<s>
Advanced	B-Application
Function	I-Application
Presentation	I-Application
(	O
AFP	O
)	O
is	O
a	O
presentation	O
architecture	O
and	O
family	O
of	O
associated	O
printer	O
software	O
and	O
hardware	O
that	O
provides	O
for	O
document	O
and	O
information	O
presentation	O
independent	O
of	O
specific	O
applications	O
and	O
devices	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Using	O
AFP	O
,	O
users	O
can	O
control	O
formatting	O
,	O
the	O
form	O
of	O
paper	O
output	O
,	O
whether	O
a	O
document	O
is	O
to	O
be	O
printed	O
or	O
viewed	O
online	O
,	O
and	O
manage	O
document	O
storage	O
and	O
access	O
in	O
a	O
distributed	B-Architecture
network	I-Architecture
across	O
multiple	O
operating	B-General_Concept
system	I-General_Concept
platforms	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
AFP	O
is	O
considered	O
to	O
be	O
a	O
"	O
cornerstone	O
"	O
of	O
electronic	O
document	O
management	O
(	O
EDM	O
)	O
applications	O
such	O
as	O
print-and-view	O
,	O
archive	O
and	O
retrieval	O
,	O
and	O
enterprise	B-Protocol
report	I-Protocol
management	I-Protocol
(	O
ERM	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
AFP	O
was	O
originally	O
developed	O
by	O
IBM	O
as	O
a	O
general	O
purpose	O
document	O
and	O
information	O
presentation	O
architecture	O
,	O
originally	O
called	O
Advanced	B-Application
Function	I-Application
Printing	I-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
MO:DCA	O
format	O
is	O
comparable	O
to	O
other	O
PDLs	O
that	O
specify	O
distinct	O
pages	O
such	O
as	O
PDF	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
IPDS	B-Application
Intelligent	O
Printer	O
Data	O
Stream	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
This	O
is	O
the	O
bi-directional	O
protocol	O
used	O
between	O
the	O
host	B-Application
server	I-Application
and	O
the	O
printer	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
IPDS	B-Application
protocol	O
also	O
allows	O
the	O
server	O
to	O
query	O
a	O
printer	O
's	O
available	O
resources	O
(	O
e.g.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
is	O
comparable	O
to	O
protocols	O
like	O
Internet	B-Protocol
Printing	I-Protocol
Protocol	I-Protocol
.	O
</s>
<s>
AFP	O
also	O
supports	O
other	O
industry-standard	O
data	O
formats	O
using	O
the	O
concept	O
of	O
AFP	O
object	O
containers	O
;	O
examples	O
are	O
TIFF	O
,	O
GIF	O
,	O
JPEG	O
(	O
JFIF	O
)	O
,	O
EPS	B-Language
,	O
and	O
PDF	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
It	O
can	O
also	O
"	O
be	O
printed	O
'	O
online	O
 '	O
through	O
various	O
software	O
like	O
PSF	O
(	O
Print	O
Service	O
Facility	O
)	O
on	O
an	O
IBM	O
system	O
or	O
through	O
a	O
spooler	O
like	O
S2P	O
,	O
IPM	O
...	O
creating	O
IPDS	B-Application
on	O
the	O
fly.	O
"	O
</s>
<s>
PSF	O
is	O
not	O
only	O
able	O
to	O
format	O
the	O
documents	O
,	O
but	O
also	O
to	O
drive	O
AFP	O
or	O
,	O
more	O
precisely	O
,	O
IPDS	B-Application
printers	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
IPDS	B-Application
stands	O
for	O
Intelligent	O
Print	O
Data	O
Stream	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
IBM	O
also	O
offered	O
the	O
PSF	O
software	O
not	O
only	O
on	O
the	O
mainframe	O
,	O
but	O
on	O
all	O
of	O
their	O
platforms	O
,	O
so	O
there	O
were	O
PSF/390	O
(	O
for	O
the	O
OS/390	B-Application
mainframe	O
)	O
,	O
PSF/VSE	O
(	O
for	O
IBM	O
VSE/ESA	O
based	O
systems	O
)	O
,	O
PSF/6000	O
(	O
for	O
AIX	B-Application
)	O
,	O
PSF/400	O
(	O
for	O
IBM	B-Application
i	I-Application
)	O
and	O
PSF/2	O
running	O
under	O
OS/2	B-Application
.	O
</s>
<s>
Unfortunately	O
,	O
all	O
of	O
these	O
behaved	O
slightly	O
differently	O
,	O
and	O
IBM	O
renamed	O
PSF	O
then	O
into	O
InfoPrint	B-Application
Manager	I-Application
(	O
IPM	O
)	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Included	O
with	O
the	O
PSF	O
tools	O
is	O
the	O
ACIF	O
(	O
AFP	O
Conversion	O
and	O
Indexing	O
Facility	O
)	O
that	O
allows	O
one	O
to	O
produce	O
the	O
AFP	O
documents	O
as	O
a	O
file	O
in	O
order	O
to	O
keep	O
them	O
and	O
print	O
them	O
later	O
,	O
as	O
well	O
as	O
adding	O
an	O
index	O
to	O
the	O
document	O
,	O
very	O
similar	O
to	O
Bookmarks	O
in	O
PDF	B-Application
,	O
used	O
for	O
archiving	O
purposes	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
format	O
originates	O
from	O
the	O
MVS	B-Application
environment	O
,	O
so	O
it	O
typically	O
uses	O
the	O
EBCDIC	B-Language
based	O
codepages	B-Device
.	O
</s>
<s>
As	O
with	O
all	O
page	O
description	O
languages	O
(	O
like	O
PostScript	B-Language
,	O
PDF	B-Application
,	O
and	O
PCL	B-Language
)	O
,	O
it	O
is	O
necessary	O
to	O
use	O
a	O
viewer	O
to	O
display	O
documents	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
One	O
of	O
the	O
more	O
notable	O
features	O
of	O
AFP	B-Application
printers	I-Application
is	O
that	O
output	O
data	O
can	O
be	O
placed	O
at	O
any	O
addressable	O
point	O
on	O
a	O
page	O
.	O
</s>
