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From: pls@sortac.UUCP (Pat Sullivan)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: vertical line registration in tbl...
Message-ID: <206@sortac.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 9-Oct-87 08:54:49 EDT
Article-I.D.: sortac.206
Posted: Fri Oct  9 08:54:49 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 11-Oct-87 17:34:15 EDT
References: <630@nugipsy.UUCP>
Reply-To: pls@sortac.UUCP (Pat Sullivan)
Organization: AT&T Southern Region, Atlanta
Lines: 31

In article <630@nugipsy.UUCP> tcianflo@nugipsy.UUCP (Tom Cianflone) writes:
>We use tbl to produce outlined tables in text.
>Files are first processed by tbl, then sent to psroff
>which finally outputs to a DataProducts laser printer.
>
>Here is the problem.  The vertical lines in the table
>do not meet flush with the horizontal lines.

Tbl uses the "\(ul" special character for horizontal lines and "\(br" for
vertical lines (incidentally, pic uses "\(ru" for horizontal lines and
"\(br" for vertical when it doesn't have to use "drawdot").

Tbl expects the "\(ul" to be just below the baseline; we use a 10 point
Prestige underscore character on our LaserJet.  Pic expects the "\(ru"
to be right on the baseline (we had to roll our own for this one also).

To meet the "\(ul" character properly, the "\(br" character must extend
from a "\(ul" character on the line above the current line to a "\(ul"
character on the current line and should have its left edge at the same
place in a character cell as the left edge of a "\(ul" character.
Since the pipe character ("|") doesn't really do this, we had to define
our own to download to the LaserJet (e.g., a 3 dot wide, 44 dot high bar
that starts 5 dots below the top of a 50 dot high character cell meets
HP's 10 point Prestige underscore character perfectly - phew!!).

To get a perfect fit, you will probably need to define the "\(br" character
to be one that you download specifically for the purpose or one that you
create by shifting the position and/or size of a pipe character.

============================================================
Pat Sullivan - {akgua|ihnp4}!sortac!pls - voice 404-257-7382