Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!tank!mimsy!chris
From: chris@mimsy.UUCP (Chris Torek)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: Rotated tables in TeX documents
Keywords: table, landscape, LaTeX
Message-ID: <19480@mimsy.UUCP>
Date: 8 Sep 89 14:49:30 GMT
References: <1697@murdu.oz> <2952@tahoe.unr.edu>
Organization: U of Maryland, Dept. of Computer Science, Coll. Pk., MD 20742
Lines: 60

>In article <1697@murdu.oz> morrow@murdu.oz (Christopher Morrow) writes:
>|Often wide tables in books (tabulations of biological data for
>|example) are set in landscape mode.  Often the page number is in the
>|normal postion.  I doubt if this is possible with standard LaTeX ....

Indeed, it is not, unless you build rotated versions of the fonts and
write some very hairy table macros.

It is, however, possible to cheat.

In article <2952@tahoe.unr.edu> mikew@wheeler.wrc.unr.edu (Mike Whitbeck)
writes:
>... In the main files where a landscaped table is needed I put it on
>a separate page so I get a numbered page and table number-- next run
>the wide tables off then use them to replace the blank pages in the
>main document!

If you want the page number to appear at the bottom (normal mode, rather
than landscaped), you have to use scissors and paste.  Not a nice
situation.  There has, however, been some talk of standard DVI \special
escapes, and single-page landscape mode is one possible standard, so
one could get a table set properly, except that the page number would
be on the side instead of at the bottom.  In some cases this is not a
problem (e.g., submissions to journals, where all the pages will be
renumbered manually for the final printing).

>The imagen print driver can print pages rotated into landscape mode.

Except that, like most drivers, it applies this globally.  (The Imagen
makes it a bit harder than some other devices to apply it per page.)

>Hmmm, can postscript rotate a chunk of output in the middle of a
>file?

Yes.

If you have a PostScript printer, and a DVI-to-PS driver that allows
\specials, and if you are willing to do horrible things to your TeX
or LaTeX source to make the `right thing' happen, you can embed a
\special that rotates and translates the TeX coordinate system.  For
instance:

	\begin{table}
	% the name SaveSpecial below varies with the implementation
	\special{SaveSpecial restore % now we are `out of' the special
	  -90 rotate	% rotate the TeX coordinate system. (0,0) is to
			% be at upper left corner, so now we need to
			% translate by (-pageheight,0):
	  -11 Resolution mul 0 translate
	  /SaveSpecial save def % make the next restore work right
	}
	\begin{tabular}...\end{tabular}
	% Undo the rotation by reversing the rotate sequence
	\special{SaveSpecial restore 90 rotate /SaveSpecial save def}
	\end{table}

The above is not tested.
-- 
In-Real-Life: Chris Torek, Univ of MD Comp Sci Dept (+1 301 454 7163)
Domain:	chris@mimsy.umd.edu	Path:	uunet!mimsy!chris