Why ICommander?

ICommander has included the ability to convert any standard ICommander report into a PDF file as part of its General Utilities Menus ever since we started using the Linux platform. This is still available but is now one of many different ways to convert a report into a PDF File. This method supports only the Line Printer format of printing and also only the Courier New font.

The Linux PDF File Creation available via ICommander General Utilities is now also available directly from the ICommander Print Utility when Enhanced Printing is used. This will create the PDF File in the user my_trfrs/pdfout/enhp folder where it may be accessed and opened from the Windows PC or via ICommander File Manager on the Linux Server. PDF Files created from the ICommander General Utilities option will be in my_trfrs/pdfout to keep them separate from those that include the Enhanced Printing Conversion used in the Print Utility.

Anziowin also has a built-in PDF Writer function that may be used from the ICommander Print Utility for Enhanced Printing. It is subject to the same restriction to the Courier New font. This will create the PDF File in a PDFOUT Directory on the User's PC (must create this directory first).

The most flexible option for converting an ICommander Report to a PDF File is the use of a PDF Writer on the User PC. ICommander Corporation uses a package called PDFfactory which is fairly inexpensive but very capable. This method allows creating the PDF File directly (instead of first creating the report and then accessing via the ICommander Print Utility to convert to PDF). Use of it involves using the Anziowin Pass-Through Printing capability. To create the PDF File directly, choose the Anziowin Pass-Through Enhanced Print Queue (after accessing Anziowin Printer Setup to make your current default printer be the PDF Writer Queue on your PC) for Direct Printing. The PDF File will be immediately created for viewing and/or saving to disk. This method may also be used from the ICommander Print Utility for reports listed there.

If all of the monospaced fonts supported by ICommander are installed on the user PC, any of them may be used with the Windows PC PDF Writer approach. One caveat about that, though. If you will be sending the PDF File to another PC via email or copying or transferring the file, select the PDF Writer option to Embed the font you used (unless it is one that will exist on most PC's). Otherwise, when another user opens the PDF File, it will not find your font. If you embed your font, it will be automatically available. Note, however, that very recent versions of Adobe Acrobat PDF Reader software sometimes will have the option set to only use Local Fonts. This could cause your embedded font to be ignored.

The ICommander Print Utility also supports use of a PDF Writer via the PC running Print Wizard Server. This is inconvenient when that PC is not in near proximity as the user needs to access the PDF output on it instead on his or her own PC.