IPDS Background

June 9th, 2007 at 09:06am Under ipds printing

In 1984 IBM® created a set of standards known as Systems Application Architecture (SAA). SAA was created to give programmers and system designers an easier way to link data applications with any IBM platform. Intelligent Printer Data Stream (IPDS) is the host-to-printer data stream used by SAA for Advanced Function Printing (AFP).

IPDS provides the interface for identifying, monitoring, and controlling all-points-addressable (APA) printers, an interface that enables the presentation of pages with combinations of various data types including text, vector graphics, images, and bar codes. IPDS allows these different data types, often produced by independent applications, to be merged at print time.

IPDS also offers two-way printer communication. This collaborative interaction provides detailed exception reporting and allows IPDS to adapt to specific printer resources and to deal with errors in real time.

IPDS and ExcelliPrint

ExcelliPrint maintains IPDS’s strengths, such as complex printing abilities and two-way communication, but allows users to break from expensive IPDS printing environments. ExcelliPrint, with its Windows®-based printer and print-to-file capabilities, brings the advantages of IPDS to common print environments.

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IPDS Printing and Features

February 21st, 2007 at 10:19am Under ipds printing

Intelligent Printer Data Stream, or IPDS, is a printing protocol developed by IBM® that is used by many back-end systems (for example, AS/400 and mainframe). IPDS contains information needed to identify, monitor, and control the functions of the printer. IPDS printers have advanced formatting capabilities including graphics, barcodes, and text; one drawback of IPDS printing environments, however, is cost: purchasing and maintaining printers designed for IPDS printing can be prohibitively expensive. For this reason, software IPDS print solutions are a cost effective alternative.

ExcelliPrint® IPDS software is an affordable and simple drop-in replacement for expensive IPDS printers. ExcelliPrint accepts IPDS print requests from IBM iSeries and IBM zSeries® computers over TCP/IP and fully support the IPDS protocol. ExcelliPrint now supports printing IPDS to Windows Vista™.

Software IPDS solutions redirect print jobs to other printers or to file by emulating an IPDS printer. In this way, these solutions maintain the advantages of IPDS, including AFP capabilities and two-way printer and host communication, but provide greater flexibility in selecting print destinations and output types.

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