Configuration options for print server transparency

This article discusses configuring Custom Byte Transparency in Microsoft Host Integration Server 2000. Printer control codes that are present in the host datastream may be passed directly through the Host Integration Server 2000 Host Print Service to the end printer by using Custom Byte Transparency.

Print Transparency is a way to pass printer control codes in the datastream directly to a printer. An example of how this is feature is used includes the following:

• You can change the orientation of a print job from Portrait to Landscape in the middle of a job.
• You can set bold font for just one paragraph and use roman font for the remainder of the document.

By default, a transparent block from the host is indicated by the following elements that are in the following order:

• a byte value of hexadecimal 0x35
• a length byte that indicates the length of the transparent block (not including the byte that represents the length)
• the amount of the data to be passed transparently

If the host print job does not use the IBM standard hexadecimal 0x35 and uses another value instead, you can configure Host Integration Server 2000 to support other characters as the indicator character. The character range of custom transparent bytes is from 0x01 to 0x39. This set of values corresponds to the range of non-printable characters. Typically, 0x35 or 0x36 are used on the host.

You can set a custom byte value in the properties of a Host Integration Server 2000 print session. When you click the Advanced tab to set a custom byte value, the value that you enter must be the decimal equivalent of the hexadecimal value that you want as a custom byte. In other words, if you want 0x36 as the custom byte, the custom byte field in the Host Integration Server 2000 print session must be 54. If the transparent byte is the default of 0x35, the default setting is sufficient. The second step in the process is to enable the transparent data to be passed through to the printer. To do this, configure the print session to use a Printer Definition File (PDF). If you do not configure the print session to use a Printer Definition File, the Host Integration Server 2000 print service discards the non-printable data that is intended to be transparent. Non-printable data includes characters that cannot be printed, such as control codes.

To set up Custom Byte Transparency in a Host Integration Server 2000 print session, follow these steps:

1. Determine the value that you want to use to indicate transparency.
2. Convert the hexadecimal value to a decimal value.
3. In SNA Manager, enter the decimal value in the custom byte box on the Advanced tab of the Print Session Properties dialog box.
4. If the transparent data is ASCII, click to select the Transparency is ASCII check box.
5. On the Job Format tab, select PDT under Format Print Job, and then enter the path of the PDT file that you want to use.
6. Save the configuration.