Enabling SAPGOF_ST_CHARS support

The sap2afp transform is now able to correctly process OTF files that have been generated from SAP Unicode Systems using the SAPGOF_ST_CHARS setting enabled. For this, the new -sapgof_st_chars transform parameter must be passed to sap2afp transform. It can be used for transforming SAPGOF OTF files (ASCII-encoded) and SAPGOFU OTF files (Unicode-encoded), which have been generated using the SAPGOF_ST_CHARS. This flag informs the sap2afp transform that the OTF input file has been generated using the SAPGOF_ST_CHARS:X entry from the SAP Unicode System, thus the sap2afp transform detects that for Unicode codepages, the ST and BC commands counters are halved and it will double them, internally, so that the OTF file is correctly processed.

Note: The flag -sapgof_st_chars is ignored for files containing only non-Unicode codepages.

To support non-Unicode printing (for example using the PCL secondary) of SAPGOF OTF files generated from SAP Unicode Systems, the -useascii flag switches to a non-Unicode environment for processing the input files, regardless of the codepages used by the file. The Latin-1 codepage is used instead of the Unicode codepages, and the files are printed using non-Unicode fonts.

    Note:
  1. The -useascii flag is ignored for SAPGOFU files.
  2. When the -useascii flag is used on an SAPGOF OTF file that uses Unicode codepages, the Unicode characters that are not covered by the non-Unicode Latin-1 codepage will be replaced with spaces.

The -sapgof_st_chars and -useascii flags can be used together to signal that the OTF input file has been generated with SAPGOF_ST_CHARS and must be printed using non-Unicode fonts.

Note: Do not specify the -sapgof_st_chars flag for files that have been generated without the SAPGOF_ST_CHARS setting.

Because the SAPGOF_ST_CHARS option is an SAP system setting, we recommend that you set the -sapgof_st_chars transform option on an SAP system basis, either by using a separate logical destination or by configuring the InfoPrint Manager SAP Client.

If you are using a separate logical destination, you must add the -sapgof_st_chars parameter to the other-transform-options attribute of the logical destination.

If you want to configure the InfoPrint Manager SAP Client to use the -sapgof_st_chars parameter for all incoming SAP jobs, you must follow the instructions below:

On the AIX or Linux SAP system, you must update the ipm_submit script on the InfoPrint Manager machine:

  1. Search for the ipm_submit script.
  2. Use a text editor to open and edit the script.
  3. Search for the line containing "other-transform-options='-g'";.
  4. Add -sapgof_st_chars to the transform options, if the SAPGOF_ST_CHARS system setting is enabled.

The line must be the same as in the example: 

othertoptions="other-transform-options='-g -sapgof_st_chars'";

On the Windows SAP systems:

  1. Go to the folder where InfoPrint Manager SAP Client is installed. The default path is c:\Program Files\RICOH\Infoprint Manager SAP Clients\.
  2. Run the SapIPMcfg.exe configuration utility in Administrator mode. To do this, right click the configuration file and select "Run as Administrator".
  3. Check the SAPGOF ST CHARS box when the SAPGOF_ST_CHARS setting in SAP is on.

Parent topic: Print support that applies to InfoPrint Manager AIX and Windows servers