Printing .prn files from the AS/400

[rgmilone@cnxcorp.com]

Printing .prn files from the AS/400

It is definitely possible to send a document from the ifs to an outq natively--my company does this all the time. There are several ways to do it but we've found the easiest and most reliable is to use FTP. Create a printer file for this purpose, something like: CRTPRTF FILE(QGPL/FTPPRINT) DEVTYPE(*USERASCII) RPLUNPRT(*NO) Next, use FTP from a command line. You can log onto LOCALHOST or your System i IP address. For the FTP transfer you want your "from" file to be the .prn file on the ifs and the "to" file will be your new printer file. You need to make sure you are in binary mode in your FTP transfer and you also need to be sure you specify the printer file path correcty. If you're using IFS-type pathnames you would specify the above printer file as /qsys.lib/qgpl.lib/ftpprint.file. Once you perform the FTP transfer, you'll notice that there is a new spool entry on your default outq. You can override the FTPPRINT file with OVRPRTF prior to the transfer to make it go to any outq you want. Since the printer file type is *USERASCII, the file will go to the printer with no conversion, so the document you're sending must be recognized as one of the formats native to printer's internal language, such as PCL or PS or even PDF with some new higher-end printers. Once you get this far then you should look at automating your FTP process, there are plenty of sources on how to automatic that if you search around.

Printing .prn files from the AS/400

I have a pc based system where templates are prepared in Corel Draw and printed to file, creating a .PRN file. We then have a fairly rubbish Excel spreadsheet that downloads some requirements from an AS/400, calculates the number of templates that need to be printed and sends the .PRN to a printer. We would like to replace this with a native AS/400 solution, where the .PRN's are held on the IFS, but the problem I have is I don't know if it possible or how to direct them to a printer. Any feedback would be much appreciated.

Printing .prn files from the AS/400

Thanks for getting back I just would have thought it would be possible to send the .prn file, which I think is a set of post script commands, directly to a PS printer?

[David Abramowitz]

When printing from Corel Draw, try using the AFP printer device supplied from iSeries access. From this output, you could create an overlay, or a page segment that resides as an object on the AS/400. This in turn can be used with a PRTF for native processing. Dave