Dec 27, 2005
Using Overlays Within a Page Definition
Question: I need to add several overlays to my output, but I don't want to modify my form definitions or my data application. I currently use conditional processing to change the pageformats. Is there a way to accommodate this requirement by only modifying my page definition?
Answer: You can invoke overlays from within the page definition by use of the OVERLAY subcommand. You define the overlays needed within the PAGEFORMAT command and invoke them within a PRINTLINE subcommand. If your printer supports pre-loading and pre-ripping of overlays, you can have the overlays loaded to the printer prior to the start of the print job, enhancing throughput. Keep in mind, that placement of the overlay, using this method, places the overlay relative the position of PRINTLINE subcommand in which the OVERLAY subcommand is placed. An example of the a PAGEFORMAT with OVERLAY subcommand is as follows:
SETUNITS 1 IN 1 IN
LINESP 6.00 LPI;
PAGEDEF ABC123
WIDTH 8.5
HEIGHT 11
LINEONE 0 0.0
DIRECTION ACROSS
REPLACE YES;
FONT F1 CS H2100C CP 000437;
PAGEFORMAT P2ABC123
WIDTH 8.5
HEIGHT 11
DIRECTION ACROSS
OVERLAY ABC123 PRELOAD;
PRINTLINE REPEAT 10
CHANNEL 1
DIRECTION ACROSS
POSITION 0.6 0.57
FONT F1
OVERLAY ABC123;
Check out the Page Printer Formatting Aid (PPFA) reference materials available from IBM at:
http://www-1.ibm.com/support/search.wss?rs=0&lang=en&loc=en_US&r=10&cs=iso-8859-1&rankfile=0&cc=us&spc=&stc=&apar=include&q1=ppfa&q2=&sort=desc&tc=&Go.x=10&Go.y=12&dc=DA410+DA450&dtm
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