Re: printing large document

Eric Debienne wrote:
> We are making an application based on Thot.
> We want to print some documents that are larger than one page's width,
> and we would prefer that the lines won't be cut. That's why we want to
> print the view on a matrix of sheets.
> 
> The following exemple needs 2*2 sheets to be printed.
>  _____________
> | **         |              |
> | ***       |              |
> |               |              |
> | *********        |
> |______ |______|
> |               |              |
> |               |              |
> | *********        |
> |               |              |
The above looks malformed to me. I guess you like to print 2 pages side by
side on one side of the paper (or 4 in a square)??

> 
> I've read all the documentation and mailing list archives I could find,
> but I can't manage to do that.
> So my questions are :
> How can I do that? Is it possible?

Yep, it is possible (at least with postscript and/or on unix based
machines): Most postscript printers come with print tool kits with options
to do this. Here at the office, we have some (old) digital printers with a
command `lpspr`. Other printers have other tools. With most of these tools
I've seen, the option to put 2 pages on one side is called 'number up'

There is also a public domain tool called `a2ps` (Anything to PostScript)
which can do this. As I recal by head did it get worse with amaya 1.3 but
(just tested) it works well with amaya 1.4.

> 
> If Thot isn't able to do that, are you planning to implement that
> fonctionnality?

I don't think this number-up is to be put in Amaya. A better option for
Amaya is a 'print scaling factor' and print multiple pages wide:
- % to resize the printout by hand
- print to encaptulated postscript (EPS) generating X * Y files
- fit to (one or more) page width
- fit to (one or more) page hight
- even mangling the aspect ratio by using both fit in X * Y pages
- Select landscape or portrait
- More paper sizes (the A0 - A8 range is easy to accomplish once you have
A4)
- print current viewport (screendump with better resolution than the screeen
grabber)

I don't see all of the above options into thot or amaya at once but 

> 
> If not, do you think it possible to make a patch, and where, in the
> code, should we work?
Your option goes in the `file->print` option: change `lpr` to `a2ps`. At
least on the unix variant. I don't know for the M$Win variants. I guess you
print to file and have it printed with an other tool.

> 
> Hoping you can help me,
I just gave you a workaround, I hope you can work with it. Something else:
If you can see the entire page on screen, make a screendump with your
favorite program. For X11: `xv` can do a lot here.

regards,

CB

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When I became a man, I put away childish things, including my fear of
childishness, and the desire to be very grown up. - C. S. Lewis
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Received on Friday, 29 January 1999 03:44:31 UTC