Intelligent Printer Data Stream

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Intelligent Printer Data Stream ( IPDS ; German Intelligenter Druckdatenstrom ) is a proprietary page description language from IBM . IPDS combines both content and printer control commands in a bidirectional communication protocol . It is thus similar to the older PPDS, which is incompatible with IPDS .

IPDS is used between the IBM printer driver ( IBM Print Services Facility or Info Print Manager ) and the printer . But there are other programs such as SBS or PRISMAproduction Server from Océ that can also generate IPDS.

Data structure

IPDS data are structured as follows: 2 bytes length, 2 bytes command X'D6xx '(where xx represents the command) 1 byte flag field (where 1 bit causes the printer to send a so-called acknowledge record of 24 bytes, which the counter reading of the printer is transmitted to the driver program). This allows a log of pages that have already been printed, e.g. B. for large orders with continuous pages.

In the event of an error, the NACK (negative acknowledge record) contains the causes of the error. The next 2 bytes are a counter for the IPDS commands. Then come the data.