, we support RTF. An RTF file must be generated by the mainframe application and sent as a print job. Inet will use a built-in RTF module to interpret the file and print it using standard Windows GDI printing like a word processor. You may also nominate MS Word (if installed) to handle the print job.

In the InetLPDHID_LPD_OVERVIEW print server you must define a new LPD printerLPDterms for RTF jobs and in the Inet3270 terminal emulator the settings for “RTF Host Printer” is used when a Natural file transfer is followed by a “PRINTRTF” commandFileTransNatural. (In Inet3270 the RTF printer settings are utilized when PRINTRTF is sent from the mainframe and with automated RTF detection for some of the 3287 data streams.)

In some cases Winet can automatically distinguish between normal text data and RTF, allowing the mainframe applications to gradually add RTF to selected reports while sending all reports to the same printer queue. The Inet3270 terminal emulator and the socket print server, InetPrintServerHID_PRINTSERVER_OVERVIEW, will look at the first 5 characters of the data to decide whether it is an RTF file or not. RTF files start with “{\rtf”. The host printer in InetVTx00 looks for an EscLegendAscii R as the first 2 characters inserted directly before the RTF file in the data stream.
See detail at RTF notes for developers of formatted printingPrintRTFDevNotes.

Inet FormatPrintingTypeInet – Data contains Inet Format Print sequences

Use this method for data that contains Inet Format Print proprietary escape sequences to improve formatting of print jobs.

Instead of sending printer escape sequences in your data (which depends on the make and model of the physical printer, i.e. Device Dependent); you may replace them with Inet sequences that will work on all Windows printers (Device Independent). This vastly simplifies the development of formatted printing on your applications by not introducing the complexity of RTF. In many cases it is a simple as modifying printer translation tables in your applications and you have formatted Device Independent printing!

Inet Format allows you to:

– Start text on any position on a page
– Write test at any slope
– Specify fonts, sizes and type faces

See detail at Inet Format escape sequences for developers of formatted printing PrintInetDevNotes.

MergePrintingTypeMerge – Data is merged with a template document

This is the easiest method to specify the full formatting of a report using a PC word processor. Two merge methods are available. This is the generic method where every line of data indicates one field in the template document. The template document is specified on the PC. Each line of data is restricted to the same text format.

The advanced merge method is under construction (December 2004) and will allow full programmable control from your server/mainframe application to specify various templates and fields as required.

See detail at Merge printing for developers of formatted printing PrintMergeDevNotes.

See also: Developer’s notes on formatted printingPrintingDevNotes.

The setup dialog boxes are described at:

GDI setupHIDD_GDI_PRN_SETUP
File setup HIDD_FILE_PRN_SETUP
Direct setup HIDD_DIRECT_PRN_SETUP
LPR setup HIDD_LPR_PRN_SETUP
RTF setup HIDD_RTF_PRN_SETUP
Inet Format setup HIDD_SGDI_PRN_SETUP
Merge setup HIDD_MERGE_PRN_SETUP

More at: Printing general informationPrintingGenInf.

GDI printing – Standard Windows printing

Default type. Graphics Device Interface/Independent printing is the normal Windows printing. With GDI printing you can select a font and a variety of properties like paper size, orientation, etc. if supported by your printer driver. You may need to select a suitable font like Courier New with a size 8 to 10. More at: GDI setupHIDD_GDI_PRN_SETUP and Printing general informationPrintingGenInf.

File printing – Redirect to a file and process

Send print data to a file on your disk. You may optionally specify an application to post-process the file immediately after it was received. More at: File setup HIDD_FILE_PRN_SETUP and Printing general informationPrintingGenInf.

Direct printing – Send to printer without changes made by printer driver

This is basically the same as old DOS printing. The printer’s default font will be used and no formatting is done in the PC. If you want to send your own printer escape sequences to the printer this is the recommended method. The data will go through the Windows spooler directly to the printer without modification as in the case with GDI printing. More at: Direct setup HIDD_DIRECT_PRN_SETUP and Printing general informationPrintingGenInf.

LPR printing – Send to another PC or device running LPD

Redirect printing to another machine or network printer with an LPD print server. It is an effective method of redirecting print jobs with a very low impact on the network bandwidth. It also allows redirecting over multiple platforms or where the network shared printers fail work correctly. More at: LPR setup HIDD_LPR_PRN_SETUP and Printing general informationPrintingGenInf.

Merge printing – Data is printed via a template

A merge template document in RTF is required on the PC. Fields in the merge document are replaced by the print data received from the server. More at: Merge setup HIDD_MERGE_PRN_SETUP and Merge printing for developers of formatted printing PrintMergeDevNotes.

RTF printing – Print the data as a Rich Text Format word processor file

An RTF file must be generated by the mainframe application and sent as a print job. Inet will use a built-in RTF module to interpret the file and print it using standard Windows GDI printing like a word processor. You may also nominate MS Word (if installed) to handle the print job. More at: RTF setup HIDD_RTF_PRN_SETUP and RTF notes for developers of formatted printingPrintRTFDevNotes.

Inet Format printing – Data contains Inet Format Print sequences

Use this method for that data contains Inet Format Print proprietary escape sequences to improve formatting of print jobs. Inet sequences will work on all Windows printers (Device Independent). More at: Inet Format setup HIDD_SGDI_PRN_SETUP and Inet Format escape sequences for developers of formatted printing PrintInetDevNotes.

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Category: Printing
Tags: data as a rich text format file, excape sequences, inet print sequences, mail merge, print like dos, redirect to file and process, send to another device, standard windows printing, template document, types of printing, winet