Advanced function presentation (AFPs) printers, such as the 3800-3 and 3820 provide all-points addressability. All-points addressability allows every point on the page to be available for reference. These points on the page include graphics and a range of font types and sizes unavailable to impact printers. AFP printers are controlled by print service facility (PSF) and used by JES2. JES2 and PSF work together by communicating through the functional subsystem interface, which is an extension of JES2 device control that removes the need for JES2 to be dependent on specific characteristics of the printing device. This independence allows JES2 to use AFP printers in full-function mode and page mode.

Full function mode uses printer functions that produce page mode output. The concept of page mode permits printed pages to contain both text data and graphic presentations. The user can define and request attributes such as segments (predefined portions of a page), overlays (predefined page templates), images (pictures and graphics), and type fonts (collections of unique or stylized characters). For example, the graphical material can include a wide range of print font types and sizes for use in text headings, logos, and imbedded artwork; shading of textural and user-produced graphics; and graph plotting, some of which you can see in this book. ¹