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Printing directly from a host to a workstation printer (5250)

Host On-Demand provides the following functions for 5250 host printing:

Host print key (5250)

The Host Print key is available in a 5250 display session; it sends the contents of the presentation space to the iSeries as a print job that can be printed on any iSeries printer. If the job is directed to a Host On-Demand 5250 printer session, it will print on the printer specified for that session. The Host Print key is mapped by default to Ctrl-Pause.

5250 Host print key

Host print transform (5250)

The 5250 host print transform function converts the iSeries print-data stream to ASCII just before it is sent from the iSeries to the local printer. Having the conversion done on the iSeries ensures that most of the print processing is done there, not on the client.

Host print transform
  1. The client session starts the host print transform to print a document.
  2. The iSeries uses the host print transform to convert the print-data stream to ASCII, then sends the converted print-data stream back to the client.
  3. The client prints the converted print-data stream on the locally attached print.

The ASCII print-data stream is suitable for many IBM and non-IBM printers; it uses iSeries system objects that describe the characteristics of a particular ASCII printer. When you configure a printer session, you just select the printer from the long list provided.

By default, Host On-Demand uses SCS-to-ASCII transform but you can configure the iSeries to do AFP-to-ASCII transform, which Host On-Demand also supports. The ASCII data stream is passed through the client by means of the SCS ASCII Transparency (ATRN) command; Host On-Demand deletes the command and passes the ASCII data stream to the workstation printer.

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