Selecting 16.67 CPI Rather Than 17.1 CPI for Printers That Do Not Support Scalable Fonts

Resolving The Problem

Scalable fonts allow you to print at virtually any characters per inch value. Some printers, including HP DeskJet 600 printers and certain models from the HP DeskJet 800 and 900 Series, do not support scalable fonts. In these instances, selecting a 17.1 character per inch (CPI) font will result in your spooled files printing at 20 CPI instead because these printers do not support 17.1 CPI.

This document provides instructions for selecting 16.67 characters per inch (CPI) rather than 17.1 CPI for printers that do not support scalable fonts.

This is done by retrieving and modifying a Workstation Customization Table (WSCST) and adding a Font Group Entry (FNTGRPE) tag, as well as changing the CPI in COR Mode (CPICOR) tags to specify different values for the ASCII font (ASCIIFNT) and font width (FNTWTH).

This document was last updated on 24 October 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 Changing the Fonts Used by the Computer Output Reduction (COR) Function 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.

Changing the Fonts Used by the Computer Output Reduction (COR) Function

Once you are editing the workstation customizing object source using either PDM or SEU, find the CPICOR entry in the table (type CPICOR on the SEU command line, and press the F16 key). This entry tells Host Print Transform (HPT) which font to use for each character per inch (CPI) value when performing the Computer Output Reduction (COR) function. COR is used to rotate and shrink output in cases where the pages in the spooled file are too large to fit on the page. For example, if you have a report that prints on US Fan-Fold (13.2 by 11.0-inch) paper on your system printers, it is too large to print on Letter (8.5 by 11.0-inch) without rotating the output and using a smaller font. By default, HPT uses a 17.1-pitch font. We are changing it to use a 16.67-pitch font for 10 and 12 CPI spooled files and a 20-pitch font for 15 CPI spooled files.

Typically, workstation customization tables are set up so that if the page size of the IBM OS/400 or IBM i5/OS spooled file is too large to fit on the PC printer, it replaces all fonts with a 17.1-pitch font (and most likely force the page to rotate). The page size for the spooled file is determined by the page length and width, the lines per inch, and the characters per inch (pitch) specified in the spooled file attributes. The page size for the PC printer is determined by the paper source 1 (PPRSRC1) and paper source 2 (PPRSRC2) parameters in the printer device description.

The FNTGRPE entries in the workstation customization table tell HPT which font string to use for a range font, font identifiers (or font IDs). The following text should be added right before the :EFNTGRP tag in the WSCST source code.

    :FNTGRPE
     MINFID=  247
     MAXFID=  279
     FNTSTR='1B2873307031362E363768307330623430393954'X
     FNTEND=''X
     FNTWTH=''X.

The CPICOR entries in the workstation customization table tell HPT which font to use in place of the usual 10, 12, and 15 CPI fonts. The following table shows the original settings for an HP LaserJet 4 and the settings needed to get 10 and 12 CPI fonts to print at 16.67 CPI, and 15 CPI fonts to print at 20 CPI:

Default Settings for HP DeskJet 500

Modified Settings for HP DeskJet 500

:CPICOR       CPI=10       ASCIIFNT=  255       FNTWTH=   84       FNTATR=    1       DATA =''X.     :CPICOR       CPI=12       ASCIIFNT=  255       FNTWTH=   84       FNTATR=    1       DATA =''X.     :CPICOR       CPI=15       ASCIIFNT=  255       FNTWTH=   84       FNTATR=    1       DATA =''X.

:CPICOR       CPI=10       ASCIIFNT=  255       FNTWTH=   86       FNTATR=    1       DATA ='1B2873307031362E363768307330623430393954'X.     :CPICOR       CPI=12       ASCIIFNT=  255       FNTWTH=   86       FNTATR=    1       DATA ='1B2873307031362E363768307330623430393954'X.     :CPICOR       CPI=15       ASCIIFNT=  281       FNTWTH=   72       FNTATR=    1       DATA ='1B2873307032302E3068307330623430393954'X.

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