RPM's Raw Print Queue

RPM Remote Print Manager can send data directly to the printer using pass-through printing. This feature is common among print servers; however, few software print servers can accomplish this without any modification of the data.

This queue type acts as if the printer is locally attached to the mainframe. Enhanced features and translations such as EBCDIC, SCS, and ASA to ASCII can be performed if necessary.

In addition, the RPM Raw Queue incorporates many hard-to-find features added throughout the years from current user feedback:

Filter Queue | Text Queue

Separator Page

Users can browse for a file that is sent to the printer between every print job. This is typically a printer-ready file; however, many printers will print a plain text file without needing printer-specific codes.

"Raw" Banner Page

In RPM versions for Windows 2000/NT/XP/2003, RPM can optionally create a banner page, much like the text queue. If this option is enabled, every job printed from this queue will contain a banner page with data received in the control file, not just when specified. In RPM for Windows 95/98/Me, a banner must be requested by the sending side.

Translate LF to CR/LF

RPM can translate LF to CR/LF. Many UNIX platforms use the line feed (LF) character to signal the end of each line of text. Most printers require the end-of-line to be both a carriage return (CR) and a line feed. This option should be enabled only if the data contains LF as the end-of-line character, without CR.

RPM offers much more with pass-through printing than hardware or other software print servers.

  • RPM sends print jobs to any Windows printer, both local and networked. Most print queue shareware solutions offer pass-through printing only on locally connected printers.
  • RPM performs any of a number of customizations on print data before printing.
  • RPM allows you to specify a page separator string (which defaults to form feed), allowing the user to control the starting and ending pages when the job prints.
  • RPM can append the page separator to the print job if needed.