Input file formats

The input file types that can be submitted to RICOH ProcessDirector are:

Advanced Function Presentation (AFP)

A composed format that can contain text, graphics, images, and barcodes. Composition instructions are in the form of Mixed Object Document Content Architecture (MO:DCA) structured fields. AFP resources, such as fonts, can either be stored externally or embedded in the AFP data stream. AFP is the file format RICOH ProcessDirector uses to print jobs on IPDS printers if the AFP Support feature is installed. Without the AFP Support feature, you can view AFP jobs and pass them to other programs.

ABAP

Contains data that is in the SAP Advanced Business Application Programming (ABAP) format.

DBCS ASCII

Contains data that is encoded in a double-byte character set (DBCS) ASCII code page.

DBCS EUC

Contains data that is encoded in a double-byte character set (DBCS) Extended UNIX Code (EUC) code page.

ditroff

Contains device-independent troff (ditroff) data preformatted for an AFP device.

GIF

Contains image data that is in the Graphics Interchange Format (GIF).

Image data

Contains image data that is in the Image Object Content Architecture (IOCA) format.

JPEG

Contains image data that is in the Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) format.

JSON

Contains data that is in the JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) format.

LCDS

Contains data that is in the Xerox line-conditioned data stream (LCDS) format.

Line data

A combination of plain text and formatting controls, such as carriage controls and table reference characters (TRCs) for spacing and font selections. You can instruct RICOH ProcessDirector to use a composition product, such as the line2afp transform that it provides, to process line data input files.

Metacode

Contains data that is in the Xerox metacode format.

Mixed mode

Input files that contain combinations of line data and MO:DCA structured fields. Mixed mode input files can only be processed if the AFP Support feature is installed.

OTF

Contains data that is in the SAP Output Text Format (OTF).

PCL

Contains data that is in the Hewlett-Packard Printer Control Language (PCL) format.

PDF

Contains data that is in the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) format.

When RICOH ProcessDirector processes PDF 2.0 input files in a workflow, steps that modify PDF files convert the data to PDF 1.7 format. If no steps in the workflow modify the PDF, the input file passes through RICOH ProcessDirector in PDF 2.0 format. PDF 2.0 files that are sent to a Ricoh PDF or Ricoh TotalFlow printer with banner pages turned on are also converted to PDF 1.7 format.

PostScript

Contains data that is in the Adobe PostScript format.

PPML

Contains data that is in the Personalized Print Markup Language (PPML) format.

TIFF

Contains image data that is in the Tagged Image File Format (TIFF).

XML

Contains data that is in the Extended Markup Language (XML) format.

Depending on your printers, you may need to use data transforms to convert some of these formats into a format that your printers support. Several products provide data transforms:

• The RICOH Transform features can convert these input file formats to AFP:
  • GIF, JPEG, and TIFF
  • PCL
  • PDF and PostScript
  • SAP OTF and ABAP
  It can convert the following input file format to PDF:
  • AFP

  You must install the AFP Support feature to use the RICOH Transform features.

• If you have RICOH InfoPrint XT for Windows installed on the same computer as the RICOH ProcessDirector base product, you can use its transform programs. RICOH InfoPrint XT for Windows can convert Xerox metacode and LCDS data to AFP. To use those transforms, include a step that runs the transform program in the appropriate workflow.