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From: toms@fcs260c2.ncifcrf.gov (Tom Schneider)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: How do I determine a printer's imaging area?
Message-ID: <2052@fcs280s.ncifcrf.gov>
Date: 12 Feb 91 18:04:37 GMT
References: <1991Feb8.174934.5816@eagle.lerc.nasa.gov> <7723@exodus.Eng.Sun.COM> <2047@fcs280s.ncifcrf.gov>
Sender: news@ncifcrf.gov
Organization: NCI Supercomputer Facility, Frederick, MD
Lines: 97

In my previous posting I gave an incorrect program!!  Oops.  Here is
a corrected version (at least I HOPE so) with some more bells and
whistles that help figure things out:

%! this is a PostScript program
% printerarea.ps
% 1991 February 12
% This program determines the printable area of a printer
% and prints the coordinates out in readable form.
% In addition, it draws a rectangle around the area,
% then it makes a series of shrinking rectangles to help
% visualize where the boundary is.  Finally, the corners
% of all these rectangles are connected to a single
% point on the image, to make it clear what is going on.
%   Tom Schneider
%   National Cancer Institute
%   Laboratory of Mathematical Biology
%   Frederick, Maryland  21702-1201
%   toms@ncifcrf.gov
erasepage
/Times-Roman findfont 30 scalefont setfont
/down {0 -50 rmoveto} def
/print {gsave show 10 string cvs show grestore down} def

% obtain the imagable area of the printer using initclip
gsave initclip clippath pathbbox grestore
%pstack % use this if you want to see the stack
        % while running the program

% capture the corners of the imagable area
% (see pathbbox in the red book)
/ury exch def
/urx exch def
/lly exch def
/llx exch def

% use the following if you want to see the values
% llx lly urx ury
% pstack  % this stack should match the first one
% clear

150 450 moveto
(printer imageable area:) gsave show grestore down

% print the values
llx ( lower left x [llx]: ) print
lly ( lower left y [lly]: ) print
urx (upper right x [urx]: ) print
ury (upper right y [ury]: ) print

/tospot { % draw a line to a special spot
% to help keep track of what's happening
gsave currentpoint moveto 100 400 lineto stroke grestore
} def

/roundstroke{
% draw a box around the area
llx lly moveto
tospot
urx lly lineto
tospot
urx ury lineto
tospot
llx ury lineto
tospot
llx lly lineto
tospot
stroke
} def

/shift 20 def % amount to decrease the area each time

/shiftinward {
% reduction of the area by the amount shift
/ury ury shift sub def
/urx urx shift sub def
/lly lly shift add def
/llx llx shift add def
} def

% draw a series of decreasing boxes to help figure
% things out
roundstroke
shiftinward

roundstroke
shiftinward

roundstroke
shiftinward

roundstroke
shiftinward

roundstroke

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