SPF reports give you a lot of flexibility. When you use an SPF report, you can:
Run a report and postpone choosing a printer type until you print the report.
For example, you can distribute the SPF report electronically without knowing the type of printer used by each recipient.
Use a PostScript viewer to preview the report output even if the report is designed for an HP printer.
View, search, or email the text portions of graphic output by rendering line-printer output.
Separate printing from report execution.
For example, you could run the report on a database server computer and print it on another computer (the print server computer), thereby shifting the overhead associated with producing the graphics to the print server computer.
Take advantage of Windows printing capabilities.
Since Production Reporting can produce SPF reports on any platform, you can take advantage of the Windows printing capabilities even if you create the Production Reporting report on another platform. For example, you could run a report on a UNIX server and print the output on a PC using Windows.
When writing printer-independent reports, keep in mind the following:
Fonts in Production Reporting are printer fonts and when using Windows, they can be Windows fonts. Therefore, when running the report on different printers, there may be differences in the actual fonts used.
To ensure consistency across printers, limit the fonts used to font numbers 3, 4, and 5, which are Courier, Helvetica, and Times Roman, respectively, on PostScript, HP LaserJet, and Windows.
There may be slight variations in the implementation of some graphical features between different printer types.
Test your program with different printer types to ensure acceptable results.