z/OS (OS/390): Special Forms Output

Requesting output on special paper or using a special print band costs time and money. Sometimes the result is worth waiting for in spite of the extra turnaround time and the cost of special paper; however, ABENDs and error messages on special-forms output are a waste of time and money. Before you request special printing or paper, make sure your job is going to run. If you are not sure the job will run, get output first on standard paper. Then you can check the formatting and make sure that you are not getting error messages.

When you ask for printed output on special paper, your job is held for printing until the operator can load the special paper on the printer. If you ask for a special print band, the print band must be physically exchanged on the printer. The operators usually wait until several jobs have requested the same type of output. For these reasons, they usually also wait for a slack time in printing to make the changes to the printer.

Note: Do not use more expensive job classes for these jobs. It will not improve job turnaround. Instead, consider using Class 1 or Class 2, depending upon your job characteristics. See NERDC document D0058,Understanding NERDC z/OS (OS/390) Job Classes for more information.

The forms number is a four-digit number you can use when you want the program's output to print on non-standard paper, use a special print band, or print at six lines per inch (lpi). The forms number indicates the print band, printer spacing, and paper type.

The default (if you do not use any special forms number) is the plain side of standard paper using the PN print band, at 8 lines per inch.

Table 1 shows the special forms numbers that you can use.

Please note the following definition, which refers to the terms used in Table 1.

The last number is the number of paper parts. For example, the form number for one-part bond paper to be printed on the TN print band at 8 lpi would be 1011.

In the form numbers above,

Special forms at the LOCAL (R0) site are aligned so that column one of the output begins in the first print position and the first print line is the third line from the top of the paper.

If you are using text-formatting packages (such as SCRIPT or DCF), you should use the commands in those packages to set the margins you need. To output these jobs onto bond paper, you should request form x011 to ensure the bond output will have margins consistent with those defined by the text-processing package.

You can request special forms in two ways. To print the whole job on special forms, use the special-forms code on the JOB or JOBPARM statement. Find the code of the form you want to use (see the section"Special Forms Number") and place it in the "forms" field on the statement.

To print only selected data sets on special forms, or to use more than one type of form in a job, do not specify a special-forms code on the JOB statement, but use modified DD statements for each special-forms data set as follows:

//ddname DD SYSOUT=(A,,forms),COPIES=n

ddname is the same as on the replaced DD statement.

forms is the one- to four-digit code corresponding to the desired special forms (see the section"Special Forms Number"). The form number must be preceded by two commas.

n =total number of copies desired

For example, to request three printed copies of a data set with a special-forms number of 1001 using OS/390 batch, code the DD statement as shown below:

//ddname DD SYSOUT=(A,,1001),COPIES=3

Improper specification of a special forms number will cause the job's output to be held.

Questions regarding the use of special forms should be directed to the NERDC Support Desk (telephone (352) 392-2061) Monday-Friday, 8:00 A.M.-5:00 P.M. If you need assistance with job output at other times, call the NERDC Operations desk (telephone (352) 392-2291).