Intelligent Printer Data Stream (IPDS) is InfoPrint Solution Company's Systems Application Architecture host-to-printer data stream for Advanced Function Presentation subsystems. It provides an attachment-independent interface for controlling and managing all points addressable (APA) printers that allows the presentation of pages containing an architecturally unlimited mixture of different data types, including text, image, graphics, bar code, and object container. It is used by a variety of InfoPrint and OEM print servers that drive all points addressable (APA) page printers. Generally these printers are at the medium to high end of the print speed and volume spectrum.
The IPDS architecture allows for both spooled data and print job management to flow bidirectionally between the print server (or print driver) and the Printer Controller.
Examples of print job management controls are:
Examples of spooled data can be:
IPDS data streams are purely used to carry print information and data. This is above the network transport layer (typically TCP/IP or SNA) and the supporting hardware LANs, Channels and network controllers.
IPDS carries data and instructions from the print server to the printer in structured fields. The printer controller processes these IPDS commands and returns acknowledgment back to the print server.
Similar to PPDS, IPDS uses binary encoded commands and parameters, but IPDS is not compatible with PPDS.