Peter,
I've been using a product called Create!Print for 12 years now and can tell you that it's probably the best forms printing solution available for the AS/400 platform. The forms design is accomplished on the PC without the need for any program changes on the AS/400. The forms are then uploaded to the AS/400 and printing of the forms and data are done directly to the printer without any PC involvement.
I like this product so much that I've purchased it 3 times in the last 12 years for 3 different employers. Each time I purchased this product I started by looking over the list of products available (COMMON is a good place to start) and try to find something better. As you can imagine, having used a form printing product since 1989 I have a lot of experience and know what I want. Each time Create!Print comes out on top.
One of the reasons it's the best is that they use their own writer on the AS/400 (not IBMs) and thus only have to make one pass over the data. Almost all other products make two passes over the data to merge the form. The other benefit is that they use Postscript to send the data and form to the printer. Postscript is much more compact than PCL and more robust.
Create!Print charges a base price of $4,500 for the package plus a cost per printer base on the printer's PPM rate. We are doing exactly what you are doing. Ihave HP 4100dtn and 8100dtn products connected via LAN to the AS/400 via TCP/IP. These printers are reasonably fast (for our purposes) and the software pushes them at full rated speed.
Give Create!Print a look see at www.e4m.com.
Chuck
"Peter Franken" <peter_franken@cargill.com> wrote in message news:1dd16369.-1@WebX.WawyahGHajS...We are using AS400 printing in a very limited form. Only plain lists and some forms which are handled by Xerox XDPE and printed on twinax connected Xerox 4220 machines. We want to switch to printing forms with overlays, logos and duplex text using native AS400 capabilities. (Now on V3R2M0 switching only in a year to V4R4M0). The target printer is a HP4100DTN connected over IP to the AS400. The connection is in place, outqueue setup and a HP5Si WSCST file used. We're looking for some good examples or possibly a 'AS400 advanced printing for dummies' book or website. Who can help us start in the good direction ? The redbooks seem to be too abstract and still expect too much choices to be made about stuff we're not experience enough in. Thanks in advance, Peter
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