Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!nih-csl!lhc!ncifcrf!fcs260c2!toms From: toms@fcs260c2.ncifcrf.gov (Tom Schneider) Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript Subject: Re: Variable characters Summary: still not solved Keywords: HELP!!! Message-ID: <1909@fcs280s.ncifcrf.gov> Date: 15 Oct 90 22:37:29 GMT Expires: 15 Oct 90 22:37:28 GMT References: <293@heaven.woodside.ca.us> <296@heaven.woodside.ca.us> Sender: news@ncifcrf.gov Organization: NCI Supercomputer Facility, Frederick, MD Lines: 81 Thanks to Kevin Andresen [kevina@apple.com] I now know that it is possible to adjust character sizes. Unfortunately every time I try to modify his program I get tangled into some problem with one or the other postscript device I use. Grrr #1. NeWS (the old 1.0 kind I think) refuses to create small characters, and forces them to be bigger. This is design error, in which someone thought that it would to 'help' the user. By rotating my characters, I can to avoid the problem some of the time. Anyone at Sun know why this was done? Does NeWS 2.0 still have this stupid 'feature'? Grrr #2. The other device I use is an Apple Laserwriter IIntx; which is in general a great machine --- except that there is no way to reset the darn thing, short of turning it off and on again. (The best contender, control-d didn't seem to help at all.) I asked about this here about a month ago and have still not gotten a satisfactory solution. Is there anyone at Apple who KNOWS the solution? A satisfactory solution is one that works under Unix, and is complete tested code. (Ie, exactly what do I send to the printer to clear its little brain?) So here's the problem: draw a character of a specified height in cm, with its bounding box just to prove you have it under control. Have it function on any device. When I run the following code on NeWS, it works fine. When I send it to the printer, it works fine the first time. On the second shot I get a blank page. What am I doing wrong? How do I tell the printer to forget anything I ever told it before????? Tom Schneider National Cancer Institute Laboratory of Mathematical Biology Frederick, Maryland 21702-1201 toms@ncifcrf.gov .......................................................................... (version = 2.00 of charbox.ps 1990 October 15 \n) print initgraphics /cmfactor { 72 2.54 div } def % defines points -> centimeters /cm { cmfactor mul} def % defines centimeters erasepage 12 cm 10 cm translate 90 rotate 4 4 scale /Helvetica-Bold findfont 30 scalefont setfont gsave newpath 0 0 moveto (G) true charpath flattenpath pathbbox % compute bounding box of 1 pt. char => lx ly ux uy % the path is here, but toss it away ... grestore pstack /uy exch def /ux exch def /ly exch def /lx exch def 1 setlinewidth gsave newpath 0 0 moveto ux 0 lineto ux uy lineto 0 uy lineto 0 0 lineto stroke grestore gsave 0 0 moveto (G) show grestore showpage