AFP (Advanced Function Presentation)

AFP (Advanced Function Presentation): The IBM strategic environment for presentation. It is a presentation architecture and family of associated printer software and hardware that provides for document and information presentation independent of specific applications and devices. Using AFP, users can control formatting, the form of paper output, whether a document is to be printed or viewed online, and manage document storage and access in a distributed network across multiple operating system platforms. AFP is primarily used in large enterprises for production variable data printing (VDP).

AFP applications allow users or print room operators to distribute print jobs among a group of printers and to designate backup printers when one fails. AFP is considered to be a "cornerstone" of electronic document management (EDM) applications such as print-and-view, archive and retrieval, and Computer Output to Laser Disk (COLD).

AFP also supports other industry-standard data formats using the concept of AFP object containers; examples are TIFF, GIF, JPEG (JFIF), EPS, and PDF. These objects can be mixed as peer objects on an AFP page with native AFP objects such as BCOCA, AFP GOCA, IOCA, and PTOCA objects.

The AFP architecture consists of a number of sub-architectures:

• MO:DCA (Mixed Object:Document Content Architecture)

• IPDS Intelligent Printer Data Stream. This is the bi-directional protocol used between the host server and the printer. It is used to send the page-level data to the printer and to signal errors and accounting information back to the server. The IPDS protocol also allows the server to query a printer's available resources (e.g. available memory, fonts, input trays, etc.) It's comparable to protocols like Internet Printing Protocol.

• Bar Code Object Content Architecture (BCOCA), which is used to describe and generate bar codes.

• Color Management Object Content Architecture (CMOCA), which defines resources that carry color management information, such as ICC profiles, tone transfer curves, and halftones.

• Graphics Object Content Architecture for AFP (AFP GOCA), which is used to define and generate vector graphics.

• Image Object Content Architecture (IOCA), which is used to define and generate raster images.

• Presentation Text Object Content Architecture (PTOCA), which is used to define and generate text.

MS Technology's AFP Support:

A trusted name with IBM and it’s customers for the past 8 years, MS Technology provides AFP applications, such as MST Viewer, MST Raster SDK, and MST Batch Converter. MST Viewer is the only viewer packaged with IBM’s Content Manager 8 and has the largest AFP file format support over any other AFP available in the market. MS Technology is now a member of AFP Consortium, which is a group whose purpose is to develop, define and promote the AFP architecture. By being a member, MS Technology will be able to ensure seamless interoperability of AFP products, and compatibility between AFP environments and other environments. For more information about our AFP solutions, please visit our Document Management section or contact us.