Capabilities and limitations for transforming data to AFP
- Bar code support
- The transform does not support bar codes.
- Font support
- The first font in the font index with
properties that most closely match the desired characteristics is
used. Condensed and expanded fonts are usually only used when the
font-stretch property is selected. Italic and oblique fonts are considered
the same and are used interchangeably.
The XML transforms support converting double-byte character set (DBCS) fonts from one code page to another.
The XML transforms work with the OpenType fonts from the command line. For more information about OpenType Fonts, see Using OpenType Fonts in an AFP System, G544-5876.
- Graphic support
- You can specify graphic data in one
of these AFP resources:
- Overlay
- An overlay contains a collection
of constant image data (such as lines, shading, boxes, or logos) that
can be merged with variable data during printing. The AFP output file references the
name of an overlay, which is
located in a resource directory. Because the overlay is not included
but is only referenced in the output file, you must specify the image
size in the XSL external-graphic formatting object. For example:
<fo:external-graphic src="overlay:corplogo" content-height="4in" content-width="2in"/>
- Page segment
- A page segment contains
image data (such as bar codes, signatures, logos, or graphics in image
format) that can be merged with variable data during printing. The AFP output file
references the name of a page segment, which
is located in a resource directory. Because the page segment is not
included but is only referenced in the output file, you must specify
the image size in the XSL external-graphic formatting object. For
example:
<fo:external-graphic src="pageseg:corpsign" content-height="4in" content-width="2in"/>
- IOCA object
- An Image Object Content
Architecture (IOCA) object contains a series of picture elements (pels)
arranged in rows and columns, and specifies where the image is placed
on a page. The XML transforms access the first IOCA object in a specified
MO:DCA-P file and place it inline in the AFP output
file (only MO:DCA-P image data is supported). The transforms obtain
the actual size from the image; therefore, you do not need to specify
the size in the XSL external-graphic formatting object. If you do
specify the size with the external-graphic formatting object, the
transforms crop the image to make it the specified size or add whitespace
to the bottom-right corner, so the image appears in the upper-left
portion of the allotted space. Here is an example of the formatting
object you specify for an IOCA object:
<fo:external-graphic src="myfile/image.afp"/>
- MO:DCA-P output
- Output from the transform conforms to the MO:DCA Interchange Set 1 (IS/1) architecture (see Mixed Object Document Content Architecture Reference, SC31-6802).