Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!ukc!reading!minster!john
From: john@minster.york.ac.uk
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Enlarging LaserWriter frame buffer
Message-ID: <635958407.437@minster.york.ac.uk>
Date: 25 Feb 90 15:06:47 GMT
Organization: Department of Computer Science, University of York, England
Lines: 38

A member of my department wishes to print more closely
to the edge of the paper than the largest page type
set-up procedure permits them to. (This is an old LaserWriter
with Revision 2 software and an A4 paper tray - explicit use
of the `a4' procedure confirms that this is invoked implicitly,
as expected).

There is, as might be expected, a white margin around the
edge of the paper. Reading the PostScript `Red' book
(the PostScript LRM published by Addison-Wesley) I note
the existence of `framedevice' and `banddevice' procedures.
Can anyone out there mail me an example of a program
which calls these (supplying a suitable imaging procedure)
to establish a page of a given size? Alternatively, is
there a reference in which this is discussed? Just how
close can you go to the edge of the paper without hitting
a memory-size or mechanical limit?

I've read the footnote in appendix D of the `Red' book (the
Apple LaserWriter device-dependent supplement) which says
(p.286): "Other page dimensions can be achieved by explicit
invocation of the framedevice operator, described in chapter
6. This requires some care; it should be attempted only
after thorough study of the definitions of the built-in
procedures letter, legal and note". (Presumably a4, also!).
The appendix doesn't list, or say how to obtain, sources
of these procedures.

I'm not a PostScript internals expert, but I have performed
a little PostScript applications programming. We don't
subscribe to any PostScript journal, so may have missed any
articles about this subject.

--------------------------------------------------------------
John A. Murdie			+44 904 432752
Dept. of Comp. Sci.		ukc!minster!john
University of York
England