Using Printer Control Codes

This section explains the String (SCS) control codes, or Final Form Text: Document Content Architecture (FFT DCA).

For details of iSeries, eServer™ i5, or System i5® printer control codes, refer to AS/400 Guide to Programming for Printing.

This table matches the iSeries, eServer i5, or System i5 table of fonts. PC400 builds a PC spool file with the selected font in it. The printer driver picks up the spool file and the font and sends it to the printer where the expected font is used. Refer to Printer Device Programming for additional information on other useful tables.

The following factors can produce unexpected results:

Not all fonts are available on a PC or printer device.
If the font that was selected from the table and incorporated into the spool file cannot be found on a PC or on a printer, the printer driver determines how to present the data on a printer. For example, HP printer drivers have the following order of considerations:
- HP Font Priority Considerations:
  1. Symbol Set
  2. Spacing
  3. Pitch
  4. Height
  5. Style
  6. Stroke Weight
  7. Typeface Family
  8. Resolution
  9. Orientation
- Location: printer ROM, SIMM module ROM, cartridge ROM, printer RAM
  Priority of locations:
  1. Soft font (lowest ID first)
  2. Cartridge Font
  3. SIMM Font
  4. Internal Font
- 600 dpi has priority over 300 dpi
To avoid this uncertainty, it is recommended that you update the table so that only the fonts that are available in the given environment are used.
NLS
The iSeries, eServer i5, or System i5 font has NLS characters in it, which are not part of a corresponding PC font. The IBM-supplied table does not support character sets other than ANSI, although it provides a field for them. In this case, PC400 builds a PC spool file with a font that doesn't recognize NLS.

To fix the problem, it is recommended that you either change the font names in the table to the NLS enabled on a PC/printer, or if the font has the same name as the one in the table, update a Character Set value.
After you decide to scale a printout which may be a result of CORig or BesFitting, you usually decrease the distance horizontally as well as vertically between characters. This can result in overlapping. PC400 attempts to adjust the given character size to a new one. A problem may occur when a font defined in the table is not a scalable font. Like GFID011, the most heavily used iSeries, eServer i5, or System i5 font is mapped to Courier. Courier is a non-scalable font which has only a limited number of character box sizes. To avoid possible problems it is recommended that you use Courier New instead, which is a scalable TTF font.