Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!decwrl!adobe!heaven!glenn
From: glenn@heaven.woodside.ca.us (Glenn Reid)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: ps commands to print "DRAFT"
Message-ID: <196@heaven.woodside.ca.us>
Date: 3 Jul 90 21:02:37 GMT
References: <3937@dogie.macc.wisc.edu>
Reply-To: glenn@heaven.UUCP (Glenn Reid)
Organization: Skyline Press, Woodside CA
Lines: 46

In article <3937@dogie.macc.wisc.edu> yahnke@vms.macc.wisc.edu (Ross Yahnke, MACC) writes:
>August 1990 MacUser had a tip on how to print the large word "DRAFT"
>over a document, using a PS escape font. I've sort of gotten it to
>work in Nisus, only problem is the word "DRAFT" obscures the
>underlying text - unlike the example in the magazine. Can anybody
>suggest what must be done to make the word "DRAFT" transparent?

You have to draw the word "DRAFT" before you start drawing the page.
It's not really transparent, it's underneath the rest of the text.
You can do this by redefining "showpage" to image your DRAFT notice
after it's done printing the page, but you still have to prime the
pump so it works on the first page.  Try something like this:

	/DRAFT {
	    % draft code here
	} def
	
	/orig_showpage /showpage load def
	
	/showpage {
	    orig_showpage
	    DRAFT
	} def

Then make sure you put one call to DRAFT at the beginning, before the
first page executes.

Note that this will not work as you expect in the event that the
application paints the page white before it starts drawing text.  It
will white out your DRAFT notice, too.  I'm not sure why programs do
this, but it's not that uncommon.

I have gotten around this in the past by making the DRAFT notice actually
print along the edge of the paper, right where you would flip the pages
with your thumb, rather than being large and in the middle of the page.
If you put a continuous border of "DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT DRAFT" around the
page, it works pretty well and stays out of the way of the rest of the
page.

Cheers,
 Glenn

-- 
 Glenn Reid				PostScript/NeXT consultant
 glenn@heaven.woodside.ca.us		One-day turnaround on many projects
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