Re: Spool file conversion

To clear things up with our PDF creation offerings...

When the spooled file is AFPDS the conversion is like others. You can
control margins but the result is a raster image PDF file. Giovanni's
software (MMAIL) has the option of using our AFPTOOL software as part of
the install/conversion process. While the Host Print Transform APIs aren't
really supported on *SCS spooled files, it works "most of the time".

With *SCS spooled files using SPLTOOL you have the options of controlling
virtually everything since I wrote this from scratch years ago (people
thinks there are APIs or something for PDF creation... nope, I had to learn
more than I ever wanted to about the PDF spec... ugh...)

That means that you can map a spooled file using page width, length, cpi
and lpi to specific PDF attributes (page size, orientation, font size,
spacing, etc). You can also do it using the User Data part of the spooled
file. Much customization is available.

All pages breaks, bold, etc is retained. And, the PDF is searchable unlike
raster image PDFs.

There are also PDF concatenation options to merge multiple PDFs into one
PDF file as well as the ability to add passwords and encryption (which is a
requirement for a lot of our health care customers for HIPAA compliance).

And finally, you can use another PDF as an "overlay" or digital pre-printed
form. This has really been something my customers like. Here's an example:

http://www.fieldexit.com/forum/display?threadid=12

If you go here there are two more examples near the bottom (invoice and
bill of lading examples using overlays)
http://www.bvstools.com/spltool.html

Prices are also very low (and right on our site) and we don't charge extra
for support, maintenance, software version upgrades, etc. Just one license
fee for each unique partition ID/model. The less time we're doing
paperwork and chasing fees, the more time we can spend on support and
improving our offerings. :)

Brad
www.bvstools.com




On Sun, Jul 19, 2015 at 8:50 AM, Vernon Hamberg <vhamberg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Each of the solutions has characteristics in the resulting PDF that vary
and can affect which to use. And the ability to control how the PDF looks
vary.

CPYSPLF has no obvious controls for output - I find that it gives pretty
narrow margins - perhaps determined from the PRTF layout, haven't pursued
that further
MMAIL (www.easy400.net) is very low cost - Giovanni hopes people
contribute $50 annually, as I recall - its CVTSPLFPDF gives pretty nice
results - margins look good, esp. - it uses a TIFF and usually results in a
larger PDF
ESEND (related to SEQUEL & ABSTRACT, now part of Help Systems) - has
conversion to PDF as an output option for attachments from spooled files -
my recent comparison for a task here showed results similar to CPYSPLF or
the same - I forget - no controls for margins that I found

MMAIL and/or ESEND may have different commands for conversion - and some
from the same vendor/source may have different output look & feel.

RJS has several converters - I don't remember how those end up and don't
have any of those installed.

Brad Stone's tools, too - I've never worked with them, so can't say what
controls or how the final result looks is.

I like having 2 or 3 options, I guess - different needs - if I want
something pretty quick and small, I'll probably convert with CPYSPLF and
email with one of the others, naming the attachment directly. Right now, if
size is less important and I want things to look better, I'll go with
MMAIL's CVTSPLFPDF.

HTH
Vern

On 7/19/2015 5:59 AM, Jim Oberholtzer wrote:

Or the IBM free solution:

5770TS1 IBM Transform Services for i
5770TS1 Transforms - AFP to PDF Transform

I like Brad's tools as well, they tend to be a bit friendlier and feature
function rich. Brad's solution actually competes well with Infoprint
server
which is a chargeable option of IBM i

--
Jim Oberholtzer
Chief Technical Architect
Agile Technology Architects


-----Original Message-----
From: WEB400 [mailto:web400-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Charles
Wilt
Sent: Friday, July 17, 2015 3:59 PM
To: Web Enabling the IBM i (AS/400 and iSeries)
Subject: Re: [WEB400] Spool file conversion

For PDF...I'd recommend Brad Stone's tools...

http://www.bvstools.com/

Also Gumbo, but you'll pay more for those.

Charles

On Fri, Jul 17, 2015 at 4:48 PM, Allen, Todd <
Todd.Allen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Can anyone advise of options for converting a spool file to another

format (PDF, TIFF, etc)? I realize this can be done in Java with
iText but I'm looking for an IBMi-based solution. I've found several
off-the-shelf solutions with a quick search. I'd like to know if this
is the right route or is there a better open source alternative.

Any guidance is appreciated.

Thanks,
Todd

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