Printing at 20 Characters per Inch (CPI) on Older HP LaserJet Compatible Printers

Resolving The Problem

This document provides instructions on how to force Host Print Transform (HPT) to print IBM OS/400 or IBM i5/OS spooled files at 20 Characters Per Inch (CPI) on HP LaserJet and compatible printers that do not have a 20 CPI font and do not have support for scalable fonts, such as an HP LaserJet III Series printer.

This is done by retrieving and modifying a Workstation Customizing Object (WSCST) and changing the Variable Line Spacing (VARLSPC) tag to include a particular Horizontal Motion Index PCL5 control that will cause the printer to print a 17 CPI font and compress it to print at 20 CPI.

This document was last updated on 5 November 2013.

Caution: These instructions are provided as is. Any assistance with editing the Workstation Customization Table must be done through a consulting agreement.

Basic Steps for Creating and Using a Workstation Customization Object

The following are the basic steps for creating and using a Workstation Customization Object (WSCST). Regardless of the particular issues you are attempting to resolve, these steps must always be taken. This information is intended to provide a 'quick start' to creating a WSCST object for users who have at least some familiarity with creating them and with configuring printers.

Note: Additional, in-depth details for creating a WSCST object can be found in the following document:

N1010140: Instructions for Modifying a Workstation Customizing Object (WSCST)

The following are the basic 'quick start' steps.

Step 1: Retrieve the WSCST source code. Type the following command on the operating system command line:

Important Note: Use the Manufacturer type and model (MFRTYPMDL) that is appropriate for your printer. Also, the Source member (in the following example, HP4) is a name that is appropriate to your customizing object. This is what you will be calling your workstation customizing object in Step 3.

RTVWSCST DEVTYPE(*TRANSFORM) MFRTYPMDL(*HP4) SRCMBR(HP4)
         SRCFILE(QGPL/QTXTSRC)

Press the Enter key.

Step 2: Edit the source code by using PDM or SEU:

o	To use PDM, on the operating system command line type the following: WRKMBRPDM FILE(QGPL/QTXTSRC) MBR(HP4) Press the Enter key. Select Option 2 to edit.
o	To use SEU, on the operating system command line type the following: STRSEU SRCFILE(QGPL/QTXTSRC) SRCMBR(HP4) Press the Enter key.

Make any changes necessary to the WSCST object source code. Refer to the following section Printing at 20 Characters Per Inch (CPI) on Old HP LaserJet Compatible Printers to make your changes, then save and exit. Continue with Step 3.

Step 3: Create the WSCST object using the CRTWSCST command. On the operating system command line type the following:

Important Note: Match the SRCMBR name from Step 1 to the WSCST object name that is created in this step.

CRTWSCST WSCST(QGPL/HP4) SRCFILE(QGPL/QTXTSRC)

Press the Enter key.

Step 4: Add the WSCST to the printer configuration by using the Change Device Print command (CHGDEVPRT), the Change Output Queue command (CHGOUTQ), or by changing the PC5250 printer emulation session configuration.

o	To add the WSCST to a device description, on the operating system command line type the following: CHGDEVPRT DEVD(device_name) TRANSFORM(*YES) MFRTYPMDL(*WSCSTLETTER)           WSCST(QGPL/HP4) Press the Enter key.
o	To add the WSCST to a remote output queue description, on the operating system command line type the following: CHGOUTQ OUTQ(queue_name) TRANSFORM(*YES) MFRTYPMDL(*WSCSTLETTER)         WSCST(HP4) Press the Enter key.
o	To add the WSCST to a PC5250 printer emulation session, do the following: a In the PC5250 printer session, click on Communication > Configure. b Click on the Setup button. c In the Configure PC5250 Printer Emulation window, select the box next to Transform Print Data to ASCII on the iSeries and select the Printer Model value of *WSCST. d In the same window, specify the name of the WSCST in the Customizing Object parameter and the library where it is found in the Library parameter (for example, Customizing Object HP4 and Library QGPL). e Click OK three times. f Click File > Save to save the configuration.

Note: If any changes are made to the WSCST object source code after the CRTWSCST command has been issued, it is necessary to issue the CRTWSCST command again. The printer writer must be ended and restarted for the changes to take effect.

Printing at 20 Characters Per Inch (CPI) on Old HP LaserJet Compatible Printers

Once you are editing the workstation customizing object source using either PDM or SEU, find the Variable Line Spacing (VARLSPC) tag by typing VARLSPC at the SEU prompt and pressing the F16 (Repeat find) Key. Initially, the VARLSPC tag should show as:

   :VARLSPC
   VAROFFSET=    3
   VARLEN=    3
   VARTYPE=CHRDEC
   CNVNUM=    1
   CNVDEN=   48
   DATA ='1B266C00000043'X.

To compress the font down to 20 Characters Per Inch (CPI), a particular Horizontal Motion Index PCL5 control ('1B266B3648'X) must be added to the end of the DATA portion of the VARLSPC tag, so that it is set to '1B266C000000431B266B3648'X. When completed, the VARLSPC tag should be set to:

   :VARLSPC
   VAROFFSET=    3
   VARLEN=    3
   VARTYPE=CHRDEC
   CNVNUM=    1
   CNVDEN=   48
   DATA ='1B266C000000431B266B3648'X.

Note: If this is done and the spooled file specifies a font that is larger than 17 CPI, such as 10 or 12 CPI, the characters will probably overlap when printed. This should only be done when printing in a 17 CPI font, such as when printing with Computer Output Reduction (COR) processing.

To create the WSCST object and implement it, perform Steps 3 and 4 (above).