We are happy to answer your questions on Coolspools and color if they are not covered and if you need help with any of the techniques described below, feel free to contact our support team.

Does CoolSpools handle color?

Yes, there are several ways in which you can get color into your PDFs.

Color defined in an AFP spooled file

If your spooled file is of type *AFPDS and has color defined (e.g. using the DDS COLOR keyword) on text items, line and box graphics etc., the color will be reproduced when the spooled file is converted to PDF.

Colored text is also supported when outputting to RTF and HTML formats.

COLOR parameter

When converting to PDF, HTML or RTF formats, you can use the COLOR parameter of the CVTSPLPDF, CVTSPLHTML or CVTSPLRTF command to override the color of text, lines and box graphics, as well as the background.

The color you specify for the foreground color will be used in place of the default color (normally black) for text items, lines, boxes etc. that do not have some other color explicitly defined for them.

So, if you want your spooled file to appear blue on pale yellow rather than black on white, you can use:

CVTSPLPDF ... COLOR(*BLUE *PALEYLW)

Color overlays

If you are including color in your application using a color overlay, CoolSpools can also convert the contents of the color overlay when outputting to PDF format.

However, there are some limitations:

  • When creating the overlay using an AFP print driver, the data compression attribute in the image options should be set to JPEG, not LZW as CoolSpools cannot support LZW.
  • When creating the overlay using an AFP print driver, the color option in the image options should be set to Full Color. CoolSpools does not support Color/White or 16 colors.

However, before changing your application to use an overlay, consider whether it would be simpler (and more effective) to include one or more images in your PDF when you create it. See this FAQ answer for further details.

Including image files in PDF

When you create a PDF file from your spooled file using CVTSPLPDF, you can use the INCLFILE (Include File) parameter to specify a number (1-32) of image files (either JPEGs or GIFs) that can be included in the file. These can be either mono or color.

This can be used just to include a company logo, a watermark or some other small graphic, or it can be used to present the entire report or document on a background form.

Using an exit program, you can include a far larger number of images (many thousands).

See this FAQ answer for further details.

Read our other FAQs here

FAQ Guide support