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Manual InterForm400 English 2023

Navigation: Spooled files > Input spooled files

*SCS/*LINE/*IPDS spooled files

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Input spooled files of types *SCS, *LINE and *IPDS are handled in InterForm400 as described below.

 

DBCS

DBCS input spooled files are supported by InterForm400.

 

Overprinting

Overprinting can be used in the input *SCS spooled file for printing bold i.e. printing something in the same position makes the text appear in bold.

 

If the texts in the printer file used for the input spooled has defined any text from right to left (or used different font sizes on the same line), then these fields will in InterForm400 as default appear as two different lines (with a line distance of 0). This is normally not a problem - unless you use conditions in your overlays. You can see this, if you load the spooled file in the green screen designer and press F19=DSPPFM, where the line distance is seen on the left.

 

How can you see if a spooled file is using overprinting?

If you in the green screen designer press F13 to select the spooled file, and make sure to specify *NO for the option Merge overprint lines:

 

 

 

          Select Parameters for view / print                           APF730D 

                                                                               

 Overlay name            DEMO                                                  

 or Overlay Selector                                                           

 Primary/Secondary set   1           1=Primary  2=Secondary                    

 Spooled file:                       Save to favorites    *NO   *NO, *YES      

    Job name             QPADEV0003  Job system name  *ONLY     *ONLY,*CURRENT,

    User                 KSE                                    *ANY           

    Job number           361313      Creation date    *ONLY     *ONLY, date    

    File name            R4ZD72P1      Creation time            blank, time    

    Spooled file no.     000001      Number, *ONLY, *LAST                      

 Code page               *INPUT      Number, *INPUT (F4=List)                  

 Unicode output          *INPUT      *INPUT, *YES, *PDFA                       

 Merge overprint lines   *NO         *NO, *YES <--------------------                                

 Form type               *STD                                                  

 Copies                    1         1-255                                     

 Drawer / Papertype      *PRINTER    *PRINTER, *INPUT, *OVERLAY, 1-256, Name   

 View format                         1=PCL  2=B/W PDF  3=Color PDF 4=Fax PDF   

 

 

If you now press Enter and then F19=DSPPFM, then you can see the overprinting lines with the 0 (line distance) in column 4 as below:

 

 

*...+....1....+....2....+....3....+....4....+....5....+....6....+....7....+

   1                                                                       

   1                                                                       

   1                    This text is underlined                                                   

   0                    ________________________________                   

   1                                                                       

   1                                                                       

   0                    This is a spooled file line.         

   1                                                                       

   0                    This is also spooled file line with another text.

   1                                                                       

   0                    All products mentioned in this document are cables 

   1                                                                         

 

 

Overprinting can be used for e.g. printing something in bold - by printing the same text twice with line distance 0. It can also be used for printing underlines. In the spooled file above the line:

This text is underlined is really underlined (if you print it without InterForm400 - or merge it with Merge overprint lines=*NO) and will be printed as: This text is underlined           .

 

The problem in InterForm400 is, that InterForm400 cannot store two characters in the same position, so with the option Merge overprint lines=*YES, all underlines of the 0-lines are ignored. (If the underlines would not be ignored, then InterForm400 would output the text This_text_is_underlined_____, which most customers would NOT like. This explains why you will not see these underlines, that are setup in 0-lines or bold texts of the input spooled file, if this option is activated. The solution is to use enable underline in the remap window element and/or use a bold font, when you remap the text from the spooled file.

 

The recommandation is to always activate merge overprint lines, when you merge spooled files that are potentially using overprinting, as you may see conditions in your overlays, that does not work, if the specific spooled file line is actually built up by multiple, smaller texts in multiple 0-lines of the input spooled file.

 

 

For the merges in InterForm400 there is an option, Merge overprint lines. In the graphical designer this is default enabled, and in the green screen this option is default disabled. This means e.g. that input spooled files, that use overprinting for making text bold are seen as normal in the graphical designer, and conditions work fine in the designer - independently of overprint lines in the input spooled files.

 

When you use conditions in your overlays, it can be necessary to enable Merge overprint lines for the merges in the green screen to get the same result as in the graphical designer, but that will also make the bold texts in the input spooled file output as a normal font. The workaround is to remap these texts in a normal font.

 

Overprinting and the effects on the overlay design is covered in this video:

 

 

Varying CPI

Advanced *SCS spooled files with varying CPI is supported by InterForm400. The actual CPI is added to the end of each spooled file line and can be used as a conditioned remap window or conditioned overlay. The special CPI value can be seen on the very right, if you load the spooled file in the green screen designer and press F19=DSPPFM.

 

Fonts and graphics

Any fonts, graphics/images as well as barcodes included in input *IPDS or *AFPDS spooled files are ignored by InterForm400. You will need to insert them in the InterForm400 designer.