Functions for printing in display emulation sessions

Print functions

The print functions that are available in display emulation sessions are as follows:

• Print Screen
• Print Screen Collection
• ZipPrint

The following table briefly describes these print functions.

Availability of print functions

However, as you may have surmised from the descriptions above, Print Screen Collection and ZipPrint are available only in 3270 Display sessions. The following table shows in detail which print functions are available in which types of display sessions.

The information in the table above is true whether you are running a Java 1 browser or a Java 2-enabled browser. (However, you must be running a Java 2-enabled browser to print or delete a selected image from a Print Screen Collection.)

Non-Java print mode and Java print mode

Z and I Emulator for Web uses two different print capabilities in display emulation sessions:

• Non-Java print mode (available only in 3270 Display sessions)
• Java print mode

When printing in non-Java print mode, Z and I Emulator for Web uses the advanced Z and I Emulator for Web print libraries. These print libraries first became available with ZipPrint in Z and I Emulator for Web Version 8.0. They are based on the print libraries that are included with the 3270 Printer session and the 5250 Printer session. For example, in non-Java print mode, you can:

• Send print output to a file or to a printer.
• Create Adobe PDF output.
• Use 3270 Printer Definition Tables (PDTs).
• Choose a font and a font code page.
• Set characters per inch, lines per inch, and maximum lines per page.

However, the Z and I Emulator for Web print libraries handle only text, not graphics. Therefore, you cannot use non-Java print mode to print host graphics (bitmaps, graphics images, and so on).

Java print mode lacks the advanced text-formatting features found in non-Java print mode. When printing in Java print mode, Z and I Emulator for Web invokes only print functions that are available in the Java print libraries. The Java print libraries are included in the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) that your Web browser uses to run the Z and I Emulator for Web client. The print functions in the Java 1 print libraries are somewhat basic, and the Z and I Emulator for Web client does not yet take advantage of many of the advanced printing capabilities of the Java 2 print libraries. Therefore, advanced text-formatting features are not available when Z and I Emulator for Web is using Java print mode. (However, if you are running a Java 2-enabled browser and using Java printing mode, then you can add a header to the page, add a footer, and suppress the system printer configuration window.)

In contrast to non-Java print mode, Java print mode can handle graphics as well as text.

The following table summarizes these differences:

Availability of non-Java print mode and Java print mode

In a 3270 Display session:

• For Print Screen, you can use either non-Java print mode or Java print mode.
• For Print Screen Collection, you can use either non-Java print mode or Java print mode.
• For ZipPrint, the Z and I Emulator for Web client requires that you use non-Java print mode.

In a 5250 Display session, a VT Display session, or a CICS Gateway session:

• For Print Screen, Z and I Emulator for Web requires that you use Java print mode.

Print Screen Collection and ZipPrint are not available in these session types (see the section

Availability of print functions

, above).

The above statements are true whether you are using a Java 1 browser or a Java-2 enabled browser.

The following table shows the availability of non-Java print mode and Java print mode for each print function in each display session type.

Switching print modes in display emulation sessions

The default print mode in a display emulation session is Java print mode.

To switch print modes, click File > Print Screen Setup. Then click Yes to use Java print mode or No to use non-Java print mode. Click OK to close the Print Screen Setup window and save the print mode that you selected.

Remember that the current print mode affects:

• Print Screen
• Print Screen Collection

For Print Screen, you can switch the print mode at any time before you actually print the screen (File > Print Screen). For Print Screen Collection, you can switch the print mode at any time before you actually initiate the printing of an image or images from the stored list.

Configuring print options in Java print mode

If you select Java print mode, and you are running a Java 1 browser, then you cannot do any further configuration for Java print mode using Z and I Emulator for Web's configuration windows. (However, when you do a print, the operating system can display print configuration windows, such as the system print configuration window in Microsoft Windows.)

In contrast, if you select Java print mode, and you are running a Java 2 browser, then you can use the controls on the Z and I Emulator for Web Print Screen Setup window (the same window on which you select Java print mode or non-Java print mode) to do further configuration for Java print mode (see Print Screen Setup ).

Configuring print options in non-Java print mode

Remember that non-Java print mode is available only in a 3270 Display session.

If you select non-Java print mode, then you can configure printer setup and page setup. To configure printer setup click File > Printer Setup (see Printer Setup (3270 Printer session, 5250 Printer session, 3270 Display session)). To configure page setup click File > Page Setup (see Page Setup (3270 Printer session, 3270 Display session)).

Print modes with Print Screen Collection

In non-Java print mode, if you print several screen images from a Print Screen Collection at the same time, Z and I Emulator for Web treats the screen images as sequential blocks of text in a single text document.

In contrast, in Java print mode, if you print several screen images from a Print Screen Collection at the same time, Z and I Emulator for Web prints one screen image per page (see Print modes).

Related topics

• Print Screen Collection
• Using Print Screen Collection to capture part of a screen
• Process Print Screen Collection