PS TEXT FORMAT Reference Manual

Introduction to TFORM
1–8 11387 Tandem Computers Incorporated
Printing Your Output The TFORM output usually goes through the spooler, which is a system
program that receives output and stores it on disc until the print location
you have designated becomes available. By sending it to the spooler, you
have a chance to preview the formatted file with PERUSE (another process
you invoke from the command interpreter) and to make any amendments,
adjustments, or corrections before printing the document. (For more
information on the spooler and the PERUSE program, see the Spooler
Utilities Reference Manual.)
You can send the output to either the Tandem 5530 letter-quality printer or
any printer supported by Tandem NonStop systems (TFORM is not
available for use with the NonStop 1+ system). To take full advantage of the
more sophisticated formatting features such as boldface and shadow print,
subscripts and superscripts, and proportional spacing you must use the
Tandem 5530 letter-quality printer. Although, you can send documents
containing TFORM commands for those features to any Tandem supported
printer, TFORM simply ignores—or flags with warning messages—the
commands that request those features.
In output directed to the 5530 letter-quality printer, TFORM includes
special control characters (for features such as pitch control or boldface
type). TFORM determines if you are sending output to the 5530 from the
spooler, location you give in the RUN COMMAND. If you use a temporary
print location for the spooler output (so that you can examine the formatted
document with PERUSE before redirecting the file to the letter-quality
printer), the printed document will be different from one sent directly to the
5530, because the special control characters will not have been included in
the file.
Default Formatting If you send a file to the printer that contains no TFORM commands at all,
TFORM uses its formatting defaults to print your document. A default is
the value TFORM automatically uses if you don’t give it explicit
information. Table 1-2 lists the values that TFORM automatically uses as its
formatting defaults.