APPLICATION NOTE #146 MEASURING IN PICAS AND POINTS ON A POSTSCRIPT PRINTER Rev. 01 By default, XyWrite uses tenths of an inch for horizontal measurements and sixths of an inch for vertical measurements. If you prefer, you can customize XyWrite to work in other units of measure, such as picas and points. This application note gives you the information you need to modify a PostScript printer file so that you can specify vertical measurements in points and horizontal measurements in picas. CHANGING THE VERTICAL MEASUREMENT UNIT If you want to specify vertical measurements in points rather than sixths of an inch, you need to change XyWrite's VU (Vertical Units) setting. Once you make that change, you must specify as points the values in all of the formatting commands that relate to the vertical placement of text on the page (see Note #1). These commands include: FD (Form Depth), PL (Page Length), TP (Top Margin), BT (Bottom Margin), Widow (WD), Orphan (OP), LS (Line Spacing), LL (Line Leading), and EL (Extra Leading). To change the vertical measurement unit to points: 1. Issue the following DEFAULT command to change the VU setting. (See Note #2.) F5default vu=1,1,10 2. Call the printer file to the screen. F5call 3post.prn 3. Move the cursor to the VU (Vertical Unit) setting. F5se /vu=/ 4. Change the values in the VU setting to read: VU=1,1,10 5. Store and load the printer file. 6. Call your text file to the screen. 7. Enter the formatting commands that define vertical text placement, using points to establish the values (see Note #3). For example: FD 792 PL 648,768,600 AL 1 Result: The P-L (Page-Line) indicator now reflects the depth of the file as Page No.-Points. For example, if P-L displays 2-72, you are 72 points (approx. 1 inch) from the top of page 2. CHANGING THE HORIZONTAL MEASUREMENT UNIT If you want to specify horizontal measurements in picas rather than tenths of an inch, you need to change the microjustification settings in the printer file. Once you make that change, you must specify as picas the values in all of the formatting commands that relate to the horizontal placement of text on the page (see Note #1). These commands include: RM (Right Margin), LM (Left Margin), OF (Offset), IP (Indent Paragraph), TS (Tab Set), SN (Snaking), and CT (Column Tables). To change the horizontal measurement unit to picas: 1. Call the printer file to the screen. F5call 3post.prn 2. Move the cursor to the MU (Margin Units) setting. F5se /mu=/ 3. Change the value to 2160. 4. Move the cursor to the MS (Microspace Units) setting and change the value to 120. 5. Store and load the printer file. 6. Call your text file to the screen. 7. Enter the formatting commands that define horizontal text placement, using picas to establish the values. For example, to establish an offset of 6 picas (approx. 1 inch) and a right margin of 39 picas (approx. 6-1/2 inches), enter the following commands: F5rm 39 F5of 6 Note #1 Inches or Points. Only one vertical measurement unit can be in effect at a time. That means you cannot specify FD and PL in sixths of an inch, and LL and EL in points. Similarly, you can use tenths of an inch or picas for horizontal measurements, but not both at the same time. Note #2 STARTUP.INT. You can add the DEFAULT VU command to STARTUP.INT so the values are loaded automatically whenever you start XyWrite. Just be sure to put the DEFAULT VU command before the command that loads the printer file. Note #3 Formatting Commands. The formatting commands that control vertical spacing must be in the text file. Do not use the DEFAULT command to change their values in the printer file, startup file, or from the command line. If you do, your file may become corrupted. Note #4 Calculating Margin Units. PostScript printers have 12960 margin units per inch. (The MU setting in the standard printer file is 1296, for 1/10 inch.) To determine the number of margin units in a pica, we divided 12960 by 6 (the number of picas in an inch). If you want to use another unit of measure (e.g., centimeters or ciceros), simply complete the calculation: 12960/n = MU, where n is the number of the new measurement units in an inch. Note #5 Calculating Microspace Units. PostScript printers have 720 units per inch. To determine the number of microspace units in a pica, we divided 720 by 6 (the number of picas in an inch). As with Margin Units (described in Note #4), you can use the same procedure to set up the printer to work in other units of measure. Note #6 Line Spacing. If you are using the LS (Line Spacing) command rather than automatic leading to control line spacing, the command LS 10 establishes 10-point leading, LS 12 establishes 12-point leading, etc. Note #7 True Pica Measurement. The changes described in this application note tell XyWrite to measure in 1/72 of an inch, not in true points and picas (six picas = 0.996 inch. This slight difference might become noticeable over long distances. Note #8 Character Pitch. While not required, you may want to change the number of lines in the CP (Character Pitch) table to reflect the value of the MS setting. Doing so reduces the amount of PostScript coding that is embedded in your document when you TYPE or TYPEF it. To change the table, first change the value after the CP: (i.e., from 72 to 120). Then define and copy the last line of the table 48 times. Restore define (press F3) and edit the new lines to reflect values 7.3 through 1.2.