Limitations of the afp2pdf transform

Limitations associated with the afp2pdf transform include:

Text fidelity
The afp2pdf transform uses font substitutions to convert MO:DCA-P and PTOCA, which means that text fidelity will most likely not match if displayed views of PDF are compared with printed views of IPDS on paper. Outline fonts in the MO:DCA-P are converted to Type1 fonts. However, when fonts are provided for the transform, the afp2pdf transform can produce text fidelity.
Image quality
The transformed image data might not match if a user compares the printed output on paper with the PDF data viewed on a display. Several factors that contribute to the differences are:
  • Color differences between displayed image and printed output. For example, a monitor used with Microsoft Windows typically uses RGB color while a printer typically uses another color model like CMYK or halftoned black and white.
  • Resolution differences between displayed image and printed output. For example, a monitor typically uses 72 or 96 dpi while a printer uses much greater resolution like 240, 300, 600, and so forth.
  • Anomalies if resolution changes occur. The algorithms used to convert images from AFP to PDF use a brute force algorithm to eliminate pixels that sometimes create horizontal or vertical lines in the image strips.
Text support
Since the afp2pdf transform converts all AFP fonts to a single PDF encoding, not all glyphs can be represented properly. However, if the fonts used to display the text are not mapped fonts, the afp2pdf transform can create custom encoding in the PDF file, and it can display glyphs from different languages.
Enhanced n-up is not supported
The afp2pdf transform does not support enhanced n-up. The transform acknowledges each logical page as a physical page.
CMR (Color Management Resource) is not supported
When CMR is used, it is ignored.
Medium Copy Count limit
Medium Copy Count is limited to 1.
Compressed Metadata
The EXI (Efficient XML Interchange) compression is not supported for metadata objects.

Parent topic: Transform AFP data to PDF