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PostScript Secrets

1. preventing modem dropouts clk a flush right keystone 306 170 true electronic tuning diodes two 2unusuall newsletters parametric Amplification association book resources preventing modem dropouts crk end close gonzo dictionary showpage quit Don Lancaster s Gonzo Keystone J ustify PostScript the blurb before keystoning Secrets electronic tuning diodes two unusual newsletters parametric Amplification Supolemeni association book resources 41 D preventing modem dropouts Es keystone justify a centered keystone electronic tuning diodes two unusual newsletters parametric Amplification association book resources preventing modem dropouts a flush left keystone electronic tuning diodes two unusual newsletters parametric Amplification association book resources preventing modem dropouts a flush right keystone electronic tuning diodes two unusual newsletters parametric Amplification association book resources preventing modem dropouts Form re help 520 428 4073 Sometimes parts of a PostScript image will neither appear to print nor generate an error message Especially with EPS drop ins The usual cause is printing far off the page or outside of a clipping area To check put a postage stamp page image in th
2. ropel builds a rope turn of one half pdis 500 max drawarope automates it half1 amp 2 x0 sub 2 div x0 add y2 y0 sub 2 div yO add def service sub half2 amp 4 x2 sub 2 div x2 add y4 y2 sub 2 div y2 add def service sub ropel fnewpath 0 5 x2 y2 half2 x3 y3 x1 y1 half1 x2 y2 roundpath showsegrule save bestgray 0 99 setgray fill grestore 0 167 setlinewidth stroke Hewpath ifelse def drawarope drawproc fopel def pathtosteparray drawelement def hsquareknot draws a horizontal square knot aided by rsqloop1 and Isqloop rsqloop1 00000000000 15 30 45 45 45 30 15 0 0 15 30 45 60 75 90 90 90 105 120 135 150 165 180 180 165 150 135 135 135 150 165 180 180 180 180 180 165 150 135 135 135 def Isqloop1 180 180 180 180 180 180 180 180 180 180 180 165 150 135 135 135 150 165 180 180 165 150 135 120 105 90 90 90 75 60 45 30 150015 30 45 45 45 30 150000 0 15 30 45 45 45 def hsquareknot ave squaresnap exch def currentpoint yhold exch def xhold exch def rsqloop1 drawarope save sssnap exch def xhold 31 5 pdis mul add yhold moveto Isqloop1 drawarope clear sssnap restore showsegrule posn 1 add dup 8 ge exch 10 le and aposn 1 add dup 23 ge exch 29 le and or aposn 1 add dup 42 ge exch 45 le and or def xhold yhold moveto rsqloop1 drawarope clear squaresnap restore def border with square knot demo remove before use bestgray 0 8 setgray only for subtle fuzzy effect shown here ot
3. 1500 87 sin pop repeat optional host reporting delay bezierlength calculate length blength flush report to host reported length for the curve shown 21 585 For more help 520 428 4073 A PostScript save and restore does not affect the stack contents To pass any variables or other information beyond a restore just pile them up on the stack and then post restore redefine them These two simple and powerful repeat commands can greatly ease building up all your PostScript forms and charts xrpt save aload pop xtrips exch def xdist exch def xrproc exch def xtrips save xrproc grestore xdist 0 translate repeat grestore def yrpt gsave aload pop ytrips exch def ydist exch def yrproc exch def ytrips save yrproc grestore O ydist translate repeat grestore def demo remove before use E s 200 300 moveto 160 0 rlineto stroke 20 6 yrpt 200 300 moveto 0 100 rlineto stroke 40 5 xrpt showpage The proc in the zero array position gets spaced by the first array value and repeated by the second To improve the centering on your badges place an extra 4 3 4 inch 345 point outside circle around each printed badge image This will fit the outside of the Badge a Minit circle cutter tool MATERIALS OF THE MONTH Sources of low cost SCORING SLITTING and PERFORATING ideas now include American Safety Razor at 703 248 8000 Sandco at 918 584 2985 H S Boyd 918 835 9359 Tandy 817 551 9770
4. Copyright c 1989 91 by Don Lancaster and Synergetics Press Box 809 Thatcher AZ 85552 520 428 4073 ISBN 1 882193 45 8 Book on demand self published using the Apple Ile computer and the LaserWriter NTX All graphics were done in their entirety by ProDos AppleWriter 2 1 Introduction In April of 1987 decided to expand my Computer Shopper coverage of the Apple LaserWriter line of PostScript speaking laser printers What started out as a sidebar to my ongoing Ask the Guru column quickly became a new column of its own known as Don Lancaster s LaserWriter Corner Since editorial space was severely limited the key operative word here was intense In a cross between minute manager and J ust the facts Maam styles each month would usually see a few concise use tips ranging the gamut from unique beginner ideas on up to through the utterly gonzo There would be a Material of the Month that hopefully would lead you into some new and profitable gee whiz uses for your LaserWriter And a similar Publication of the Month which would get you lots of ongoing information While many of these ended up as free all of them were thoroughly user tested Finally each month included a new Free Font defined a free font as any trick you can apply to your already existing fonts to make them do totally new things in uniquely different ways As you will see quite a few of these are real mind blowers All of them are original Very few have
5. LaserWriter NT or LaserWriter NTX The overpriced awful print quality and the totally useless black sheep of the family that LaserWriter SC is definitely not included here since it by no stretch of the imagination deserves to even get called a LaserWriter You are holding the sixth in a rapidly expanding series of my book on demand self published books Each book gets custom and individually printed as it is ordered Everything you see here was literally beat out on a brick in my own backyard with some brand new economics that totally revolutionize technical publishing And each new volume gets a little better than the previous ones As always do maintain a free PostScript and LaserWriter help line at 602 428 4073 The best calling times are 8 5 weekdays Mountain Standard Time Don Lancaster Thatcher Arizona November 1989 Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Introduction For more help 602 428 4073 About the Author Don Lancaster s PostScript As he said in his classic Incredible Secret Money Machine book Don Lancaster Secrets writes books And quests tinajas Microcomputer pioneer and guru Don Lancaster is the author of 26 books and countless articles He is considered by some to be the father of the personal computer for his early ground breaking work with hacker digital electronics and low cost video terminal displays Some of his other titles include his CMOS and million seller TTL Cookbooks Mic
6. 436 8291 Blanks USA 800 328 7311 Ticket Express 800 544 8520 and Quick Tickets 800 521 1142 Blanks USA has a free sample pack of 300 tickets available Meanwhile the world s cheapest ticket perforator is available from J erryCo 312 475 8440 as stock 3620 for 2 00 It is cleverly disguised as a pair of Airedale pruning shears A sewing machine also works PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH The pricey but very informative BOVE amp RHODES INSIDE REPORT gives lots of outstanding PostScript and laser printing info especially for all those high end applications 195 per year from Bove Rhodes Box 1289 Gualala CA 95445 707 884 4413 FREE FONT Suitable tampering with the font matrix can give you an astounding range of special effects In this very simple example we have stretched out plain old Helvetica Bold to where it almost will assume Copperplate or even Steelplate vibes Helvetica Bold findfont 60 O O 30 O 0 makefont setfont 200 300 moveto FREE FONT show showpage More generally if you use an aa bb cc dd ee ff font matrix then Value aa is how fat and sets character width Value bb is how much special effect climb usually zero Value cc is how much lean for italics usually zero Value dd is how tall and sets character height Value ee is how much horizontal shift usually zero For more help Value ff is how much vertical shift for superscripts or subscripts 520 428 4073 Don Lancaster s
7. 855 3838 Black Lightning has free samples The stuff is also ideal for prototype printed circuits or printing on beer cans PUBLICATIONS OF THE MONTH One each of everything is available for 189 yearly as a portion of the ADOBE DEVELOPER S PROGRAM Contact Cynthia J ohnson at Adobe Systems Inc 1585 Charleston Road Mountain View CA 94039 415 961 4400 FREE FONT Ana you thought Palatino was snotty Some tricks here include an erosion by white outlining and repeat clipped stroking superinsidestroke Save clip sssnap exch def sscmd exch def mark O 2 sscmd length 2 div cvi 1 sub 2 mul faposn exch def gsave sscmd aposn get 2 mul setlinewidth sscmd aposn 1 add get setgray stroke grestore for cleartomark sssnap restore newpath def showitstuff urrentpoint 4 0 3 1 1 7 0 0 7 1 superinsidestroke exch kernstuff add exch moveto def strrx X def kernstuff 1 def snottyfont save snotsnap exch def msg exch def translate mark O O moveto msg trrx exch 0 exch put strrx false charpath showitstuff initclip forall cleartomark snotsnap restore def demo remove before use Palatino Bold findfont 50 O O 50 O 0 makefont setfont 200 300 FREE FONT snottyfont showpage quit Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets SI A rather snotty font Speeding up a logo Redefining showpage Thermal transfertoner Adobe developer stuff Backwards green knob For more help 602 428 4073 4
8. International Knife 800 345 9872 Atlas Steel Rule Die 800 255 8786 and Printer s Shopper at 800 854 2911 PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH The ADOBE DISTILLERY will perform pseudo compiling for you and often can both shorten and speed up nearly all PostScript code It is also a great demo and learning tool From Adobe Systems at 1585 Charleston Road in Mountain View CA 94039 415 961 4400 Free Font Not So Free Font Definitely Unfree Font The secret to a MENU FONT is to put all of the dots down first and then erase the ones you don t really want Like so menuline save rightstring exch def leftstring exch def xpos ypos translate 0 O moveto O dotstring stringwidth pop dup 2 div txtwide exch sub Pop dotstring show for eraseheight setlinewidth 1 setlinecap 1 setgray 0 O moveto leftstring stringwidth pop O rlineto stroke txtwide rightstring stringwidth pop sub O moveto rightstring stringwidth pop 0 rlineto stroke O setgray 0 O moveto leftstring show txtwide rightstring stringwidth pop sub 0 moveto rightstring show 0 setgray ypos ypos yinc sub def grestore def ll demo remove before use NewCenturySchIbk Bold findfont 10 scalefont setfont xpos 150 def left margin ypos 300 def base position of top line yinc 14 def vertical spacing between lines txtwide 250 def width of final line eraseheight 5 def width to guarantee dot erasure dotstring def dot pattern to lay down Free Font 0 00
9. MICR fonts are available from The Font Company at 800 442 FONT PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH A free typography newspaper called TYPEWORLD They are especially strong on newer high end desktop publishing product announcements From TypeWorld 1 Stiles Road Box 170 Salem NH 03079 603 898 2822 FREE FONT Use of precise fine line detail can get tricky at 300 DPI Here s a fast simple and sloppy method that uses a magic screen gsave 50 0 xch pop 3 It LD ifelse setscreen 0 67 setgray f1 Helvetica BoldOblique findfont 40 scalefont setfont def f2 Helvetica BoldOblique findfont 30 2 scale setfont def 100 300 moveto f1 F show f2 currentpoint 6 5 add moveto REE FON show f1 currentpoint 6 5 sub moveto T show 1 setlinecap 4 setlinewidth 113 300 moveto 1 2 4 rlineto 158 O rlineto 1 2 4 rlineto closepath fill grestore showpage quit Which also shows you how mixed caps can be a useful design tool Try changing the vertical position and character heights in quarter point increments to fine tune the line details Do not scale this free font or move it after fine tuning Do not change the setgray value Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets TypeWorld MICR toner Invalidrestore Fineline free font Array justification For more help 602 428 4073 Word has it that most ordinary paper printing plates can get run on through a LaserWriter just fine Simply trim the plate to slightly over 8
10. This can be done manually or automatically although auto wedging can get downright dangerous at times More on the gonzo justify appears in Ask The Guru volume ll and over in my PostScript Beginner Stuff Whoops there went one now Instead of bullets in these LaserWriter Secrets use a rail It looks something like this only a tad larger _ _ _ __ __ __ O Here s another real one But the flying wedge won t help you if you can t think of anything else to say k is extremely important to make sure your LaserWriter is set up for two way communications so you can receive and optionally record all of your return error messages On the MAC use SEND PS from AppleTalk or else use FREETERM or RED RYDER from the faster serial port On the IBM use the serial COM1 port and suitable two way comm software such as CROSSTALK or PROCOMM Do not just copy to COM 1 On the Apple use AppleWriter and its built in modem Q 1 feature or else use PROTERM or other comm software There is an Apple Ilgs file called SYSTEM MASTER APPLETALK IWEM This is an imagewriter emulator which is an ordinary textfile that can be transferred and used as is with any other personal computer You can also easily rewrite IWEM to give you the equivalent of SEND PS on the Ilgs Be sure to define _WBJ_ asa null proc when you do this IWEM is easily customized any way you like Here s a quick summary of how to sight read an eexec file Get int
11. and you get a negative image with those chords in them Unlike real spirograph toys your pen hole location can easily EXCEED the diameter of your outside wheel for special effects With several simple modifications you can do spirals or work along an arbitrary path Thus this simple PostScript code is a major improvement over the original spirograph toys This is the magic epicycloid positioning code cposn ang exch def a b sub ang cos mul a b sub b div ang mul cos b mul penarm mul add a b sub ang sin mul a b sub b div ang mul sin b mul penarm mul sub def And this routine takes care of calling it drawspiro hewpath a b 1 penarm sub mul sub O moveto O res maxang 360 mul cvi cposn lineto currentpoint stroke moveto for def demo remove or alter before reuse 310 400 translate position on page 0 7 setlinewidth pensize 1 setlinejoin round joints 1 setlinecap round line caps a 96 def inside wheel diameter b 75 def outside wheel diameter maxang 25 def number of go rounds needed res 8 def degrees resolution per increment penarm 0 8 def pen arm as ratio of outside wheel radius drawspiro draw the frosting on the bagel a 96 def inside wheel diameter b 15 def outside wheel diameter maxang 5 def number of go rounds needed res 2 def degress resolution per increment penarm 1 def pen arm as ratio of outside wheel radius drawspiro draw the bagel itself showp
12. are preinstalled in refilled cartridges now include Thompson and Thompson at 714 855 3838 and Lazer Products found at 303 792 5277 PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH Adobe s brand new RED BOOK II or the POSTSCRIPT REFERENCE MANUAL now provides full details on PostScript Level Il Included are such goodies as filters improved forms FAX support bunches more Addison Wesley Publishing stock 18127 One stocking source is Synergetics at 602 428 4073 This keycap font is handy for user manuals and instruction sheets n frewpath def m moveto def c urveto def y Q exch rlineto def x Q rlineto def s Stroke def w amp etlinewidth def g Setgray def keycapl save msg exch def currentpoint 2 copy translate n 45 wO g O 500 m 425 y 0 966 34 1000 75 1000 c 850 x 966 1000 1000 966 1000 925 c 850 y 1000 34 966 0 925 0 c 850 x 3400 34 0 75 c 425ysni5wo0g 150 500 m 225 y 150 794 206 850 275 850 c 450 x 794 850 850 794 850 725 c 450 y 850 206 794 150 725 150 c 450 x 206 150 150 206 150 275 c 225 y s AvantGarde Demi findfont 750 O O 500 O O makefont setfont 480 msg stringwidth pop 2 div sub 300 moveto msg show grestore exch 1200 add exch moveto def keycap2 save msg exch def currentpoint 2 copy translate 45 w 0 g 5 500 m 425 y 4 6 966 38 1000 80 1000 c 1850 x 1971 1000 2005 966 2005 925 c 850 y 2005 34 1971 0 1930 Oc 1850x380534575c425ys0g15 w 155 500 m 225 y 155 794 211 850 280 850 c 1450 x 1799 850 1855 794 1855 725 c 450 y 1855
13. blackflasher that will eject a fully black page Ejecting a fully black page can dramatically improve your camera ready copy particularly when fine grays are involved Just use blackflash to activate And here are several persistent download WARNINGS 1 Persistent downloads use up virtual memory limiting the size and complexity of your other programs Persistent downloads tend to pile up so it is a good idea to power down before attempting to download any new ones Improperly done persistent downloads can trash the machine so it cannot be used This is especially true should you change persistent parameters in serverdict most notably the baud rate other comm parameters or the password On the NTX a trashed machine can most often be revived by switching to Appletalk and back to 9600 thirty seconds later under power Baud rate or comm problems can often get corrected by switching to 1200 baud and then programming the revised comm parameters On the LaserWriter and LaserWriter plus any trashed password requires an extremely complex restoration procedure requiring use of bootleg routines You can write or call for more info The bottom line NEVER ALTER YOUR PASSWORD Any persistent routines are best done as closed dictionaries so they do not inadvertently conflict with any other code Keep your persistent dictionary closed until you need it Then close it once again after use For more help 602 428 4073 Mbre
14. customkernchar stringwidth pop neg customkern add mul if add msg length 1 sub arckern mul add 2 div dup 57 29578 mul radius div msg tr exch O exch put gsave rotate 0 radius moveto str dup dup dup customkernchar eq not tringwidth pop 2 div 57 29578 mul radius div neg rotate show stringwidth pop ustomkern 2 div 57 29578 mul radius div neg rotate pop pop pop customkern ifelse arckern add sub dup 57 29578 mul radius div grestore forall pop pop grestore def demo remove before use arckern 1 25 def slight character kerning customkern 1 25 def Helvetica Bold findfont 45 O O 35 O 0 makefont setfont 300 305 160 F R EE F O N T F R EE F O N T karcjustify and show it convex customkern 1 def arckern 0 1 def Helvetica Bold findfont 22 O O 18 O 0 makefont setfont 300 300 170 SPONSORED B Y karcjustify same only concave customkern 0 2 def arckern 0 05 def Helvetica Bold findfont 25 O O 20 O 0 makefont setfont 300 300 192 5 FREE FONT FR EE FONT karcjustify second concave line ANT lr your LaserWriter and host computer are plugged into the same grounded outlet then you definitely do not need any special 160 AppleTalk cables A plain old 5 small printer or null modem cable will work just fine Note that AppleTalk is often slower than is stock 9600 Baud serial communications Don Lancaster s PostScript An exact pixel boundary lock can be done on your LaserWriter by using 300 Secrets
15. menuline Not So Free Font 14 95 menuline Definitely Unfree Font 395 50 menuline showpage quit Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets IO Menu font lotsadots That Adobe Distillery Badge centering tricks Repeat procs for forms Scoring and perforating Passing beyond restore For more help 520 428 4073 Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Bonus Supplement 36 A Menu justification For more help 520 428 4073 A further demo of the gonzo justification routines that includes an automatic and precise menu justify and an astonishingly serendipitious 170 byte PostScript border A WIDTH CALCULATIONS A new curwide variable lets you calculate the gonzo string width independent of printing it Handy for menu justify etc Use has to be bracketed with oktoprint false def oktoadvance false def stuff and then true Works with any justify mode Make this change to main code so lengths can be extracted Note that roomleft gets flushed at line end gonzo begin endtheline curwide txtwide roomleft sub def justx cvx exec oktoprint rintline if bind def calloutwidth calculates only the width of the string returning it to the top of the stack For consistency with other callouts use O O string cw This INCLUDES all stretching and font changes cw fave snapcl1 exch def oktoadvance false def oktoadvance false def linestring linestring2 def justx justL def 3 1 roll ypos exc
16. to the right Thus larger positive or negative numbers come earlier than smaller positive or negative numbers bubbleabssort mark exch aload pop counttomark idx exch def 0 1 idx 1 sub Pop 2 copy abs exch abs exch It fexch if idx 1 roll for idx 1 roll idx idx 1 sub def idx O eq xit if loop def NOTE Two way comm REQUIRED for this demo to run Be ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN to use Serial AppleTalk or Shared SCSI comm demo remove or alter before reuse 1000 87 sin pop repeat optional response delay 1 2 53 94 65768 975433 44 2 bubblesort provides r print 12 5394 6576 8 97 5 4 3 3 4 2 bubblesort r print 1 2 5394 65768 975433 44 2 bubbleabssort provides r print 12 5394 6576 8 9 75 4 3 3 4 2 bubbleabssot r print flush A REALLY OFF THE WALL EXAMPLE Accumulating the sums of products is often used in solving linear equations and in digital signal processing If in the process of accumulation large values are added to smaller ones the accuracy can decrease leading to subtle but serious errors during advanced PostScript work For instance summing these numbers IN THIS ORDER with PostScript 4500 1 4502 1 43 43 15 3 9 9 3 3 6 1 3 0 0042 0 0052 2 0094 The CORRECT result But summing these SAME numbers IN THIS ORDER with PostScript 4500 1 0 0042 4502 1 0 0052 1 3 9 9 3 3 15 3 6 43 43 2 00928 The WRONG result In the second case accurac
17. 206 1799 150 1730 150 c 1450 x 211 150 155 206 155 275 c 225 ys AvantGarde Demi findfont 500 0 0 325 00 makefont setfont 980 msg stringwidth pop 2 div sub 375 moveto msg show grestore exch 1200 add exch moveto def demo remove or alter before use 100 200 moveto 45 1000 div dup scale F keycap1 R keycap1 E keycap1 For more help E keycap1 currentpoint exch 400 add exch moveto FONT keycap2 showpage quit 602 428 4073 Variations on the Make a Sticker theme Don Lancaster s While originally written to create plain old stickers the Make a Sticker code of LaserWriter LaserWriter Secrets 40 can generate an incredible variety of output options Secrets You do this simply by changing the crest trough and point values and then suitably stroking and filling Very unusual patterns can result by using negative trough values You can also try very large or very small point count values Quiz time See if you can match the following demos with the stickers they Bonus generate Supplement 100 70 4 makeasticker fill 40 100 100 8 makeasticker fill 100 60 3 makeasticker stroke Variations on the 100 90 40 makeasticker stroke Make a Sticker theme 100 50 10 makeasticker stroke 100 50 10 makeasticker stroke 100 95 100 makeasticker stroke 100 125 33 makeasticker stroke 100 120 10 makeasticker stroke NU N 2 2 1 e ANY FONS N G74 For more help 602 428 4
18. 347 li 335 347 li 350 347 365 347 380 346 ct 475 340 480 280 486 196 ct 490 136 li 493 97 500 59 528 30 ct 559 1 598 15 642 15 ct 723 15 795 18 811 104 ct 816 123 817 143 817 163 ct 767 163 li 764 131 758 50 707 70 ct 703 74 700 78 698 82 ct 688 102 683 125 678 147 ct 662 210 li 642 295 594 342 512 361 ct 620 370 727 418 727 542 ct 727 595 698 651 654 680 ct 602 713 549 719 490 720 ct 415 722 li cp Y put dup E 759 696 O mt 707 265 li 657 269 li 615 124 559 53 401 53 ct 383 53 365 55 347 57 ct 298 62 300 83 300 127 ct 300 346 li 400 349 455 289 459 193 ct 513 193 li 509 541 li 458 541 li 447 448 399 391 300 399 ct 300 588 li 300 605 299 623 306 639 ct 308 648 315 654 322 659 ct 344 669 369 670 393 670 ct 553 670 603 608 646 462 ct 696 462 li 689 722 li 16 722 li 16 669 li 44 669 73 670 100 664 ct 111 662 115 657 119 647 ct 123 641 122 632 122 625 ct 122 114 li 122 102 123 90 119 79 ct 110 42 43 56 16 53 ct 16 0 li cp put dup space 287 287 0 mtY put dup O 833 419 685 mt 578 685 596 477 596 360 ct 596 323 594 283 588 247 ct 572 154 551 34 431 34 ct 358 34 304 67 275 135 ct 249 197 237 286 237 353 ct 237 477 249 685 419 685 ct cp 407 15 mt 513 15 599 13 677 87 ct 749 154 794 264 794 361 ct 794 461 755 556 686 628 ct 610 705 520 737 413 737 ct 319 737 218 698 151 632 ct 76 559 39 461 39 358 ct 39 264 80 165 144 96 ct 212 23 307 15 407 15 ct cp put dup N 833 304 O mt 304 53 li 212 55 191 97 191 181 ct 191 553 li 664 8
19. 5 634 68 ct 702 139 742 249 742 359 ct cp 391 108 mt 343 108 295 122 257 157 ct 209 201 185 280 184 359 ct 185 438 209 517 257 561 ct 295 596 343 610 391 610 ct 439 610 487 596 525 561 ct 573 517 597 438 598 359 ct 597 280 573 201 525 157 ct 487 122 439 108 391 108 ct cp def F 611 74 729 mt 74 0 li 224 0 li 224 313 li 543 313 li 543 438 li 224 438 li 224 604 li 586 604 li 586 729 li cp def E 667 79 729 mt 79 Oli 624 0 li 624 125 li 229 125 li 229 313 li 578 313 li 578 438 li 229 438 li 229 604 li 607 604 li 607 729 li cpY def R 722 80 O mt 230 0 li 230 288 li 406 288 li 458 288 494 264 496 215 ct 494 162 494 104 496 68 ct 498 44 504 22 516 0 ct 677 Oli 677 27 li 661 37 649 46 649 87 ct 648 124 646 220 642 250 ct 634 316 586 334 561 351 ct 610 380 642 403 660 466 ct 678 529 663 581 653 613 ct 632 692 558 726 485 729 ct 80 729 li cp 230 604 mt 433 604 li 500 604 524 574 524 522 ct 533 450 470 413 435 413 ct 230 413 li cp def space 250 def mt xch fontsize O get mul 001 mul xoffset add exch fontsize 3 get mul 001 mul yoffset add nit moveto def li xch fontsize O get mul 001 mul xoffset add exch fontsize 3 get mul 001 mul yoffset add nit lineto def ct 8 2 roll exch fontsize O get mul 001 mul xoffset add exch fontsize 3 get mul 001 mul yoffset add nit repeat curveto def cp losepath def strrx def nit urrenty exch prd1 def charproc save 1 setgray fill grestore stroke def nishow msg exch def msg trrx exch O exch put strr
20. Is their any life after using a fixed pitch Courier There sure can be if you ever decide to get sneaky enough about it superstroke amp ave sssnap exch def sscmd exch def mark O 2 sscmd length 2 div cvi 1 sub 2 mul aposn exch def gsave sscmd aposn get setlinewidth sscmd aposn 1 add get setgray stroke grestore for cleartomark sssnap restore newpath def novacourier Save ncsnap exch def msg exch def translate mark strx X def 1 setlinecap 1 setlinejoin 0 O moveto charnum O def msg trx exch 0 exch put strx false charpath currentpoint strokerule superstroke exch kernrule charnum get add exch moveto charnum charnum 1 add def forall cleartomark ncsnap restore def demo remove before use Courier findfont 80 O O 80 O 0 makefont setfont strokerule 8 O 4 1 def kernrule 243000 2 3 0 def lets you custom kern each character 200 300 FREE FONT novacourier showpage quit The strokerule says to stroke 8 points wide black followed by four points wide F help white The numbers in kernrule let you trim the individual character spacings Or more neip There are 2 points between the F and R 4 points between R and E etc 602 428 4073 A dropout free fine gray grid example Don Lancaster s LaserWriter Creating a totally uniform finegray grid that is dropout free is not a trivial task on a 300 DPI LaserWriter Here is some example rubbergrid code from my Don Secrets Lancaster s PostScript Beginner Stuff that
21. O 60 rlineto O setlinecap stroke 35 40 moveto 0 120 rlineto 1 setlinecap stroke xoffset O def yoffset 47 def 1 setlinewidth FREE FONT nlshow showpage For more help quit 520 428 4073 More Details on Pad Printing Pa printing is an arcane and very sneaky process that allows you to full color print onto such specialty objects as pens golf balls electronic keycaps classic car speedometers antique radio dials or even on eggshells Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Obviously PostScript cries to be combined with a cheap do it yourself home pad printing operation to open up whole new worlds of ultra low cost lower end specialty advertising products sold direct and real time to the end user in sanely small quantities Bonus Here briefly is how pad printing works An engraved plate known as a cliche Supplement contains a flat and frontwards image of your artwork Ink is spread onto the 39 plate and then doctored off leaving an ink image The ink image is picked up by a special shaped silicon rubber pad and then transferred to the irregular object being printed This transfer occurs because ink exposed to air creates a thin and tacky film Initially the tack will stick to the pad During the pad motion a second and stronger tack builds up on the exposed surface which lets the ink stick to the final object better than it does the pad More Details on Pad Printing A nesting carrier holds the object yo
22. S t Preferred choice an outstanding product Allows strings of any length has ecrets macros search and replace menus are almost the same as the word processor The keyboard functions work the same way No spell check or thesarus this is a text editor Part of the WordPerfect Office package which is normally more Even so it s Bonus worth the It saves you heartache tears gnashing of teeth and other dire consequences to the equipment found it by fortuitous accident Supplement A AE 4 7 C PC Write text editor Works well and its shareware It also has macros search and replace and other features It will read your ASCII files and write them with out adding any Carriage return formatting changes No apparent limit to length of text line Give it a try and hassles upgrade to the commercial version if you re not a WP fan TED COM PC Mag text editor This is your main garden spade for small changes It loads fast fast and save your file without forcing its ideas on you It does have limitations on file size and string width Don t leave home without it For more help 520 428 4073 The page creep bug in the Diablo emulation mode on LaserWriter Version 38 can be worked around by calling for 65 line pages and then by placing these commands at the start of the very top line of each and every page J esc 3 J J esc 4 The J here means control J This is very easy to do using Applewriter s TL
23. and echar exch def echar printashex flush 15 87 sin pop repeat mask echar add dup multl mul 16 FFFF and exch mult2 mul 16 FFFF and add 16 FFFF and adder add 16 FFFF and mask exch def repeat currentfile strrx readstring Q get char exch def char mask 8 bitshift or char mask 8 bitshift and not and echar exch def echar printashex flush 15 87 sin pop repeat mask echar add dup multl mul 16 FFFF and exch mult2 mul 16 FFFF and add 16 FFFF and adder add 16 FFFF and mask exch def pop exit ifelse loop def demo remove before use 1500 87 sin pop repeat Here is the expected host returned blackflashing result F983EF00C334F148421509DC30FA053D6DD4273E416E6A2EA64F917B5D20EH01 9F220AF8FC50D545AB51A0D18B6DD7543D27A21CD55887C1C7 D51608F6A316EE 8891D92A6E0D09D1D039159DA3A0781E1380B1228C makeeexecfile 0 O moveto 1000 O rlineto O 1000 rlineto 1000 O rlineto closepath fill showpage Note that your eexec file gets returned to the host for recording And here s how to verify your newly created eexec file This tests the sample file created by the makeeexecfile demo and should eject one blackflashed page currentfile eexec F983EF00C334F148421509DC30FA053D6DD4273E416E6A2EA64F917B5D20E11 9F220AF8FC50D545AB5140D18B6DD7543D27A21CD55887C1C7D51608F6A316EE 8891D92A6E0D09D1D039159DA3A0781E1380B1228C Finally here s how to read an existing eexec file mask 16 D971 def multl 16 6000 def mult2 16 6E6D def adder 16 58
24. def 0 yO ydelta add exch xdelta add exch 2 copy ydelta add exch xdelta add exch 2 copy ydelta add exch xdelta add exch ct repeat def Bonus noshortcuts decides whether a lineto is long enough to need conversion into Supplement two or more curvetos 32 B noshortcuts y1 exch def x1 exch def y1 yO sub abs x1 x0 sub abs add maxstraight div dup 1 gt makecurves pop x1 y1 savecp nit lineto ifelse def Spherical nonlinear transform SPECIFIC GURU SPHERICAL TRANSFORMER The spherical transform is deceptively simple Assume a sphere of unit radius with latitude ranging from 90 degrees south pole to 90 degrees north pole and longitude ranging from 90 degrees far west to 90 far east Assume each input point is defined by its latitude and longitude in decimal degrees the transform is simply x cos latitude sin longitude y sin latitude done with this operator spxf up sin 3 1 roll cos exch sin mul exch def A slightly fancier and somewhat slower transform could be used to clip anything greater than 90 or 90 degrees to make anything on the back side invisible nit is the link to the nonlinear transform currently in use nit pxf def And the maximum allowable straight line is around five degrees or so Use less for more accuracy more for faster execution maxstraight 5 def maximum allowable straight line length SPHERE DRAWING UTILITIES latlon draws latitude and longit
25. def platespace 26 def plateclimb 0 42 def strokewidth 1 def 100 200 FREE FONT climbfont showpage quit For more help 520 428 4073 A PostScript point ruler Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets 0 50 100 150 200 200 300 350 Bonus POINT RULE Supplement 4 This code generates a PostScript point ruler for you The ruler is printed diagonally on the sheet so it can be full length and still print on an ordinary A PostScript letter size page Point Ruler 30 212 translate 125 rotate This routine generates the two unit small ticks xstrt 776 def vstrt 200 def tickl 6 def pos xstrt def 436 os vstrt moveto 0 tick1 rlineto pos pos 2 add def 0 setlinewidth stroke repeat This routine generates the ten unit medium ticks newpath pos xstrt def tick2 12 def 88 os vstrt moveto 0 tick2 rlineto pos pos 10 add def 0 20 setlinewidth stroke repeat This routine generates the fifty unit large ticks pos xstrt def tick3 18 def 18 os vstrt moveto 0 tick3 rlineto pos pos 50 add def 0 20 setlinewidth stroke repeat The lettering for all the three digit numbers Note that there are five spaces between each group newpath Helvetica findfont 12 0 0 13 O O makefont setfont vstrt vstrt 32 sub def xstrt xstrt 12 sub def xstrt vstrt moveto 688 168 moveto 1 66 O 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 550 600 650 700 750 800 3850 ashow The single digit zero 734 168 m
26. eq 2 copy abs exch abs exch gt Exchjfjf Q sub numvalues exch def newvalue exch def numvalues dup 2 div cvi dup 2 add index abs newvalue abs It xch if pop numvalues exch def 0 numvalues 1 0 index abs newvalue abs It 1 add exit ifelse for numvalues sub neg 1 add newvalue exch 1 roll ifelse bind def demo remove or alter before reuse 1200 87 sin pop repeat optional host delay simple insertion sort example mark 45 insort 99 insort 22 insort 6 insort 15 insort mygreatvalues exch def mygreatvalues flush simple absolute sorting example mark 45 abinsort 99 abinsort 22 abinsort 6 abinsort 15 abinsort mygreatabsvalues exch def mygreatabsvalues flush sorting an existing array unsortedarray 23 56 73 41 98 22 85 34 2 2 6 71 def mark unsortedarray 4nsort forall 1 sortedresult exch def sortedresult flush quit Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Bonus Supplement 46 B Insertion sorts For more help 520 428 4073 Dont overlook black paper and cover stock for special effects Use Kroy Color for impressive business cards Or even try a super subtle black on black for pricey and upscale ultra yuppy effects Two good sources Paper Plus 800 272 7377 or Paper Direct 800 A PAPERS Postscript strings can inexplicably change all their contents halfway through a long program if you are not extra careful Ferinstance currents
27. exch def xoffset exch def strrx X def msg trrx exch 0 exch put strrx dup eq pop space if cvn mychardict exch get exec exec fill fontsize O get mul 0 001 mul extrakern add xoffset add xoffset exch def forall def nit tiltfactor dup 2 index add div dup 4 1 roll mul 3 1 roll mul def ll demo remove or alter before reuse 200 200 translate tiltfactor 224 def fontsize 38 O O 38 O O def extrakern 1 For more help def O O moveto 95 15 FREE FONT swshow 95 57 FREE FONT swshow 95 99 p FREE FONT swshow showpage quit 520 428 4073 Gonzo Keystone J ustify Don Lancaster s Some alpha release working additions to GONZO13A PS that do extremely high PostScript quality left center or right keystone justification for blurbs ad copy or Secrets point of purchase signs The routines are extremely fast and work in a single or at most two passes Required Persistent download of GONZO13 PTL 219 This GPS Guru PostScript file DEMANDS the persistant download of Bonus GONZO13A PS 219 GUTILITY PS 102 is also recommended Supplement This is a PRELIMINARY alpha collection of some gee whiz add ons and 41 A improvements to GONZO 13A Included are a way to measure actual gonzo line widths a minor amp subtle improvement to the fill justification Gonzo a left keystone justify routine de tothe a center keystone justify routine keystone justify a right keystone justify routine Yo Y
28. filler hole is shown here One or more spent toner drain holes must also get added to the SX cartridge Since the plastic is thin and brittle be sure to use a conical step drill The peel and stick fusion roller wiper pad should also be replaced whenever a cartridge is refilled Additional details do appear in my Ask The Guru reprints volume Il Two sources of refilling supplies are Static Control Components found at 800 488 2426 and World Image at 800 946 1669 lt is often easy to lose your place in a very long PostScript routine To ease this put some obvious and oddball titles on each section such as lt lt lt REAL STUFF STARTS HERE gt gt gt You can do a quick search for STUFF to get to this point in your Postscript code Standardize on the same unusual section names for all of your work and you be home free Restroking the same line path over again in different shades and widths can create numerous useful effects For instance electronic schematic wires can cross over each other if the final line is drawn first as a fat white followed by a narrow black Foreground breaks can be similarly added in a tech illustration or an isometric sketch To draw a pipe a braid or a wire first stroke a fat black followed by a narrower white or gray M M U U The O setlinecap gives you flush ends while a 1 setlinecap gives you rounded pattern ends and a 2 setlinecap gives you ends both boxed and pa
29. font Bakerizing film Roman numerals Calligraphic caps Paper out indicator PS A Visual Approach Applique film Fancy borders Embossing font Error reporting Siggraph Proceedings Serendipitous border Hygrometers A shadow font Beeswax tricks Fast insertion sort Purple Book revised Shortening filelengths Black paper Black stripe fix Binding systems Classic bubble sort Auto tracking artwork Software Developer Kit Vertical font Rotating text Custom kerning Custom envelopes Undefinedfilename Toner Thermography For more help 602 428 4073 To cancel your LaserWriter test page on power up try using serverdict begin O exitserver statusdict begin false setdostartpage end quit true restores it gt But note that this is not nearly as good an idea as it sounds It is best to let Don Lancaster S your LaserWriter run continuously since each reboot trashes the font cache PostScript The test page gives you a quick check on toner and paper quality On the NTX a start page is mandatory to verify that your hard disk has not blown up again Secrets Here s a good everyday scroll routine for certificates etc bline save 0 5 O moveto 0 3 0 6 0 7 0 6 1 O rcurveto stroke grestore def SIA i bloop gsave 0 5 O moveto 1 3 1 3 0 O rcurveto stroke grestore def bcorner gsave 0 0 8 moveto 0 4 0 15 0 1 0 6 O 0 8 rcurveto 3 8 1 8 1 8 3 8 0 O rcurveto 0 2 0 1 0 65 0 4 0 8 O rcurveto strok
30. font ideas The Laserwriter NTX is swift enough to unwind things back to a much earlier Missing case command save level simply by your choosing of an earlier save object The LaserWriter Sandblasting amp etching NT is not Always do keep your saves and restores carefully paired on the NT Printer s shareware MATERIAL OF THE MONTH Your LaserWriter can easily be used for SANDBLASTING and GLASS ETCHING Suitable masks which you can overlay with self stick mylar are available from Hartco 1280 Glendale Milford Road Cincinatti OH 45215 800 543 1340 The pricing is in the 1 per square foot range PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH The free PRINTER S SHAREWARE catalog now does list hundreds of shareware and public domain programs useful for printshops and desktop publishers Most are IBM and most are very low in price From Printer s Shareware located at 5019 West Lovers Lane in Dallas TX 75209 214 350 1902 Here s how to use the above starburst for shorter high energy or other impact messages requires roundpath listing as shown above starburst1 save msg exch def translate 0 01 5 0 74 4 2 4 6 2 3 1 7 1 2 5 3 6 4 3 6 5 5 6 2 8 1 5 5 1 7 5 3 5 5 3 4 6 2 3 0 5 5 1 3 3 6 3 2 6 5 5 2 8 2 5 0 roundpath fill msg stringwidth pop 2 div neg currentfont FontMatrix get 3 get 1000 mul 2 5 div neg moveto msg 1 setgray show grestore def demo remove before use 200 300 translate 10 dup sca
31. for bind def mappingproc 10 sline 72 mul 300 div add O 16 prmtostack 2 copy ybot exch def pop exch sline 72 mul 300 div sub exch dtransform ceiling exch ceiling exch idtransform translate 10 sline 72 mul 300 div add 0 16 pxpheight add prmtostack exch pop ybot sub pxpheight div 1 exch scale bind def demo remove before use 160 700 translate O setlinewidth xo 00 def yo 700 def zo 400 def objrot 30 def 0 0 O pm 50 zrd 300 xrd 50 zrd 300 xrd 20 yrd 50 zrd 20 yrd 20 yrd 300 xrd 20 yrd 0 6 setlinewidth stroke Bookman Demi findfont 45 O O 45 O 0 makefont setfont mark 10 10 setcacheparams pixelproc Q 2 moveto 0 4 O FREE FONT ashow def For more help pxpwidth 300 def pxpheight 35 def 1 O 9 pm pixellineremap showpage 520 428 4073 Adobe timing utilities Don Lancasters Four of the Adobe f dules have b hered h our of the Adobe font timing modules have been gathered together into one PostScript single file for convenience in downloading Secrets Timing modules let you measure how long portions of your code are taking letting you put your speedup techniques where they will do the most good Bonus Su lement PS Adobe 3 0 ExitServer o Title Download Interval Timing Tool Procedures PP Title Download Timing Tool Proced Creator RH 28 A CreationDate J uly 19 1991 Copyright 1991 by Adobe Systems Incorporated Adobe timing EndComments ae utilities Copyright C 1991 by Ad
32. li 726 8 li 726 512 li 726 541 726 570 732 598 ct 744 654 783 662 833 669 ct 833 722 li 550 722 li 550 669 li 635 668 661 634 661 552 ct 661 262 li 272 722 li 19 722 li 19 669 li 62 669 101 650 126 614 ct 126 169 li 123 82 109 57 16 53 ct 16 0 li cp put dup T 4722 64 451 mt 77 540 124 674 236 674 ct 248 674 269 670 270 655 ct 271 641 271 626 271 612 ct 271 117 li 271 105 272 91 267 79 ct 266 70 255 60 247 59 ct 218 56 189 53 159 53 ct 159 0 li 563 O li 563 53 li 538 54 512 52 487 55 ct 449 60 449 69 449 105 ct 449 611 li 449 625 449 640 450 654 ct 451 669 472 673 484 673 ct 597 673 643 544 657 451 ct 707 451 li 692 722 li 31 722 li 15 451 li cp put pop Rootbeer Cup Font Code continued Don Lancaster s here are the nonlinear operators mt li ct and cp are nonlinear replacements for the usual moveto lineto curveto and closepath operators PostSc ri pt Note that ONLY these operators are allowed in a starwars transformation Sec rets special techniques are required for lineto and closepath since if only end points are used these operators may take a short cut straight across To get around this problem each lineto and closepath is optionally split up into numcurvesperlineto pieces Each piece is replaced with a suitable curved cubic spline The higher the value of numcurvesperlineto the better the image will Bonus look but the longer the processing time A numcurvesperlineto value of 4 is reco
33. li 433 436 li 205 436 li 205 606 li 444 606 li 444 739 li 68 739 li cp put dup R 680 68 O mt 205 0 li 205 283 li 399 O li 568 O li 368 273 li 418 284 463 305 499 344 ct 535 384 560 451 560 505 ct 560 574 527 643 474 687 ct 418 734 352 738 282 739 ct 68 739 li cp 205 387 mt 205 606 li 281 606 li 319 607 351 605 383 581 ct 409 562 423 530 423 498 ct 423 467 411 439 389 418 ct 362 392 316 387 280 387 ct cp put dup E 620 68 0 mt 465 0 li 465 133 li 205 133 li 205 303 li 454 303 li 454 436 li 205 436 li 205 606 li 465 606 li 465 739 li 68 739 li cp Y put dup space 280 280 0 mt put dup O 840 415 753 mt 202 753 30 581 30 366 ct 30 152 205 18 415 18 ct 625 18 800 152 800 366 ct 800 581 628 753 415 753 ct cp 41 5 620 mt 553 620 663 508 663 369 ct 663 232 550 115 415 115 ct 280 115 167 232 167 369 ct 167 508 277 620 415 620 ct cp PH put dup N 740 68 O mt 205 O li 205 538 li 515 O li 667 O li 667 739 li 530 739 li 530 199 li 222 739 li 68 739 li co put dup T 420 443 O mt 280 0 li 280 606 li 418 606 li 418 739 li 7 739 li 7 606 li 143 606 li cp PY put pop mt xch fontsize O get mul 001 mul xoffset add exch fontsize 3 get mul 001 mul yoffset add nit moveto def li xch fontsize O get mul 001 mul xoffset add exch fontsize 3 get mul 001 mul yoffset add nit lineto def ct 8 2 roll exch fontsize O get mul 001 mul xoffset add exch fontsize 3 get mul 001 mul yoffset add nit repeat curveto def cp losepath def swshow msg exch def yoffset
34. new SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT KIT is a big box full of all sorts of useful goodies Red blue green and black books Thick specification programming and documentation notebooks Lots of IBM and Mac software fonts Level Il support and more 250 to developers 500 to others From Adobe Systems 1585 Charleston Road Mountain View CA 94039 415 961 4400 FREE FONT Making your artwork auto track awidthshow strings having variable character and space kerning can get tricky autoart save str exch def currentpoint pop xstart exch def spacekern 0 32 charkern O str awidthshow 1 setlinecap currentpoint dropline sub exch pop xstart underrun sub exch moveto str stringwidth pop str length 1 sub charkern mul add 0 str 82 eq 1 addjf forall spacekern mul add underrun add overrun add 0 rlineto linethick setlinewidth stroke grestore def demo remove or alter before reuse NewCenturySchlbk Bolditalic findfont 25 O O 25 O 0 makefont setfont charkern 1 def spacekern 4 def overrun 2 def underrun 7 def dropline 6 def linethick 4 def 100 200 moveto FREE FONT autoart showpage quit The same concept can be used for nearly any text surrounding graphic My superstroke and superinsidestroke utilities From LaserWriter Secrets 426 sure can spruce up your headers in a resume or whatever Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets A Black paper Black stripe fix Binding systems Auto tracking artwork Software Developer Kit F
35. nos and the code must otherwise behave reasonably Use snap2 snap3 etc as needed MATERIAL OF THE MONTH Cosurn offers unique sheet stocks including prismatics foils glow in the darks pearls diffraction gratings and unusual textures Some are LaserWriter compatible and some are not From Coburn 1650 Corporate Road Lakewood NJ 08701 201 367 5511 PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH Graphics ARTS MONTHLY is yet another free printers trade journal Its ads are especially heavy on items like menus invitations announcements tags tickets thermography and similar goodies Graphics Arts Monthly is at 249 West 17th Street New York NY 10011 212 463 6834 FREE FONT A climbing font is easily created by suitable tampering with the second value in the font matrix Here is one possibility 106 45 Hup mul exch dup mul add 1 0 exch sub setscreen Helvetica Bold findfont 30 12 0 30 O 0 makefont setfont strr X def climbfont save msg exch def translate msg Hup 32 ne trr exch 0 exch put O O moveto platewide dup plateclimb mul rlineto O platehigh rlineto platewide neg dup plateclimb mul rlineto closepath gsave 1 setgray strokewidth 2 add setlinewidth stroke grestore gsave 0 8 setgray fill grestore strokewidth setlinewidth stroke platewide 2 div strr stringwidth pop 2 div neg add 10 moveto strr show pop ifelse platespace O translate forall grestore def demo remove before use platehigh 38 def platewide 30
36. notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef space exclam quotedbl numbersign dollar percent ampersand quoteright parenleft parenright asterisk plus comma minus period slash zero one two three four five six seven eight nine colon semicolon less equal greater question at A B C D E F IG H l J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z bracketleft backslash bracketright asciicircum underscore quoteleft a b c d 1e If g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x Iy z braceleft bar braceright asciitilde notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef notdef dotlessi grave acute circumflex tilde macron breve dotaccent dieresis notdef ring cedilla notdef hungarumlaut ogonek caron space exclamdown cent sterling currency yen brokenbar section dieresis copyright ordfeminine guillemotleft logicalnot hyphen registered macron 520 428 4073 degree plusminus twosuperior threesuperior acute mu paragraph For more help Adobe font recoding utilities J Don Lancaster s periodcentered cedilla onesuperior ordmasculine guillemotrigh
37. on persistent downloads appears in the Apple LaserWriter Reference otherwise known as the White Book Call for info Your LaserWriter drum response is somewhat sensitive to the past few images run over it The following black flasher code can be added to the start of any routine that needs exceptionally good blacks or especially uniform grays newpath 0 O moveto 1000 O rlineto 0 1000 rlineto 1000 0 rlineto fill Don Lancaster s copypage showpage PostSc ri pt This does waste toner and paper and of course cannot fix any really serious drum or cartridge defects Secrets Get yourself a 1 4 inch shaft extender from any surplus electronics outfit and add it to the mode switch on your LaserWriter or LaserWriter Plus Then add a large knob Use a two setscrew shaft extender or else file a flat on the shaft Among its many other uses this knob can force a reset by switching from 9600 eos to SPECIAL or vice versa waiting three seconds and switching back But never switch to Appletalk during a reset or you will trash any custom serial settings New climbing font Adding a reset knob Blackflashing secret save snapl exch def mark Coburn sheet stocks all of your wonderful whatever goes here Graphic Arts Monthly cleartomark snapl restore Save and restore tricks The proper way to do a save restore is Your internal routine must end any and all of the dictionaries it starts clear and Initgraphics are also no
38. select a TEXT ONLY output Then use SendPS to actually send the file to your PostScript printer Remember PARAGRAPH ENDS on import TEXTFILE ONLY on export Bonus Supplement IBM PC OR CLONE 7 B This portion submitted by Richard Kern The MECHANICS GUIDE to GONZO13A 1 ASCII text and hard returns In publishing this first book using the gonzo tools and utilities several areas caused an immense amount of grief trying to solve the problem One of those is the issue of hard returns and getting Gonzo to work around them Don Lancaster addressed this in the PULP template by inserting every 200 or so characters This told the colcheck proc to ignore the hard returns Carriage return hassles Now don t like counting characters to find the next 200th one and didn t want to write a macro because found that my word processor was not consistent in the treatment of the files and that would be a waste of time That question of how the word processor was handling files had to be addressed and solved The word processor in question is Word Perfect 5 1 The answer is found in the fundamental nature of word processors By definition a word processor forces the text into a predefined page definition and will insert softreturns and hardreturns as necessary However a text editor does not The cleanest solution is to use a text editor for all document preparation which involves long strings of text On a file with sentences that are
39. stroke grestore gsave 0 5 setlinewidth stroke grestore grestore currentpoint exch stretch add exch newpath moveto forall grestore def demo remove before use AvantGarde DemiOblique findfont 80 0 O 70 O 0 makefont setfont 100 200 moveto FREE FONT doubleoutline showpage quit This works best with larger and bolder fonts and you do have to watch out for miter problems You could repeat the black white stroking process a few more times can give various neon tube effects Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Font and Function Self Adhesive films Sight reading eexec A clip and stroke font Imagewriter emulation 2 way communications For more help 602 428 4073 Don Lancaster s LaserWriter Secrets Bonus Supplement 17 Writing and reading eexec text files For more help 602 428 4073 Reading and writing your own eexec files Here s how to create your own eexec file mask 16 D971 def multl 16 6000 def mult2 16 6E6D def adder 16 58BF def strrx X def char 32 def hexvalues 0123456789ABCDEF def printashex vi vall exch def vall 16 div cvi hexvalues exch 1 getinterval print vall 15 and hexvalues exch 1 getinterval print flush 20 87 sin pop repeat formatcount 1 add 32 eq 41 n print flush 100 87 sin pop repeat if formatcount formatcount 1 add cvi 31 and def def makeeexecfile formatcount O def 4 har mask 8 bitshift or char mask 8 bitshift and not
40. the use of any packet style network that makes receiving error messages tricky or impossible Regardless of your system it is essential that the LaserWriter is idle or solid green before attempting to send any file Later on you may want to add a printing error trapper to help you with your debugging These are available in the Adobe developer tools disk or in my PostScript Beginner Stuff book disk combo package Once your raw PostScript is working to your satisfaction you can import it into most any applications package by converting it into an Encapsulated PostScript or EPS file Full details on these files appear in the free EPS ap note from Adobe Systems at 415 961 4400 To automatically collate your LaserWriter or LaserWriter Plus output just place your printer on a two drawer filing cabinet and open the top drawer The pages will automatically flop over in the right order Don Lancaster s The PostScript command that s used to select landscape printing is PostScript 90 rotate 792 O translate Sec rets This usually will get placed very near the beginning of your PostScript file and should preceed any other translations rotations or scalings To lock things to exact one two three or four pixel horizontal boundaries use one of these commands currentpoint transform round exch round exch itransform moveto currentpoint transform 2 div round 2 mul exch round exch itransform moveto Free order reversal currentpoi
41. to buy sell rent or trade are available through Standard Rate and Data Service at 3004 Glenview Road Wilmette IL 60091 800 323 4588 Since all of those SR amp D directories are expensive you may want to try a library or pick up out of date copies through your local ad agency One leading source of computer related mailing lists is Irv Brechner s Targeted Marketing Box 453 Livingston NJ 07029 201 731 4382 College pennant font Pad printing resources Standard Rate and Data Targeted Marketing lists Nonlinear transform use Feeling pennitant this month Yea team T 611 14 729 m 14 604 235 604 I 235 01 385 01 385 604 598 604 598 729 I p def N 722 68 729 m 68 01 218 01 218 508 I 513 O I 661 O I 661 7291511 729 I 511 228 I 216 729 p def O 778 742 359 m 742 469 702 579 634 650 c 573 713 484 741 391 741 c 298 741 209 713 148 650 c 80 579 40 469 40 359 c 40 249 80 139 148 68 c 209 5 298 23 391 23 c 484 23 573 5 634 68 c 702 139 742 249 742 359 c p 391 108 m 343 108 295 122 257 157 c 209 201 185 280 184 359 c 185 438 209 517 257 561 c 295 596 343 610 391 610 c 439 610 487 596 525 561 c 573 517 597 438 598 359 c 597 280 573 201 525 157 c 487 122 439 108 391 108 c p def F 611 74729 m 74 0 I 224 0 I 224 313 543 313 543 438 224 438 224 604 586 604 586 729 pHdef E 667 79 729 m 79 01 624 0 I 624 125 I 229 125 229 313 578 313 578 438 229 438 229 604 607 604 607 729 I p def R 722 80 0 m 230 0 I 230 28
42. to something Don Lancaster S like a supervisory program PostScript Secrets To pick up Postscript s missing arcsin command try this sequence asin hypot exch def xside exch def hypot dup mul xside dup mul sub sqrt xside exch atan def It gets used this way xside hypotenuse asin Similarly to pick up Postscript s missing arccos command try this sequence Arccos and Arcsin acos hypot exch def yside exch def hypot dup mul yside dup mul sub Instant Printer mag sqrt yside exch atan def Dictionary overflows It gets used this way E Courier font revisited side hypotenuse acos j ys YP Tamperproof Torx bits Both of these may be further simplified by playing directly with the stack MATERIAL OF THE MONTH Those hee hee haw haw funny screws on your LaserWriter or LaserWriter Plus type CX cartridges can easily be removed by using a 10 TAMPERPROOF TORX BIT available as part of the 945B700 set manufactured by EVCO at 3451 Lorna Road Birmingham AL 35236 205 822 5381 J ensen Tools at 602 968 6231 is one stocking source PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH The INSTANT amp SMALL COMMERCIAL PRINTER is a free trade journal aimed at low end printshops and walk in copy houses It does have lots of useful desktop publishing products and ideas in it They are heavily into binding systems tags tickets thermography labels papers cutters drills etc Box 368 Northbrook IL 60062 312 564 5940 RNE WONT
43. true def portrait false or landscape true showfolds true def show the folds showedges true def show the edges edgeweight 0 2 def weight of edge line in points boxgray 0 95 def fill color if used define some working variables similar to previous non PostScript code rr felief 2 div def half relief thickness aa length thick 2 div add def old A bb width thick add def old B cc 4ength thick add def old C dd width thick add def old D ee tabdepth thick 2 mul add def old E ff depth 2 div thick 2 div add def old F gg epth thick 2 mul add def old G hh depth 2 div thick 2 div add def old H ii tabslant def old I jj felief def old J For more help 602 428 4073 Cardboard box layout utility Don Lancaster s pick a non putrid gray 106 45 dup mul exch dup mul add 1 0 exch sub setscreen PostScript foldproc sets the style of any fold markings Secrets foldproc 1 2 O setdash 0 1 setlinewidth stroke def boxproc sets the style of the box itself boxproc dgeweight setlinewidth gsave boxgray setgray fill grestore 1 setlinecap stroke def Bonus setpage decides portrait or landscape orientation Supplement setboxpage landscape 90 rotate 792 O translate if xposn yposn translate scalefactor dup scale def 12 B notchup and notchdown chomp out the side relief pattern notchup 0 ff rr sub rlineto currentpoint exch rr add exch rr 180 O
44. 0 O 100 40 100 roundpath def gsave 80 0 translate gsave 150 O translate gsave 220 O translate gsave 290 O translate gsave 360 O translate gsave 430 O translate path 0 60 O 100 10 gsave 505 0 translate Serendipitous border contest 12 path ss grestore O path ss grestore 5 path ss grestore 10 path ss grestore 15 8 path ss grestore 19 9 path ss grestore 100 10 90 O 90 O 100 40 100 roundpath def 17 5 path ss grestore Fifth row has OUTSIDE LOOP path 0 60 O 100 20 100 20 80 20 80 roundpath def gsave 80 0 translate gsave 150 O translate gsave 220 O translate gsave 290 O translate gsave 360 O translate gsave 420 0 translate 12 path ss grestore O path ss grestore 5 path ss grestore 10 path ss grestore 15 5 path ss grestore 19 9 path ss grestore path 0 50 O 100 20 100 20 80 20 80 roundpath def gsave 495 10 translate 22 path ss grestore Sixth row has OUTSIDE TRIANGLE path 0 60 O 90 20 90 30 70 10 80 10 100 40 100 roundpath def gsave 80 0 translate gsave 150 O translate gsave 220 O translate gsave 290 O translate gsave 360 O translate gsave 430 O translate gsave 505 O translate 10 path ss grestore O path ss grestore 5 path ss grestore 8 path ss grestore 9 9 path ss grestore 11 path ss grestore 16 path ss grestore Seventh row has OFFSET INSIDE LOOP path 0 60 O 90 20 90 20 80 10 80 10 100 40 100 roundpath def gsave 80 0 translate gsave 150 O translate gsave 220 O t
45. 073 Which one of these is you There is a front surface mirror above the cartridge on SX printers such as the NTX Any toner or dirt on the mirror can cause all sorts of subtle print quality problems Carefully clean using a Q Tip Don Lancaster s Postscript s makefont and scalefont operators are slow and burn up VM but PostScript setfontis fast and clean For maximum speed predefine your made or scaled S t fonts but do not use setfont until later ecrets The first thing to try on a VM error is a reboot to clear the machine of earlier downloads Other cures do include writing clean code to start with making use of save restore reclamation or adding extra RAM MATERIAL OF THE MONTH Peel and stick full color prints on thin paper by PHOTOLABELS Prices from 12 VM errors cents each Low cost color for calendars car or house sale sheets displays Photolabel Photolabels 333 Kimberly Drive Carol Stream IL 60188 312 690 0132 ANA Hidden mirrors New Gray Book Starwars Free Font PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH Gienn Reid s new GRAY BOOK THINKING IN POSTSCRIPT gives solid treatment for PostScript as language and lots of programming constructs Addison Wesley Publishing stock 52372 One stocking source is Synergetics 520 428 4073 FREE FON FREE FON FREE FON Here s a new fast and extremely accurate Starwars routine mychardict 10 dict def mychardict dup IF 480 68 0 mt 205 0 li 205 303 li 433 303
46. 1 2 inches wide Open the printer lid after each plate Process the plate in the usual way and run hundreds of real ink copies Don Lancaster s PostScript Let s throw a log or two on the fire 3 Secrets 200 300 translate O setlinewidth O setgray 10 dup scale 11 10 og 10 mul O moveto 0 10 rlineto stroke for 10 10 100 og 10 mul O moveto 0 10 rlineto stroke for 1110 dog 10 mul O exch moveto 20 0 rlineto stroke for showpage quit 2 wide x 1 high log log graph squares o Log graphs Striped font A little known power trick lets you place your entire PostScript program inside String exec trick a string and then execute the string As in mygreat program code cvx exec J PEG Tech Specs Uses include preventing stack overflows on complex procs or bypassing the 6K p input buffer to solve comm hassles The string can be 65K characters long 9 up Post It notes Paper printing plates MATERIAL OF THE MONTH Laser printable 9 UP POST IT NOTES from 3 M Around three cents or so per note Stock 7709 gives you 25 yellow sheets 225 notes for 7 89 list Also available in white and other sizes From most office supply stores or Paper Plus at 213 889 9500 From 3 M in 3 M Center St Paul MN 55144 612 733 5454 PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH The newest J PEG TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION REV 8 shows how to dra
47. 10 0 5 0 px2 for 5 1 10 001 exch 10 0 exch px for 10 2 20 001 20 0 plotr stroke for 2 2 20 001 10 0 exch 20 0 exch px for 0 2 10 001 20 0 10 0 px2 for 10 2 20 001 D exch 20 0 exch px for 20 10 50 001 50 0 plotr stroke for 10 10 50 001 20 0 exch 50 0 exch px for O 10 20 001 60 20 0 px2 for 20 10 50 001 D exch 50 0 exch px for if end hires if used low res starts here 0 4 setlinewidth 0 0 05 0 2001 0 2 plotr stroke for 0 05 0 05 0 2001 exch 0 2 exch px for 0 2 0 1 0 5001 0 5 plotr stroke for 0 1 0 1 0 5001 0 2 exch 0 5 exch px for 0 0 1 0 5001 0 5 0 2 px2 for 0 2 0 1 0 5001 exch 0 5 exch px for 0 5 0 1 1 001 1 0 plotr stroke for 0 1 0 1 1 001 0 5 exch 1 0 exch px for O 0 1 1 001 1 0 0 5 px2 for 0 5 0 1 1 001 exch 1 0 exch px for 1 0 2 2 001 2 0 plotr stroke for 0 2 0 2 2 001 1 0 exch 2 0 exch px for 0 0 2 1 001 2 0 1 0 px2 for 1 0 2 2 001 exch 2 0 exch px for 2 1 5 001 6 0 plotr stroke for 1 1 5 001 2 0 exch 5 0 exch px for 0 1 2 001 6 0 2 0 px2 for 2 1 5 001 exch 5 0 exch px for 5 5 10 001 10 0 plotr stroke for 5 5 10 001 86 0 exch 10 0 exch px for 0 5 5 001 10 0 5 0 px2 for 5 5 10 001 exch 10 0 exch px for 10 10 20 001 20 0 plotr stroke for 10 10 20 001 10 0 exch 20 0 exch px for 0 10 10 001 20 0 10 0 px2 for 10 10 20 001 exch 20 0 exch px for 50 rr stroke 50 50 50 001 0 0001 exch 2000 exch px for def demo remove before use 50 350 translate where dia 500 def how big highresolutio
48. 13 12 0 119995 lineto closepath 80 0 0 0 moveto Level 2 Note that the last moveto is really your x and y character spacing to the next character You can obviously edit the host returned and recorded data to a form of s 4ots of movetos linetos etc def Note that this form is MUCH shorter than towing an entire font around if you just need a few wierd letters for a logo or whatever For more help 602 428 4073 SOME POSSIBLE LEVEL 1 PROBLEMS J Don Lancaster S Yes you can use full messages instead of individual letters on PostScri pt Level 2 But for Level 1 compatibility LIMIT YOUR FONT GRABS TO INDIVIDUAL SINGLE CHARACTERS Secrets PostScript Level 2 dynamically allocates its memory so there is no sane limit to the amount of stuff you can put on your stack at one time B But PostScript Level 1 only allows 512 characters on the stack at once onus If your font path exceeds 450 or so characters you may get a stack Supplement overflow on Level 1 37C Besides an obvious counting here is another way you can check the length of your captured font path Level 2 outlinepath length flush font path grabber In this example a 153 should have been returned to your host screen You ARE using two way comm of course Which tells us that this path is level 1 safe If your captured font path is too long change it to this form mycapturepath 400 or fewer stack items cvx 400 or
49. 34964 407 879 6666 REE FONT The two most common mistakes made when trying to do an outline and fill are 1 failing to select a non putrid gray and 2 failing to clip to the exact outline of each character Here s how its done requires superinsidestroke from LaserWriter Secrets 26 strokeproc 9 0 9 0 3 0 superinsidestroke def sstr X def extrastretch 2 def 106 45 Hup mul exch dup mul add 1 0 exch sub setscreen superfont save msg exch def msg cval exch def save csnap exch def currentpoint sstr O cval put sstr false charpath strokeproc csnap restore exch sstr stringwidth pop add extrastretch add exch moveto forall grestore def demo remove before use 1 setlinecap 1 setlinejoin 100 200 moveto Palatino Bold findfont 40 O O 40 O 0 makefont setfont FREE FONT superfont showpage quit Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Outline and Fill font LaserWriter SC ripoff Quick Printing journal Sneaky bitmap access Knotting and macrame Drum recoating service For more help 520 428 4073 Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Bonus Supplement 27 Knots to You Charlie For more help 520 428 4073 There s knotting to this at all Copyright c 1989 by Don Lancaster and Synergetics 746 First Street Box 809 Thatcher AZ 85552 520 428 4073 All commercial rights reserved Personal use permitted so long as this header remains present and in
50. 5 def strokeproc 20 86 4 0 3 1 2 0 def putitinabox save msg exch def translate msg stringwidth pop msg length 1 sub extrakern mul add 2 div halfmsgwidth exch def cornerrad mark O belowbase neg halfmsgwidth neg belowbase neg halfmsgwidth neg abovebase halfmsgwidth abovebase halfmsgwidth belowbase neg O belowbase neg roundpath strokeproc superinsidestroke halfmsgwidth neg O moveto extrakern O msg ashow grestore def demo remove before use NewCenturySchlbk Bold findfont 24 0 0 24 O 0 makefont setfont 200 300 For more help FREE FONT putitinabox showpage quit 520 428 4073 Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Bonus Supplement 34 Spirograph routine For more help 520 428 4073 Spirograph style PostScript routines PostScript code that emulates the super spirograph toys What you are generating are epocycloids and hypocycloids formed as one wheel rotates around the other Naturally the name Spirograph is a trademarked toy and they get all bent whenever you use it All we really have here is a wheel rotating around a second wheel with some integer ratio set between those two wheel diameters If the outside wheel is smaller in diameter than the inside you will get curley circles if the outside wheel is much larger than the inside you get those cusps The ratios of the wheel diameters decide the number of the repeats per revolution of the inside wheel Make a zillion trips around
51. 55 by such PostScript operators as get put read readline and readstring It is held as an actual string by show widthshow awidthshow stringwidth charpath and getinterval getting FROM 0 255 TO string put integer 0 255 on stack Then str X def str exch O exch put str the string character is now on the stack getting FROM string TO 0 255 put string character on stack Then str exch def str O get the integer 0 255 is now on the stack MATERIAL OF THE MONTH Formx FILM is a self adhesive vinyl film on a carrier that s available in dozens of gloss and matte transparent and opaque colors It laser prints beautifully By printing outlines with your LaserWriter and then cutting those outlines with an X acto knife you can eliminate the need for a 10 000 signmaking machine The same 8 catalog that describes FORM X also is an excellent cheat book for borders and font typography Available in most larger art stores From the Graphic Products Corporation Rolling Meadows IL 60008 312 537 9300 PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH Systempict is the official monthly news publication of the Adobe Developer s Group and is full of inside info on the newest and best PostScript info From Adobe Systems 1585 Charleston Road Box 7900 Mountain View CA 94039 The phone number is 415 961 4400 _ free font Sometimes a few minor changes can dramatically improve on an existing font Here we have taken Bookman Demi Itali
52. 602 428 4073 There is a style of envelope called a French Cut or Square Cut where the flap goes straight across the back instead of being angled These often print much better on the LaserWriter Your local Xerox supplies office is one source Here s how you put a PostScript integer into a text document Put the needed integer on top of the stack Then doa cvs show This converts the integer into a string and then shows it in the current font at the currentpoint One very obvious use is for sequential ticket numbering The reverse slash is a highly useful escape tool which can let you print the unprintable As some examples r prints a carriage return 1261 prints a long dash or 1320 a super long dash while a 1360 from the symbol font prints an Apple logo See the red book for additional codes Note that a reverse slash followed by an octal number will print that character This nicely solves the problem of printing high ASCII codes while you are communicating in strictly 7 bit low ASCII MATERIAL OF THE MONTH Two extremely useful materials from 3M are their SCOTCH COLOR KEY and their SCOTCHCAL LABEL product lines Their Color Key materials include diazo color transparencies intended for color proofing The Scotchcal stuff easily makes durable vinyl and metal self stick labels or dialplates in any of five colors and their reverses From 3 M 3 M Center St Paul MN 55144 612 733 1110 PUBLICATION OF THE
53. 67 Galesburg Laser to litho plates IL 61401 800 447 8192 True perspective font Here s a slow but effective method to put all your PostScript lettering into a whole new true two point 3 D perspective px zz exch def yy exch def xx exch def yo dup yy add div dup xx xo sub mul exch zz zo sub mul def psave zh zz def yh yy def xh xx def def prestore zz zh def yy yh def xx xh def xx yy zz prm def psavel zh1 zz def yh1 yy def xh1 xx def def prestorel zz zh1 def yy yh1 def xx xhl def xx yy zz prm def pm x psave moveto def prm zi exch def yi exch def xi exch def objrot cos xi mul objrot sin yi mul sub xh add objrot sin xi mul objrot cos yi mul add yh add zi zh add px moveto psave def prmtostack zi exch def yi exch def xi exch def objrot cos xi mul objrot sin yi mul sub xh add objrot sin xi mul objrot cos yi mul add yh add zi zh add px def pd x psave lineto def prd zi exch def yi exch def xi exch def objrot cos xi mul objrot sin yi mul sub xh add objrot sin xi mul objrot cos yi mul add yh add zi zh add px lineto psave def xrd Q O prd def xrm O prm def yrd Q exch O prd def yrm Q exch O prm def zrd Q exch O exch prd def zrm Q exch O exch prm def pixellineremap Q 1 pxpwidth 300 mul 72 div cvi sline exch def save snapl exch def gsave mappingproc newpath sline 72 mul 300 div O moveto 0 pxpheight rlineto O O rlineto 0 pxpheight neg rlineto closepath clip newpath pixelproc grestore clear snap1 restore
54. 8 406 288 458 288 494 264 496 215 c 494 162 494 104 496 68 c 498 44 504 22 516 0 c 677 0 1 677 27 661 37 649 46 649 87 c 648 124 646 220 642 250 c 634 316 586 334 561 351 c 610 380 642 403 660 466 c 678 529 663 581 653 613 c 632 692 558 726 485 729 c 80 729 p 230 604 m 433 604 500 604 524 574 524 522 c 533 450 470 413 435 413 c 230 413 I pH def space 250 def fudgel 1 xoffset fudge mul sub mul def m xch fontsize O get mul 001 mul fudgel xoffset add exch fontsize 3 get mul 001 mul yoffset add nit moveto def I xch fontsize O get mul 001 mul fudgel xoffset add exch fontsize 3 get mul 001 mul yoffset add nit lineto def lc 8 2 roll exch fontsize O get mul 001 mul fudgel xoffset add exch fontsize 3 get mul 001 mul yoffset add nit repeat curveto def p losepath def strrx def charproc fill def nlshow msg exch def msg trrx exch O exch put strrx dup eq Pop space if cvn load exec exec charproc fontsize O get mul 0 001 mul extrakern add fudgel xoffset add xoffset exch def forall def ll demo remove or alter before reuse fontsize 72 O O 130 O 0 def extrakern 2 def fudge 1 600 div def nit yyin exch def xxin exch def xxin 350 exch sub 350 div yyin mul xxin exch def 100 200 translate 106 45 Hup mul exch dup mul add 1 0 exch sub setscreen 20 O moveto O 70 rlineto 390 70 rlineto 390 70 rlineto closepath gsave 0 9 setgray fill grestore 2 setlinewidth stroke 12 setlinewidth 35 90 moveto
55. 9 and 25 Do not use a radius exactly the same as your loop or a divo error will result This PostScript answer to CHR x changes any 0 255 integer into its equivalent single ASCII character string chr X dup 0 4 1 roll put def For instance a decimal 76 on the stack changes into a string L MATERIAL OF THE MONTH Two sources for laser printable transparent stick on APPLIQUE FILMS are Saga Stickybak 400 Hwy 169 South S105 Minneapolis MN 55246 800 328 0727 and Stanpat Products 366 Main Port Washington NY 11050 800 333 7826 PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH The siGGRAPH PROCEEDINGS known as annual issue of Computer Graphics are full of advanced graphics secrets algorithms and ideas From ACM 7 West 34th Street New York NY 10001 212 741 4184 or technical libraries SEIE PEOD II Here s an embossed font that looks really great at 600 DPI emboss save msg exch def boss exch def translate currentgray gsave O setgray 0 0 24 boss fheg dup dup 0 86 mul exch 0 5 mul moveto msg show dup 0 5 mul exch 0 86 mul moveto msg show for grestore gsave 1 setgray 0 0 25 boss lup dup 0 86 mul exch 0 5 mul moveto msg show dup 0 5 mul exch 0 86 mul moveto msg show for grestore gsave O O moveto setgray msg show grestore grestore def ll demo remove or alter before reuse 155 400 translate 135 25 lup mul exch dup mul add 1 0 exch sub setscreen 0 9 setgray 0 O moveto 0 54 rlinet
56. BF def strrx X def skip4 4 def readeexecfile urrentfile strrx readhexstring get echar exch def echar mask 8 bitshift or echar mask 8 bitshift and not and char exch def skip4 O ge trrx O char put strrx print flush 15 87 sin pop repeat skip4 skip4 1 add def skip4 skip4 1 add def ifelse mask echar add dup multl mul 16 FFFF and exch mult2 mul 16 FFFF and add 16 FFFF and adder add 16 FFFF and mask exch def pop exit ifelse loop def demo remove before use 1500 87 sin pop repeat Here is the expected host returned result for this demo 0 O moveto 1000 O rlineto O 1000 rlineto 1000 O rlineto closepath fill showpage readeexecfile F983EF00C334F148421509DC30FA053D6DD4273E416E6A2EA64F917B5D20E111L 9F220AF8FC50D545AB51A0D18B6DD7543D27A21CD55887C1C7D51608F6A316EE 8891D92A6E0D09D1D039159DA3A0781E1380B1228C For some strange reason most people and most applications insist on using the seventeenth most putrid LaserWriter gray Use these instead The overall best gray 106 45 Hup mul exch dup mul add 1 0 exch sub setscreen Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets A good india ink wash gray 133 25 dup mul exch dup mul add 1 0 exch sub setscreen One possible reduced repro gray 85 35 up mul exch dup mul add 1 0 exch sub setscreen Both the Laserwriter NT and NTX will print nearly to the edges of a full legal sheet size Older LaserWriters were limited to a smaller legal image area Some new le
57. ED next currentpoint for lict origcp losepath def cp Showlinesascurves icp Prigcp ifelse def licp Jastmt aload pop lict closepath def savecp 2 copy ycp exch def xcp exch def def charproc is what you want to do with each character path You can get really fancy here doing multiple fills litho spreads etc charproc fill def default for a plain old letter twshow causes a string to get imaged in the twixtbezier transform The format is xoffset yoffset MESSAGE twshow twsshow msg exch def yoffset exch def xoffset exch def strrx X def msg trrx exch 0 exch put strrx dup eq Pop space if cvn mychardict exch get exec exec charproc fontsize O get mul 0 001 mul extrakern add xoffset add xoffset exch def forall def extrakern O def default extra character spacing sketchmode lets you map any drawing that consists ONLY of mt li ct and cp operators just like you would a character This operator must be called each time IMMEDIATELY before any sketching is done sketchmode fontsize 1000 O O 1000 O 0 def xoffset O def yoffset O def def THE NONLINEAR PAPER CUP TRANSFORM In general any SYNERGETICS nonlinear transform moves each end of each mt and li and cp and each end and each control point of ct by replacing the x and y values with a new x and y obeying some rule or rules papercup does a nonlinear transform to a vertically oriented segment of a circle papercup
58. International Typeface Corporation at 212 371 0699 Here s some canned PostScript font layout code that you just may want to wrap yourself around pixellineremap 1 pxpwidth 300 mul 72 div cvi sline exch def save snapl exch def gsave mappingproc newpath sline 72 mul 300 div O moveto 0 pxpheight rlineto 0 0 rlineto 0 pxpheight neg rlineto closepath clip newpath pixelproc grestore clear snapl restore for def mappingproc amp line 24 mul dup neg exch pxpwidth 2 div sub canwide div 114 6 mul dup sin canwide 2 div mul exch 3 1 roll add exch cos 1 exch sub tiltangle sin canwide 2 div mul mul translate def demo remove before use 106 45 lup mul exch dup mul add 1 0 exch sub setscreen 200 300 translate tiltangle 20 def canhi 50 tiltangle sin div def canwide 200 def NewCenturySchlbk Bold findfont 30 O O 33 O 0 makefont setfont labelypos 8 def pxpwidth 238 def pxpheight 35 def gsave newpath 1 dup tiltangle sin scale 1 5 setlinewidth O canhi canwide 2 div O 180 arc O O canwide 2 div 180 O arc canwide 2 div neg canhi moveto 0 canhi neg rlineto canwide 2 div 0 moveto 0 canhi rlineto gsave 0 85 setgray fill grestore O canhi canwide 2 div 0 180 arcn stroke grestore 0 canwide 2 div tiltangle sin mul neg labelypos add translate draws the can pixelproc 0 O moveto 0 pxpheight rlineto pxpwidth O rlineto O pxpheight neg rlineto closepath gsave 1 setgray fill grestore 4 setlinewidth stroke 12 6 moveto 1 0 FREE FONT ashow de
59. LD HAND DRAWN LINE This shows you how to draw a fuzzy line hominginstinct 0 3 def how fast does the line get back on track scribbleres 1 def length of shortest scribble ratticity 1 def how erratic is the line to be 1 setlinewidth set width of stroked line 100 200 moveto set initial position of line 200 O scribblerlineto and draw the fuzzy line stroke complete the path B A FAKE STOCK MARKET PRICE HISTORY This shows you how to draw an erratic graph hominginstinct O def how fast does the line get back on track scribbleres 1 def length of shortest scribble ratticity 6 def how erratic is the line to be O setlinewidth set width of stroked line 100 300 moveto set initial position of line 200 Oscribblerlineto and draw the fuzzy line stroke and complete the path C A SLIGHTLY RATTY BORDER This shows you how to draw a slightly ratty border hominginstinct 0 3 def how fast does the line get back on track scribbleres 1 def length of shortest scribble ratticity 0 8 def how erratic is the line to be 1 setlinecap smooth line closures 1 setlinejoin ditto 6 setlinewidth set width of stroked line 150 350 moveto set initial position of line 100 Oscribblerlineto and draw the box bottom 0 133 scribblerlineto right side 100 O scribblerlineto top 0 133 scribblerlineto left side stroke and draw the line For more help 602 428 4073 Don Lanca
60. Let s call the pile of marked and presorted numbers on the stack a HEAP Here is one algorithm for a true insertion sort 1 Find the HALF of the heap the new value belongs in Bonus 2 Find the QUARTER of the heap the new value belongs in 3 Find the EIGHTH of the heap the new value belongs in Supplement ae p 9 46 A n Repeat this process until you know exactly where the value belongs n times for values less than 2 n Insertion n 1 Roll over the needed values to do the correct insertion sorts A true insertion sort theoretically takes n log n time units to sort compared to the ridiculously longer n 2 of a bubble sort Insertions sorts are theoretically among the fastest possible Unfortunately overhead can cut into the efficiency of a true insertion sort especially when working with fewer values For instance a dozen easy comparisons inside a loop might execute considerably faster than one hard comparison outside of a loop Two working insertion sorts are shown below that seem to be a useful compromise between overhead and efficiency While they certainly can be further improved they are fast useful and understandable as is Here is the current algorithm used 1 If there are zero values presorted insert the value 2 If there is only one value presorted compare values and exchange if needed 3 Do the following steps ONLY if there are two or more presorted values a Compare the new value agai
61. MONTH The ve c is an outstanding typography quarterly with all sorts of typesetting secrets and lots of superb graphic ideas in it You are supposed to sound like an art director when you ask for your free subscription From TC U amp Ic at 2 Dag Hammarskjold New York NY 10017 212 371 0699 free font Some subtle highlights can make a font appear like it is rounded or raised This effect does take a lot of trial and error and works best on large display messages Here is one way to do it currentchar X def shinyfont msg urrentchar exch O exch put currentpoint yy exch def xx exch def currentchar false charpath clip xx yy moveto outlinewidth setlinewidth stroke newpath xx shinywidth lightangle 180 sub cos mul add yy shinywidth lightangle 180 sub sin mul add moveto currentchar show initclip newpath xx currentchar stringwidth pop add stretch add yy moveto forall def demo remove before use Bookman Demiltalic findfont 40 O O 40 O 0 makefont setfont stretch O def outlinewidth 3 def shinywidth 2 5 def lightangle 165 def msg free font def 100 200 moveto msg shinyfont showpage quit Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets New shinyfont effect PS integers into text French cut envelopes Reverse slash secrets U amp Ic typography mag Scotchcal Color Key For more help 602 428 4073 Cardboard box layout utility Don Lancaster s PostScript This utility
62. N AND PROFIT Brandenburg Press Boise ID 1964 pages 55 27500 for a thorough but definitely unterse treatment Actually the first half of this is in the red book and the vastly more useful second half follows by simple ninth grade algebra Here s how to do it in PostScript pcurvetol grabs the parameters for a curveto pcurvetol amp copy y3 exch def x3 exch def y2 exch def x2 exch def yl exch def x1 exch def currentpoint yO exch def x0 exch def curveto def this finds x t given t in the range of O to 1 xtt amp 3 x2 3 mul sub x1 3 mul add x0 sub tt 3 exp mul x2 3 mul x1 6 mul neg add xO 3 mul add tt dup mul mul add x1 3 mul xO 3 mul neg add tt mul add x0 add def this finds y t given t in the range of O to 1 ytt 43 y2 3 mul sub y1 3 mul add yO sub tt 3 exp mul y2 3 mul y1 6 mul neg add yO 3 mul add tt dup mul mul add y1 3 mul yO 3 mul neg add tt mul add yO add def pcurveto2 does the same thing for a second and separate curve pcurveto2 amp copy yy3 exch def xx3 exch def yy2 exch def xx2 exch def yy1 exch def xx1 exch def currentpoint yy0 exch def xx0 exch def curveto def xxtt amp x3 xx2 3 mul sub xx1 3 mul add xx0 sub tt 3 exp mul xx2 3 mul xx1 6 mul neg add xx0 3 mul add tt dup mul mul add xx1 3 mul xx0 3 mul neg add tt mul add xx0 add def yytt Yy3 yy2 3 mul sub yy1 3 mul add yyO sub tt 3 exp mul yy2 3 mul yy1 6 mul neg add yy0 3 mul add tt dup mul mul add yy1 3 mul yyO 3 mul
63. ONTH While the best known source of BADGE PARTS is Badge A Minit 348 North 30th Road Box 800 LaSalle IL 61301 815 224 2090 you ll find much better prices at Super Badge and Button Supplies at 2338 West Burnham Street Milwaukee WI 53204 800 328 8272 PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH The orange book and otherwise known as REAL WORLD POSTSCRIPT is newly published by Addison Wesley While not an Adobe book and not even remotely in the same league as the red and blue books this does have interesting and useful material on color separations halftoning and font encoding One source is Synergetics 602 428 4073 Isometric lettering is handy for engineering drawings or open book or menu pages and is extremely fast and simple to do pointsize 40 def Helvetica Narrow Bold findfont pointsize dup 577 mul 0 pointsize O 0 makefont setfont 100 300 moveto 1 O FREE FONT ashow right side lettering pointsize 40 def Helvetica Narrow Bold findfont pointsize dup 577 mul O pointsize O 0 makefont setfont 100 300 moveto 1 O FREE FONT ashow left side lettering showpage quit The remaining ten isometric font positions are handled similarly A complete set of isometric drawing routines appears in my PostScript Show and Tell Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets A Isometric tech font Gettting badge parts Nasty AppleTalk bug Real World PostScript NTX serial to AppleTalk NTX AppleTalk to serial For more
64. PostScript Colorease process Roundpath routine Internaldict FlxProc Secret access password NTX paper jams Pen skip effects Adobe Illustrator A random screen Matrocolor proofing Printing error trapper Ticket Blanks A Copperplate font IBM serial COM ports NTX second side jams Bove amp Rhodes Report Zero Cost LaserWriter nets Isometric tech font Gettting badge parts Nasty AppleTalk bug Real World PostScript NTX serial to AppleTalk NTX AppleTalk to serial Compiled PostScript The Printer s Shopper Non woven interfacing Superinsidestroke font PostScript superstroking Shorter makeready times Outline and Fill font LaserWriter SC ripoff Quick Printing journal Sneaky bitmap access Knotting and macrame Drum recoating service Backup secrets NTX disk blowups Signmaking catalog Laser to litho plates Direct toner printing True perspective font Red and Blue Books Thermal binding tapes Non putrid grays again Brickwall setdash trick Stopping NTX blowups Sneaky 3 D striped font Avoiding paper curl Alphabet Soups book Pixel line remapping Wraparound label font Rubber stamp supplies Random number tricks A rather snotty font Speeding up a logo Redefining showpage Thermal transfer toner Adobe developer stuff Backwards green knob Atrue radial font Die O Perf products See through icons Drawing a no logo Parchment path tool Recharger newsletter Table of Contents c
65. PostScript Secrets Using the font matrix Metalphoto amp Fotofoil Getting repair manuals Subtle caps amp numbers For more help 602 428 4073 Using Persistent Downloads Don Lancaster s y l technique known as persistent downloading can make your LaserWriter far LaserWriter more versatile and powerful With a persistent download you can permanently Secrets put any favorite fonts utilities templates emulators dictionaries or whatever into your printer These routines will stay in place so long as power is applied On a later power down the persistent routines will go away For instance routinely do a persistent download of my Guru Powertool Utilities and my Gonzo Justify on first power up in the morning These will give me my Bonus basic working environment for the rest of the day Supplement To do a persistent download you just start your PostScript textfile with 3 serverdict begin O exitserver Usi As the file is sent to the printer your LaserWriter should respond with sing Persistent exitserver permanent state may be changed 1 Downloads More often than not there will be no page ejected on a persistent download so an end of file a quit a reset or a timeout will be needed Here s a simple persistent downloading example serverdict begin O exitserver blackflash D O moveto 1000 O rlineto O 1000 rlineto 1000 O rlineto closepath fill showpage def quit This is a simple
66. PostScript Secrets Bonus Supplement Pa Three Zero Cost LaserWriter Networks For more help 520 428 4073 Three secret LaserWriter networking schemes LaserWriter LaserWriter NT LaserWriter Plus LaserWriter NTX any serial communicating computer any serial communicating computer In a Type I network two or more serially communicating computers are used Each automatically takes turns using the network and each runs at its own optimum baud rate Either computer can interrogate the LaserWriter status at any time by use of the usual control t command A simple A B switching box can be added to either side to extend the network to any number of computers LaserWriter LaserWriter NT LaserWriter Plus LaserWriter NTX any serial communicating computer In a Type II network one serially communicating computer is routed to the LaserWriter by way of two serial data channels The first channel is a normal 9600 or 19200 baud full duplex comm line The second channel is a hand crafted one way line running at an honest 57600 baud The second channel is used for rapid downloads of known good code font and prolog downloads and for use when book on demand publishing A printing error trapper is needed when using this channel LaserWriter NTX any serial Macintosh communicating or computer Apple Ilgs In a Type Ill network one serial communicating computer gets used along with a Mac or llgs switchable between s
67. UCATION is a free Apple Australia publication that covers classroom uses of LaserWriters for silk screen printing printed circuits on glass etching fabric printing business cards and for color separations Through App e Computer at 20525 Mariani Avenue Cupertino CA 95014 408 996 1010 mo BA Backwards printing can be most handy for store decals auto stickers or any other look through the window uses Here are two ways to do it To completely reverse everything on a portrait page 612 0 translate 1 1 scale use 792 O for landscape To only reverse some lettering AvantGarde Demi findfont 40 O O 40 O 0 makefont setfont 300 200 moveto This is a test show showpage quit When you are just reversing some lettering be sure to start at the right end For more help with your positioning 602 428 4073 Don Lancaster s LaserWriter Secrets Bonus Supplement 1 How to write and use your own raw PostScript code For more help 602 428 4073 Writing and using raw PostScript code The key secret to writing and using your own custom PostScript code is to use an ordinary word processor and then set up some two way comm environment between your printer and host Here s some machine specific details On an Apple Ile or the Apple IIgs use AppleWriter driving a Super Serial Card Use your glossary to do a Q I modem receive immediately after sending any file this gives you a half duplex com
68. add 1 exch div dia 2 div mul dup O exch 0 360 arc def creates a real part circle path xx dup O eq Pop 0 001 if 1 exch div dia 2 div mul O exch dup O 360 arc def creates a positive imaginary circle path xx dup O eq Q O moveto dia 2 div O lineto 1 exch div dia 2 div mul neg O exch dup neg 0 360 arc ifelse def creates a negative imaginary circle path Discussion Various regions on the chart have different resolutions Using irregular PS clipping to isolate these areas would be extremely slow especially in larger sizes Instead starting and ending angles are used To find these angles draw a triangle consisting of the circle centers and their intersection This is a RIGHT triangle because of the orthogonality whose sides are 1 1 r and 1 x Draw a second and COMPLEMENTARY right triangle below it whose arms are the distances from the circle centers to the origin Play with the math for a while and an angle of 2 atan x 1 or its complement pops out plotr jj exch def real exch def jj 1 real add atan 2 mul ang exch def 1 1 real add div dia 2 div mul dup O exch ang dup neg arcn def creates a path from the intersection of the negative x to the postive x intercept plotr2 jj2 exch def jj1 exch def real exch def jj1 1 real add atan 2 mul sang exch def jj2 1 real add atan 2 mul eang exch def 1 1 real add div dia 2 div mul dup O exch sang eang arcn def creates a path from the intersection of the first x to the second x plot
69. age quit Notes For maximum speed use the HIGHEST res value and the LOWEST maxang values you can These values also set your smoothness end resolution Later for ultimate speed on a design you want to reuse send the curve through FUZZYBEZ PS and convert it to real splines This will DRAMATICALLY speed things up The missing case command in PostScript is easily faked roc0 fproc1 procn exch get exec options O n per stack integer A zero on the stack does proc0O and so on Extending this to a 256 element array lets you redefine any ASCII character for any action Don Lancaster S PostScript M roundpath routine can also be used for starburst effects just by going to a Secrets very small radius roundpath rpdata exch def rprad exch def rpdata length 1 sub cvi rppoints exch def rpdata O get rpdata 1 get moveto 2 2 rppoints 2 sub rpvalue exch def 0 1 3 fpdata exch rpvalue add get for rprad arcto pop pop pop pop for rpdata rppoints 1 sub get rpdata rppoints get lineto def starburst demo remove before use 200 300 translate 10 dup scale 0 01 5 0 74 42 4 6 2 3 17 12 5364 3 6 5 5 6 2 8 1 5 5 1 7 5 3 5 5 3 4 6 2 3 0 5 5 1 3 3 6 3 2 6 5 5 2 NT save level bug 8 2 5 0 roundpath fill showpage quit Each point on the burst is shown as an x y pair in the roundpath array To change the points on the star first print up the rubbergrid of Secrets 6S More on roundpath Starburst
70. amming Topics include emulators page layouts error handling scanning debugging and file handling While both handy and useful it simply is not in the same league as the essential red and blue books Published by Addison Wesley One stocking source is Synergetics Box 809 Thatcher AZ 85552 520 428 4073 PRE TONT The charpath and the eofill PostScript font operators can often be combined to get some interesting and useful reversal effects str X def mafiafont Str exch O exch put str stringwidth pop spread add inset add xwidth exch def spread neg baseheight neg rmoveto 0 cementheight rlineto xwidth O rlineto O cementheight neg rlineto xwidth neg O rlineto spread baseheight rmoveto str false charpath eoclip currentpoint fill newpath exch spread add exch moveto initclip forall def demo remove before use AvantGarde Demi findfont 50 O O 50 O 0 makefont setfont spread 2 def inset 5 def cementheight 28 def baseheight 10 def 100 300 moveto FREE FONT mafiafont showpage quit And here s how to handle a single split letter Palatino Bold findfont 100 O O 100 O 0 makefont setfont 100 400 moveto gsave 100 0 rlineto 0 110 rlineto 100 O rlineto closepath 2 setlinewidth stroke grestore 0 110 rlineto 100 110 rlineto 100 O rlineto 8 21 rlineto H false charpath eoclip fill showpage quit For more help 520 428 4073 Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Bonus Supplement 16 Using t
71. an A Printer s Ink book one picked up each time off your NTX hard disk To save time while book on demand printing page files persistently download major fonts before starting Persistent downloads MATERIALS OF THE MONTH Sources of MENU COVERS include Printer s Shopper at 800 854 2911 H Risch located at 716 232 6938 Menu Graphics found at 800 321 9482 Menu Cover at 716 856 5430 and MenuTech found at 800 535 MENU PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH A free hardback book titled PRINTERS INK A SELECTION gives you bunches of real insider secrets to smaller quantity book publishing From Thomson Shore Box 305 Dexter MI 48130 313 426 3939 FREE FONT Here s a free headliner font that automatically centers itself inside of a fancy and correctly sized box for you a non putrid gray 106 45 up mul exch dup mul add 1 0 exch sub setscreen roundpath rpdata exch def rprad exch def rpdata length 1 sub cvi rppoints exch def rpdata O get rpdata 1 get moveto 2 2 rppoints 2 sub rpvalue exch def 0 1 3 fpdata exch rpvalue add get for rprad arcto pop pop pop pop for rpdata rppoints 1 sub get rpdata rppoints get lineto def superinsidestroke ave clip sssnap exch def sscmd exch def 0 2 sscmd length 2 div cvi 1 sub 2 mul aposn exch def gsave sscmd aposn get 2 mul setlinewidth sscmd aposn 1 add get setgray stroke grestore for sssnap restore newpath def abovebase 26 def belowbase 9 def cornerrad 8 def extrakern 0
72. and demo shows you how to lay out cardboard packaging boxes and mailers Secrets Besides total programmability automatic thickness compensation is included uncomment and use these debugging and power tools ONLY when GONZO15A PTL has been persistently downloaded These tools also VASTLY Bonus improve the speed and convenience of any related graphics layout Supplement gonzo begin 12 A ps util 1 begin printerror nuisance begin Cardboard box layout PS Adobe 3 0 EPSF3 0 Title Layout tools for a type 4001 box Creator Don Lancaster and Synergetics 602 428 4073 CreationDate May 1 1993 BoundingBox Full page varies with selected size EndComments 100 dict Boxdict exch def Boxdict begin systemdict setstrokeadjust known rue setstrokeadjust if This is the layout for a type 4001 box Other boxes will be alike but different somehow inches 72 mul def set dimensional units length 2 inches def the length of the box width 1 inches def the width of the box depth 1 5 inches def the depth of the box thick 0 10 inches def the thickness of the box material relief 0 0315 inches def total flap relief tabdepth 0 250 inches def depth of sealing tab tabslant 0 200 inches def tab slant offset xposn 1 0 inches def lower lefthand corner x position on page yposn 1 5 inches def lower lefthand corner y position on page scalefactor 1 def scale of final drawing landscape
73. appeared elsewhere Despite ts name much of the column s coverage applied to just about any PostScript speaking laser printer and to desktop publishing in general always tried to let the readers in on the real inside stuff things that Apple or Adobe or Canon or random printing equipment salesmen definitely did not want you knowing about Secrets such as reducing your toner costs by 15 1 to the 0 3 cents per page range completely eliminating expensive AppleTalk cables using decent grays instead of the seventeenth most putrid gray that most canned programs force on you those full color Kroy and Omnicolor processes methods to recoat SX cartridge drums capturing bitmaps back to the host sight reading eexec files any patient seventh grader can do this finding useful service manuals and repair parts the hidden WEM imagewriter emulator workarounds for the NTX hard disk blowup insidiousities sources of 1200 LaserWriters the exact pixel locks for dropout free gray grids working with random numbers and screens unique sources for badges stamps barcodes bumperstickers and padding compound useful binding systems and great heaping bunches more What you have here are all the original LaserWriter Corner columns rewritten reset and fully upgraded in a new layout with a complete index and a new levelling of the topics to bring everything up to date Incidentally by the term LaserWriter mean a LaserWriter LaserWriter Plus
74. arcn O ff rr sub Cardboard neg rlineto def box layout notchdown 0 ff rr sub neg rlineto currentpoint exch rr sub exch rr O 180 arcn O ff rr sub rlineto def drawbox4001 draws the box Details will change with other shapes drawbox4001 fewpath 0 O moveto aa rr sub 0 rlineto notchup bb jj sub O rlineto notchup cc jj sub O rlineto notchup dd rr sub O rlineto lower left corner first flap first notch second flap second notch third flap third notch fourth flap O ff rlineto right bottom tabdepth tabslant rlineto end tab O gg tabslant 2 mul sub rlineto tabdepth neg tabslant rlineto O hh rlineto right top dd rr sub neg 0 rlineto fourth flap notchdown third notch cc jj sub neg O rlineto third flap notchdown second notch bb jj sub neg O rlineto second flap notchdown first notch aa rr sub neg 0 rlineto first flap O ff gg add hh add neg rlineto left end boxproc and draw it def showfolds4001 draws the bend lines when requested showfold4001 save take snapshot O ff moveto lower edge aa bb add cc add dd add O rlineto O ff gg add moveto aa bb add cc add dd add O rlineto upper edge aa ff moveto left fold O gg rlineto aa bb add ff moveto center fold O gg rlineto aa bb add cc add ff moveto right fold O gg rlineto aa bb add cc add dd add ff moveto tab fold O gg rlineto For more help foldproc draw it 602 428 4073 grest
75. aserWriter NT buy a NEC LC890 instead Good pricing on the NT and NTX is found at 818 376 1662 while LC890 pricing is found at 800 221 7774 Actually there is knotting to this at all If you are fit to be tied just see the detailed example and listing found on the next page Accessing PostScript bitmaps can be tricky but often will ridiculously speed up certain jobs Three scams that can work do include 1 use copypage instead of showpage and erase only the stuff that changes for flyers shipping labels or business letters 2 Make your logo or other slow executing routine into a font and let the font cache convert it into a bit map for you very handy for 12 up business cards and 3 The font caches on a NTX can be read from the FC subdirectory of your hard disk and then be host reprocessed MATERIALS OF THE MONTH An sx DRUM HARD RECOATING SERVICE is now available The early reports claim eight and even nine SX reloads Contact Arlin Shepard at Lazer Products 303 792 5277 for full details A great SX and CX PIN PULLING TOOL is available as the AXP43 001 GlompenStractor from Don Thompson at 714 855 3838 Two fairly low cost and stocking sources of BRAND NEW SX CARTRIDGES are 800 228 6637 and 603 669 1641 PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH Quick PRINTING is a free trade journal for the instant printing folks chock full of unusual material and supply sources Coast Publishing 1680 SW Bayshore Blvd St Lucie FL
76. ashow msg exch def msg trrx exch 0 exch put strrx dup eq pop space if cvn load curchar exch def curchar O get cwide exch def curchar 1 get nlashow msg exch def msg trrx exch O exch put strrx dup eq pop space if cvx exec exec charproc fontsize O get mul 1000 div extrakern add xoffset add xoffset exch def forall def charproc amp troke def does what you want to your path demo remove before use fontsize 72 00 72 0 0 def font matrix xoffset 100 def starting horizontal position yoffset 200 def starting vertical position extrakern 3 def additional spacing between characters FREE FONT nlashow showpage quit Note that this method is much faster than pixel line remapping but you do have to previously capture the plaintext font path of every character you want to use We ll be seeing several new examples of nonlinear transformations in future supplements For now why not dream up some on your own MATERIALS OF THE MONTH Some sources of those PAD PRINTERS that can print on just about anything include Barton Nelson 800 821 6697 Basco 818 718 1506 Enercon 414 255 6070 Print Central 314 364 0339 Service Tectonics 417 263 0758 and Don Lancaster s Wagner 314 257 3908 A good summary of pad printing appeared in the April PostScri t 1989 issue of Screen Printing magazine 513 421 2050 p Secrets PUBLICATIONS OF THE MONTH The best sources for MAILING LISTS
77. aster s reprogramming the ports every time you do or creative use of the new and unique sethardwareiomode command Arrgh PostScript Secrets PostScript s save and restore commands are not perfect Any strings you modified with put will stay modified after a restore While really a bug you can use this crack to pass variables messages or whatever beyond a saved context Adobe is violently opposed to you doing this The flying wedge is a layout trick that dates back to the linotype days It is ER used to let random text exactly fill a vertical area The white space you see A Mafia font above and below all the horizontal gray bars is a PostScript variable that will The green book automatically stretch or compress the text to fit exactly one Computer Shopper Save Rest b column Sneaky eh what The code appears on the next page aver estore QUJ Padding compond Communications bug Pappinc COMPOUND is some cheap glop that comes in a jar You use it for forms invoices prescription and note pads calenders and anywhere else you want a light use or temporary binding Normally available in white and red you can add food coloring or other dye to get any color One source is Paper Plus 3820 South Palo Verde 108 Tucson AZ 87514 520 889 9500 PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH The GREEN BOOK otherwise known as PostScript Language Program Design is the third book in the Adobe series on all the basics of PostScript progr
78. atrix note nulldevice renderbands Several other obvious and device specific operators are also disallowed such as initializedisk The setscreen and settransfer operators are allowed only if you carefully do save and restore the original screen and transfer functions While the showpage operator still is allowed in an EPS file the importing program is supposed to be intelligent enough to ignore it The rules here are simple Don t do anything that messes up the importing program Do make sure the importer can pick up exactly where it left off What have just described is the textfile form of an EPS file These usually will be host independent It is also possible to include an EPS file into a device specific host program This can be done to allow such things as non PostScript screen images and other host specific code Examples of these would include EPSF and PICT screen files on the Mac and TIFF files on IBM For more help Once again get the original EPS specs before actually using any EPS files 520 428 4073 The straight through paper path on your LaserWriter NT or NTX prints faster and is less likely to jam Whenever possible reverse your page order with software rather than using the sequence reversing top exit tray This gets very important on long double sided printing jobs lr you get a thin and persistent vertical white stripe in your LaserWriter or LaserWriter Plus copies that does not change when you change cartr
79. ber 79 pp 122 125 Apple has issued an interim version 3 0 ROM upgrade for the NTX This prints text up to 20 faster fixes the worst of the SCSI bugs and does improve the emulations but is not PostScript Il Around 120 from your Apple dealer Note that version 3 0 requires Mac Font Utility version 2 0 Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Here s a useful sticker routine makeasticker 860 exch div ang exch def 2 div trough exch def 2 div crest exch def newpath O crest moveto O ang 360 ang sub 0 001 add posn exch def posn ang 2 div add dup sin trough mul exch cos trough mul lineto posn ang add dup sin crest mul exch cos crest mul lineto for def demo remove or alter before final use gsave 300 100 translate 100 50 10 makeasticker stroke grestore showpage quit See Supplement 405 for several unique variations on this sticker theme A keycap free font Note that the simplest way to pick up 600 DPI laser printing is to work double Revised Red Book II size and then photoreduce your jiffy printed copies Useful sticker routine NTX ROM upgrade 3 0 MATERIAL OF THE MONTH Hard coated SX drums New HARD COATED SX REPLACEMENT DRUMS are becoming readily available and are good for as many as a dozen reloads without any problems The leading source of these imported drums is CopyMate Products at 20F Robert Pitt Drive Monsey New York 10952 800 457 0074 Two sources of new hard drums that
80. blems can be eased with several of these tricks Keep the humidity between 20 and 38 percent using a dehumidifier if necessary Use your straight through paper path on the NT or NTX Keep paper wrapped and flat on steel shelves until one day before use then open and acclimatize for 24 J hours Try pressure clamping or refrigeration Replace the NT or NTX pickup Don Lancaster S rollers and pads every 25 000 copies But short grain paper is a no no PostScript Secrets Here s some uses for the PostScript random number generator rand 32768 div 65536 div for fp 0 0000 to 0 9999 k rand 32768 div 65536 div mul floor for integer O to k 1 k rand 32768 div 65536 div mul floor 1 add for integer 1 to k rand 24 bitshift for integer O to 127 But note that the faster rand 127 and does not work lts very short sequence suggests something flakey about Adobe s alogrithm Why is this so Avoiding paper curl Alphabet soups book Wraparound label font MATERIAL OF THE MONTH Laserwriter compatible RUBBER STAMP SUPPLIES are now available retail from Grantham s at 218 773 0331 in moderate quantites through R A Stewart at Rubber stamp supplies 213 690 4445 or from the Merigraph manufacturer at 312 961 4065 Random number tricks PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH The free ALPHABET SOUPS typeface directory that is both a good typography source book and an excellent soup cookbook Be certain to try the Roquefort soup From
81. br mt ctal 2 div neg circtr li ctal 2 div circtr li ctal 2 div circbr li cp stroke if hscaleadjust midgrid def showcupgrid ircbr 1 circtr posn exch def ctal 2 div hscaleadjust div dup neg posn mt posn li O setlinewidth stroke for ctal 2 div hscaleadjust div neg 1 ctal 2 div hscaleadjust div 0 01 add posn exch def posn circbr mt posn circtr li stroke for if grestore This adjusts the position of the following artwork so that O O is in the lower lefthand cup corner posnadjust Ascaleadjust mul ctal 2 div sub exch circbr add exch def THE ACTUAL ROOT BEER CUP ART STARTS HERE your artwork is done on a simple grid with O O at the lower left note that ONLY mt li ct and cp operators are allowed because of the nonlinear transformation you can either use only these operators or else use a font grabber the pathforall operator or the ADOBE DISTILLERY to do this First we draw some very long horizontal lines numcurvesperlineto 16 def showlinesascurves true def sketchmode 0 6 setlinewidth O 20 5 mt 47 20 5 li stroke 0 2 setlinewidth O 1 5 mt 47 1 5 li stroke add a rounded box label graphic this rounded box has been created with my gonzo utilities and then compiled with DISTILL PS sketchmode 0 4 setlinewidth numcurvesperlineto 8 def 12 5 4 mt 6 5 4 li 5 67157 4 5 0 4 67163 5 0 5 5 ct 5 16 5 li 5 0 17 3284 5 67157 18 6 5 18 ct 18 5 18 li 19 3284 18 20 17 3284 20 16 5 ct 20 5 5 li 20 4 67163 19 3284 4 18 5 4 ct cp g
82. c and have fattened it a tad and then de harshened it by a slight rounding It was then filled in with a secret dense gray A fat white pre stroking creates automatic baseline breaks a technique very useful for letterheads Like so outlineshow gsave msgl exch def translate 0 O moveto 1 setlinecap 1 setlinejoin msgl tr exch O exch put gsave str false charpath gsave 4 setlinewidth 1 setgray stroke grestore gsave 0 99 setgray fill grestore 1 setlinewidth stroke grestore currentpoint exch str stringwidth pop add kern add exch moveto forall grestore def str X def kern 1 def demo remove before use Bookman Demiltalic findfont 50 O O 50 O 0 makefont setfont 135 25 up mul exch dup mul add 1 0 exch sub setscreen 200 400 moveto 20 5 rmoveto 200 0 rlineto 1 setlinecap gsave 4 5 setlinewidth stroke grestore gsave 0 99 setgray 3 setlinewidth stroke grestore newpath 200 400 free font outlineshow showpage quit Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Font characters Dictionary order Redefining procs Line breaker font The FORM X Films Adobe Systemdict For more help 602 428 4073 There is a serious communications bug in the LaserWriter NTX If you set the serial baud rate to a higher value it will stay there only until you try to use AppleTalk Use of AppleTalk resets all the serial ports back to default values Yes even on power down Solutions include not ever using AppleTalk at all or Don Lanc
83. ck 4 1 roll for 4 array astore Create and define new BBox array FontBBox exch def FontName 1 index def currentdict definefont pop end end For more help bdef 520 428 4073 Adobe font recoding utilities Don Lancaster s H Times RomanISO ISOLatin1Encoding Times Roman RE PostScri pt Times RomanisO findfont 12 lan prest Secrets 100 200 moveto Times RomanISO show MyEncoding StandardEncoding 256 array copy dup 0 FilledBox put Bonus dup 1 NotFilledBox put Supplement dup 65 NotFilledBox put dup 165 infinity put 14 C def MyCharNames 3 FilledBox Font recoding NotFilledBox utilities infinity def MyCharsBBox 25 100 900 900 def MyTimes Roman MyCharsBBox MyEncoding MyCharNames Times Roman REA MyTimes Roman findfont 12 scalefont setfont 100 100 moveto A Y show showpage Copyright C 1991 by Adobe Systems Incorporated All rights reserved filename iso ps date created 24 feb 91 last updated 6 aug 91 author ross a jeynes purpose Conditionally define the ISO Latin1 Encoding vector without using VM if the vector already exists This saves about 4K of VM This conditional definition technique can be applied to other types of composite objects as well tmpvm vmstatus pop exch pop def SkipISO ISOLatinlEncoding where pop true false ifelse def SkipISO dontload save def if ISOLatin1Encoding notdef notdef
84. command but may be tricky otherwise The bug did get fixed in Version 47 and higher The patch works by removing two pixel lines from each page which exactly compensates for the page to page creep When you are refilling your toner cartridges a metallized write protect tab from a floppy disk makes a quick and dirty tape seal for both the filling hole and the holding tank hole But a far better solution is to use a nickle plastic Caplug from either the Caplug people at 716 876 9855 or from Niagra Plastics at 814 868 3671 Free samples are usually available Should you be sending multiple piece files to your LaserWriter and need more than 30 seconds between files for disk loading and processing just use this command to temporarily extend the default wait timeout serverdict begin O exitserver statusdict waittimeout 180 put The 180 here is good for 180 seconds or three minutes You can change it to anything you like But avoid ever using the infinite time waittimeout O put command especially on a network MATERIALS OF THE MONTH Two of the leading sources of SILK SCREEN SUPPLIES include Advance Process Supply at 400 North Noble Avenue Chicago IL 60622 and the Southern Sign Supply at 127 Roesler Road Glen Burnie MD 21061 301 768 8600 PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH SCREEN PRINTING is a fat and slick monthly magazine serving the silk screen industry There s lots of new uses and opportunities for your LaserWri
85. creating and modifying fonts Recently revised Sybex 2021 Challenger Drive 100 Alameda CA 94501 800 227 2346 One stocking source is Synergetics found at 602 428 4073 Also available via GEnie PSRT email FREE FONT Nuff fancy stuff Here s a simple shadow font 200 100 translate 106 45 Hup mul exch dup mul add 1 0 exch sub setscreen 0 8 setgray AvantGarde Demi findfont 40 0 32 30 0 0 makefont setfont O O moveto FREE FONT show the shadow O setgray AvantGarde Demi findfont 40 0 0 40 O 0 makefont setfont 0 O moveto FREE FONT show the message showpage quit If your font array is a b c d e f then a sets the width b the climb c the lean d the height e the xshift and f the yshift A negative d prints upside down The negative a prints backwards Always use a non putrid gray and print the shadow first This eases problems on characters that go slightly below the baseline Avoid all lower case descenders Fancier versions of this code can set a shadow angle and then use trig to automatically pick the right font matrix for you Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Hygrometers A shadow font Fast insertion sort Purple Book revised Shortening filelengths For more help 520 428 4073 PostScript insertion sorts Don Lancaster s An insertion sort is usually MUCH faster than a classic bubble sort Values are PostScript placed one at a time into an already presorted array Secrets
86. currentshade setgray fill grestore stroke restore def yzrect zdis exch def ydis exch def save zdis zrd ydis yrd zdis neg zrd closepath gsave currentshade setgray fill grestore stroke restore def pbox zdis exch def ydis exch def xdis exch def save xdis zdis xzrect restore save ydis zdis yzrect restore save zdis zrm xdis ydis xyrect restore def xyrect ydis exch def xdis exch def save ydis yrd xdis xrd ydis neg yrd closepath gsave currentshade setgray fill grestore stroke restore def And here are two of the magic brick routines The setdash operator is set on the fly to one brick high in the perspective space xzbrickwall save zbri exch def xbri exch def xbri brickwide mul 0 O prm O 1 zbri 1 sub cvi save pop xbri brickwide mul neg O brickhi prm xbri brickwide mul 0 O prd stroke grestore for xbri brickwide neg mul O O prm O 1 xbri 1 sub cvi save pop brickwide O zbri brickhi mul neg prm currentpoint exch pop cph exch def 0 O zbri brickhi mul prd cph currentpoint exch pop sub abs zbri div mark exch O setdash stroke grestore for xbri brickwide neg mul O O prm O 1 xbri 1 sub cvi save pop brickwide O zbri brickhi mul neg prm currentpoint exch pop cph exch def O O zbri brickhi mul prd cph currentpoint exch pop sub abs zbri div dup mark exch exch setdash stroke grestore for def yzbrickwall gsave zbri exch def ybri exch def O ybri brickwide mul O prm O 1 zbri 1 sub cvi save pop 0 ybri brickwide mul neg brickhi prm 0 ybri b
87. d StoneSans Semibolditalic Symbol ThompsonQuillscript Times Bold Times Bolditalic Times Italic Times Roman TrumpMediaeval Bold TrumpMediaeval Bolditalic TrumpMediaeval Italic TrumpMediaeval Roman UniversityRoman WeddingText ZapfDingbats ZapfChancery Mediumitalic Another way to express the logical exclusive or is or but not and Here s one method to handle PostScript s missing eor operator a b ora b and not and leaves a eor b on stack Don Lancaster s This routine is handy to generate simple spirals and several other rather useful PostScript art effects Secrets spiral save pitch exch def exch dup startangle exch def 360 div add 360 mul endangle exch def radius exch def translate radius startangle cos mul radius startangle sin mul moveto startangle res endangle posn exch def radius posn cos mul radius posn sin mul lineto currentpoint stroke moveto radius radius pitch 360 div res mul add def for grestore def demo remove before use sequence is xpos ypos radius startangle turns pitch 1 setlinecap 2 setlinewidth res 5 def 300 400 80 6 5 4 spiral showpage quit Autoboxing font The res value does trade the smoothness of your curve against your processing PostScript spiral time For some real surprises try using res values of 60 and 144 Exclusive or procs Menu cover sources Note that a persistently downloaded font accesses a few seconds faster th
88. d disk access new PostScript commands and more One stocking source is Synergetics Box 809 Thatcher AZ 85552 602 428 4073 FREE FON FREE FOWN FREE FON Everyone wants star wars so here is the genuine item pixellineremap Q 1 pixelprocheight 300 mul 72 div cvi scanlinenumber exch def save snapl exch def mappingproc newpath 0 scanlinenumber 72 mul 300 div moveto pixelprocwidth O rlineto O 72 300 div rlineto pixelprocwidth neg O rlineto closepath clip newpath pixelproc clear snapl restore for def mappingproc ixelprocwidth 2 div O translate tiltfactor pixelprocheight mul dup scanlinenumber add div dup scale pixelprocwidth 2 div neg O translate def demo remove before use AvantGarde Demi findfont 40 O O 40 O 0 makefont setfont pixelproc 5 5 moveto 0 134 rlineto 222 0 rlineto O 134 rlineto closepath stroke 20 15 moveto FREE FONT show 20 57 moveto FREE FONT show 20 99 moveto FREE FONT show def pixelprocheight 140 def pixelprocwidth 230 def tiltfactor 8 def the smaller the flatter For more help 100 200 translate pixellineremap showpage 602 428 4073 The FixProc routine that s buried in internaldict is the key to showing very small typography It accepts a pair of cubic splines on the stack and then makes them weaker for intermediate sizes and degenerates them into lines for even smaller sizings Here s how to read it Don Lancaster s 1183615869 internaldict begin 1183615869 internaldict F
89. d y1 3 mul yO 3 mul neg add tt mul add yO add def plotdots is used in the demo to show the position of t along the curve In general t changes more quickly along the more bent portions numpoints 100 def default usually fast and 0 1 percent accurate dotsize 0 12 def default plotdots Q 1 numpoints 1 sub div 1 00001 tt exch def xtt ytt dotsize 0 360 arc For more help fill for def 520 428 4073 Bezier curve length J Don Lancaster s bezierlength finds the length of a Bezier curve routed through pcurveto and PostScri t leaves that length on the stack It works by breaking the curve up into straight p line approximate segments Secrets bezierlength foldx x0 def oldy yO def blength O def O 1 numpoints 1 sub div 1 0001 tt exch def xtt ytt newy exch def newx exch def newx oldx sub dup mul newy oldy sub dup mul add sqrt blength add blength exch def oldy newy def oldx newx def for Jdef Bonus demo remove or alter before reuse Supplement 100 200 30 setgrid 10 10 showgrid Draw a pretty 20 x 20 grid 35 B Draw a desired single Bezier curve saving key values Bezieri th ezier len 0 setlinewidth J O O moveto 1 18 9 8 10 10 pcurveto your Bezier curve goes here stroke Show dots for incremental value of Bezier z from O to 1 numpoints 23 def pick the number of segments plotdots and plot them Find the approximate length of the curve and report to host
90. de and longitude The code is presented in several sections The first is a generalized new nonlinear transformer intended primarily for PS level Il use The second includes spherical drawing utilities to draw the outline and latitude and longitude lines The third is a compiled example of how captured font paths can be shown on level machines Remember the following restrictions when using level I The maximum number of elements on the stack is around 500 the maximum path length is around 1500 and the font lockout generates an error message if you try to use charpath followed by pathforall Note also that the distillery traps out charpaths BE SURE TO CLEAR THIS FLAG IF YOU DO NOT HAVE LEVEL II AVAILABLE usinglevel2 false def GENERALIZED GURU NONLINEAR TRANSFORMER A general nonlinear transformation allows you to redefine moveto lineto curvetrace and closepath to map them onto any desired surface This transformer works best with PostScript level 2 where unlocked font paths are instantly available It may be used with PS level 1 if no font paths are used or if font paths are predefined It is also possible to use PS level 2 once and then return the nonlinear path for host recording After recording and a path length check the results should run on any level machine Since some nonlinear transformations will convert straight lines into curved lines you might have to autoconvert longer straight lines into seque
91. def exch fpop keyproc l ifelse keysnap restore def callout left keystone crk ave keysnap exch def exch Sub keyproc r ifelse keysnap restore def callout right keystone end close gonzo dictionary For more help 520 428 4073 Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Bonus Supplement 41 C Gonzo keystone justify For more help 520 428 4073 Gonzo Keystone J ustify demo remove or alter before reuse gonzo begin open persistently downloaded dictionary txtwide 600 def set textwide wider than widest line yinc 24 def pick vertical spacing cstretch 0 2 def set minimum character excess kerning sstretch O def set minimum space excess kerning font1 Helvetica 16 O O 16 O 0 gonzofont font2 Helvetica Oblique 16 O O 16 O 0 gonzofont font1 select your first font the blurb before keystoning 306 650 false electronic tuning diodes two 2unusuall newsletters parametric Amplification association book resources preventing modem dropouts cck a centered keystone 306 490 true electronic tuning diodes two 2unusuall newsletters parametric Amplification association book resources preventing modem dropouts cck a flush left keystone 306 330 true electronic tuning diodes two 2unusuall newsletters parametric Amplification association book resources
92. e Jif def onetick 0 ticklen 2 div rmoveto 0 ticklen neg rlineto ticklen 2 div neg dup neg rmoveto ticklen O rlineto O setlinewidth stroke def drawticks save ticktrue D O moveto onetick inchoriz O moveto onetick O incvert moveto onetick inchoriz incvert moveto onetick if grestore def stepandrepeat setrepeatparams numpages save horstart vertstart translate gsave numhoriz save numvert drawticks save rptsavel exch def repeatproc rptsavel restore seqnumber runningnumber runningnumber 1 add def if O incvert translate repeat grestore inchoriz 0 translate repeat grestore showpage grestore repeat def demo remove or alter before reuse Helvetica BoldOblique findfont 11 0 O 11 O 0 makefont setfont startingnumber 673 def runningnumber startingnumber def numstring 10 string def Your image has to be named repeatproc and must be well behaved Substitute it for this simple demo repeatproc 67 70 moveto This is business card show runningnumber numstring cvs show def Your step and repeat format has to be defined in stepnrepeatparams For more help Here is how to call it 602 428 4073 seqbuscard stepandrepeat quit no showpage required lr you ever get a dictfull error message and are unable to change the size of the dictionary that has been overfilled just do a 600 dict mynewdict exch def mynewdict begin Be sure to end this dictionary if you must restore or return control
93. e reference is in the tone and spirit of the original Whole Earth Catalogs From Whole Earth Review 27 Gate Five Road Sausalito CA 94965 415 332 1716 FREE FONT lus rugged its macho and it looks its very best up around 2000 points on a storefront Yet whoodathunkit was really Avant Garde in drag Here s the short and reasonably fast code that is involved machofont amp ave snapl exch def message exch def fontsize exch def moveto 1 string target exch def AvantGarde Book findfont fontsize O O fontsize O 0 makefont setfont 1 setlinecap 1 setlinejoin outline fontsize 10 div def message target exch 0 exch put target false charpath gsave outline setlinewidth stroke grestore currentpoint exch fontsize 20 div add exch moveto forall snap1 restore def demo remove before use fontsize 80 def xpos 60 def ypos 300 def xpos ypos fontsize FREE FONT machofont showpage quit What is happening here is that you first do a charpath for each letter Then you perform a wide stroking of that path using rounded corners and rounded ends The corners end up filletted rather than rounded since a double stroking is involved For this font to work your outline width must completely fill in all of your individual characters Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets L Sturdy Macho font Auto collating trick Rubber stamp glop Exotic string widths Curing white stripes Whole Earth s Signal For more help
94. e and use an array If you use the stack to create or aload your array you are limited to a maximum of 500 or so array values If you create your array ahead of time and use put and get then you are allowed as many as 65536 array values Here s how to activate superexec First you do a 1183615869 internaldict begin From that point on a forall superexec or a Yet superexec will often override and ignore any possible invalidaccess errors This greatly expands your abilities to customize PostScript code and operations MATERIAL OF THE MONTH Pixie Dust is a 3 per packet powder that you can dust onto the drum of your LaserWriter LaserWriter Plus NT or NTX It can significantly reduce the number and the severity of the drum scratches Do a very light dusting whenever you install or refill your cartridges From Lazer Products 12741 East Caley Avenue Englewood CO 80111 303 792 5277 PUBLICATIONS OF THE MONTH I you are at all into any forms or form building check into the free FORMS PROFESSIONAL and that BUSINESS FORMS AND SYSTEMS From North American Publishing 401 North Broad Street Philadelphia PA 19108 215 238 5300 FREE FONT Here s an arcjustify routine that is far faster simpler and much easier to kern than the pair in the blue book arckern 2 def str def arcjustify save msg exch def radius exch def translate msg dup stringwidth pop exch length 1 sub arckern mul add 2 div dup 57 29578 mul rad
95. e before use Helvetica findfont 6 O O 6 O 0 makefont setfont pixel 72 mul 300 div def charkern 1 pixel def spacekern 1 pixel def 100 200 moveto FREE FONT fineprint showpage quit The fineprint code works by always moving at least one whole pixel between successive characters Note that this routine is intended for portrait only A separate routine that omits the pair of exch commands after dtransform can be used for landscape orientated business cards Naturally you ll get the best results when using plain old Helvetica or by going For more help to a simple block lettering custom font 602 428 4073 The numbers in practically all fonts are in a constant and fixed pitch even if the font is proportionally spaced This is done so that columns of figures will space uniformly Sometimes you might like to add negative kerning around the numeral one when it is in text Thus 212 411 7199 does not look nearly as good as 212 411 7199 One point of negative kerning is used here Using an irregular clipping interval can ridiculously slow down your LaserWriter Instead put the entire background down first and then do one single eoclip to erase everything outside the needed area This method is insanely faster 100 200 translate Helvetica findfont 7 0 0 7 O 0 makefont setfont gsave 17 Q 4 moveto 5 EOCLIP show repeat 0 8 translate repeat grestore Bookman Demi findfont 180 O O 180 O 0 makefont setfont 0 O movet
96. e grestore def drawscrollborder orderlinewidth borderthickness div 0 37 div setlinewidth gsave translate borderthickness 37 mul dup scale 2 25 hloops 1 sub 0 0 mul add 3 853 vloops 1 sub 1 mul add translate bcorner 1 3 O translate hloops 1 sub loop bline 1 O translate repeat bloop 0 3 O translate 90 rotate bcorner 1 3 O translate vloops 1 sub loop bline 1 O translate repeat bloop 0 3 O translate 90 rotate bcorner 1 3 0 translate hloops 1 sub loop bline 1 O translate repeat bloop 0 3 O translate 90 rotate bcorner 1 3 O translate vloops 1 sub loop bline 1 0 translate repeat bloop grestore def A fancy scroll border Certificates amp borders Stopping the test page LaserWriters in schools Backwards printing font demo remove before use borderthickness 50 def borderlinewidth 0 5 def hloops 34 def vloops 25 def 90 rotate 792 O translate for landscape 37 28 drawscrollborder showpage quit ION A ODE DDDOD La Ln Z 00000000000000000000000000000000000 MATERIAL OF THE MONTH For real CERTIFICATE AND BORDER BLANKS try Goes Lithography Cost is in the dime range But be sure to thoroughly vacuum out your LaserWriter after use since some gold print flecks may remain From Goes Lithography 42 Nest 62nd Street Chicago IL 60621 312 684 6700 Also available retail through the Paper Plus chain Call 213 436 8291 for nearest location PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH Computer USAGE FOR SCREEN PRINTING IN ED
97. e is in degrees NewCenturySchIbk Bold findfont 33 O O 33 O 0 makefont setfont usinglevel2 gsave O 5 FREE cspheremsg nlmap cvx exec fill grestore gsave 0 28 FONT cspheremsg nlmap cvx exec fill grestore Sif spheresnap restore recycle vm FREE FONT Note See companion disk for host recorded code runtime sample for level 1 and GhostScript A LaserWriter O ERROR message after several pages have gotten printed almost certainly tells you your host did not properly activate its XON XOFF handshaking Your input buffer usually holds 6000 characters Failure to do your handshake will overflow this buffer Don Lancaster s PostScript The exact spelling of any font is super important and can become maddeningly S t frustrating Here are two routines that list all of your available fonts for you ecrets listfonts FontDirectory Pop flush 200 87 sin pop repeat forall def send installed font list to host printfonts Helvetica findfont 10 O O 10 O 0 makefont setfont xpos 150 def ypos 600 def yinc 12 def xpos 20 sub ypos 20 add moveto CURRENTLY INSTALLED FONTS show FontDirectory Pop 100 string cvs xpos ypos moveto show show ypos ypos 12 sub def forall showpage def on paper You might want to add these to your nuisance command dictionary A list of Static cling vinyl commonly used fonts appears on the next page Large letters font H h 3 h se z ae I O error messag
98. e middle of your sheet by doing a 300 400 translate 0 1 dup scale at your page start This shows most out of bounds images Here s a powerful array justify routine that lets you equally space centered messages horizontally or vertically GOCE OGEA6EaaAO O yspacing O def xspacing 30 def delimiter def showsubstring 63 up stringwidth 2 div pop xposn sub neg yposn moveto show xposn xposn xspacing add def yposn yposn yspacing add def def arrayjustify gsave msgs exch def translate xposn 0 def yposn O D def msgs delimiter search xch pop exch msgs exch def showsubstring Showsubstring exit 65 ifelse loop grestore def demo remove or alter before reuse Helvetica Bold findfont 9 O O 9 O 0 makefont setfont 100 200 1234567 89 10 11 12 arrayjustify showpage quit OBOBBEEBEEOEEE PR OB The most common cause of an invalidrestore error is not having a save object on your stack top when you restore The second most common is leaving a dictionary open Open dictionaries can get removed with the end operator A new on stack string can also cause invalidrestore errors MATERIAL OF THE MONTH Laser print all of your own checks with special magnetic MICR TONER REFILLS Around 20 per bottle from MICRTECH Group 12 Bartal Court Atco NJ 08004 609 753 8502 and from many other advertisers in Recharger magazine 714 359 8570 Tech info is available from the MICR Institute 609 435 0090 while
99. eat counter counter 1 add def forall counttomark 128 sub neg dup 0 gt 1 0 O 1 O 0 repeat Hop ifelse problist exch def bind def doit roblistcreate 1 1 20 froblist rand 24 bitshift get transform 2 copy moveto 0 001 10 rlineto repeat newpath numdots roblist rand 24 bitshift get transform 2 copy moveto 0 001 0 rlineto stroke repeat bind def demo remove before use numdots 6000 def increase for denser image decrease to print faster transforms 000 160 0 2 23 26 22 0 1 6 15 26 28 24 0 44 85 04 04 85 0 1 6 def probabilities 01 07 07 85 def 1 setlinecap 0 setlinewidth 200 300 translate 30 dup scale doit showpage quit For a dramatic effect do this up large with lots of dots Then Kroy Kolor green on green Allow three minutes to print an 80 000 dot image on the NTX Note that a mere 28 data values determine the entire fern image Additional details on fractal ferns appear in my Ask The Guru reprints volume Il in A Better Way to Compress Images in Byte J anuary 88 pages 215 223 and in Barnsley s The Science of Fractal Images from the Springer Verlag press For more help 520 428 4073 Instead of the usual method always use this sequence to select any and all of your Postscript fonts Helvetica findfont 9 0 O 9 O O makefont setfont This will allow you to squash or stretch the font by setting the character width with the first matrix value and settin
100. ef IF 611 74 729 mt 74 0 li 224 0 li 224 313 li 543 313 li 543 438 li 224 438 li 224 604 li 586 604 li 586 729 li cp def E 667 79 729 mt 79 0 li 624 0 li 624 125 li 229 125 li 229 313 li 578 313 li 578 438 li 229 438 li 229 604 li 607 604 li 607 729 li cp def IR 722 B0 O mt 230 0 li 230 288 li 406 288 li 458 288 494 264 496 215 ct 494 162 494 104 496 68 ct 498 44 504 22 516 0 ct 677 0 li 677 27 li 661 37 649 46 649 87 ct 648 124 646 220 642 250 ct 634 316 586 334 561 351 ct 610 380 642 403 660 466 ct 678 529 663 581 653 613 ct 632 692 558 726 485 729 ct 80 729 li cp 230 604 mt 433 604 li 500 604 524 574 524 522 ct 533 450 470 413 435 413 ct 230 413 li cp def space 250 def Your non linear transform goes here It accepts x and y on the stack and later will return x and y back to the stack following your nonlinear remapping rule or rules The transform is used once for a lineto and three times for a curveto nit def substitute your own nonlinear operator here Service routines mt xch fontsize O get mul 001 mul xoffset add nit exch fontsize 3 get mul 001 mul yoffset add moveto def nonlinear moveto li xch fontsize O get mul 001 mul xoffset add nit exch fontsize 3 get mul 001 mul yoffset add lineto def nonlinear lineto ct 8 2 roll exch fontsize O get mul 001 mul xoffset add nit exch fontsize 3 get mul 001 mul yoffset add repeat curveto def nonlinear curveto cp losepath def strrx def nl
101. encodetime 8 10 tartstr exch 2 index 16 FF and put 8 bitshift for pop def decodetime D startstr Exch 8 bitshift add forall def startstr 4 string def usertime encodetime gsave Times Roman findfont 12 scalefont setfont 100 10 72 mul moveto This page inserted by timepages ps show grestore showpage As a reminder most applications packages always seem to insist on using the seventeenth most putrid LaserWriter gray Here s an infinitely better gray 106 45 Hup mul exch dup mul add 1 0 exch sub setscreen D n L n t r Other interesting combinations are 75 15 for use on halftone photos 85 35 for o ancaster s a reduced reproduction or 133 25 for india ink wash effects See the Bonus PostScript Supplement 8 for one of my infamous secret gray maps Secrets The very next time that you are up against the wall an infuriatingly subtle misuse of the setdash operator will ridiculously speed up drawing all of your perspective bricks Each dash is set one brick high when mapped into the 3 D space A listing is on the next page Red and Blue Books Thermal binding tapes Here s more rules to minimize NTX hard disk blowups Use a minimum of 3 Non putrid grays again Megabytes of RAM Stay 100 host backed up Always turn the disk on first followed by the printer and vice versa Issue a control c every now and then Brickwall setdash trick and don t ever terminate a disk cache update Do a cold reboot at least t
102. erial and AppleTalk The Mac or llgs must use an ordinary printer cable and must be plugged into the same grounded ac outlet as the LaserWriter Creative use of the 0 sethardwareiomode software switch to serial and 2 sethardwareiomode software switch back to AppleTalk is used to avoid any physical switch flipping This scheme only works on the LaserWriter NTX To switch your LaserWriter NTX from serial to AppleTalk you can use the 2 sethardwareiomode command sent serially At the end of your present job you will be in AppleTalk and the serial channel will end up trashed and useless Either serial channel can send this command Similarly to switch your LaserWriter NTX from AppleTalk back to Serial use the O sethardwareiomode command sent over AppleTalk At the end of the present job both serial channels will end up active and your AppleTalk will get disconnected Any custom serial baud rates will be preserved so long as the actual DIP switches are not flipped There is an extremely bad bug in AppleTalk that blatantly violates PostScript s device independence Files sent over AppleTalk are treated differently than files sent serially with possible disastrous results A serial file correctly changes all carriage returns to newline characters AppleTalk does not Sledgehammer cures involve never using readline or else having your custom input scanner code trap out both the carriage return and newline characters MATERIAL OF THE M
103. ers and wood 37A routers Because of the invalidaccess lockout on earlier versions of Post Script Level 2 earlier font path grabbing was complex and tricky With Level 2 you simply b th th the fly font path grabber ae A E I will show you only the bare fundamentals of font path grabbing here see our many other PSRT library files for detailed examples of the incredible stuff you can do with grabbed paths THE ROUTINES SHOWN HERE WORK ONLY ON POSTSCRIPT LEVEL TWO But you can easily take the resultant paths and use them on any genuine Adobe PostScript printer of any level First define your font If you are going to work with the usual font dictionaries you may want to make it 1000 points high Otherwise pick your final size NewCenturySchlbk Bold findfont 160 O O 130 O 0 makefont setfont Then select a letter and just grab your fontpath O O moveto s false charpath This now creates an unlocked outline path If you want to you can combine the path with other design elements Here is how to convert the path to an array An array is chosen because it is easier to report back to your host mark moveto cvx lineto cvx curveto cvx closepath cvx pathforall outlinepath exch def And it is that simple If you want to do non linear transformations or otherwise leap tall buildings in a single bound you just alter the four procs needed by pathforall Here is how you report your path back to your host fo
104. es ere s three tips that can improve the reliability of all your thermal bindings in a big way 1 Always jog all your sheets 2 Notch the spine area of the stack AGODE Type Manager with five or six fairly deep groves and 3 Preheat your pages before binding Font lists amp printouts Thermal binding ideas MATERIAL OF THE MONTH Laserwriter printable STATIC CLING VINYL and your X Acto knife will convert your LaserWriter into a 15 000 signmaking machine About 55 cents per cut sheet in five colors this will easily and semi permanently stick to glass and other smooth surfaces Do be certain to trim 3 8 of an inch of vinyl off the backing sheet edges before hand feeding From Joseph Struhl Company at 95 Atlantic Avenue Garden City Park NY 11040 800 552 0023 PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH The ADOBE TYPE MANAGER instantly and transparently prints full quality PostScript fonts on your Mac screen ImageWriter or on any other printer with superb quality results 99 from Adobe Systems at 1585 Charleston Road Mountain View CA 94039 415 961 4400 One discounting source would be MacWarehouse at 800 255 6227 This free font will convert a message into individual giant letter patterns for use with static cling vinyl stencils homecoming floats storefront signage or just for big house numbers inches 72 mul def str X def makebigletters fonttouse findfont letterheight O O letterwidth O 0 makefont setfont tr exch 0 e
105. es if grestore f def fat5 true def fatter10 true def seegrid true def use examples xpos ypos gridsize setgrid hlines vlines showgrid anything you want locked to the grid clear rubbersnap restore demo remove before use 100 200 10 setgrid 20 20 showgrid showpage quit Note that there is precisely one dot at each grid crossing All linewidths of an intended width are totally uniform Note also that you are now locked to your grid with one unit matching one block on the grid If you ever want to get off of your rubbergrid simply do a clear rubbersnap restore There are several minor gotchas The grid may not turn out exactly the precise size you want it to This is the price you do have to pay for uniformity and no dropouts at 300 DPI The grid size and position may also change slightly if you switch to a higher resolution phototypesetter And the grid works best if you do not do any translation or scaling before you call the grid code If you must translate be sure to call quadpixel to translate For more help only to exact multiples of four pixels 602 428 4073 Except for the restore command there is no garbage collection as such in PostScript Which means that every time you re define something new virtual memory gets committed rather than overwriting the previous definition Two good ways to conserve the available memory include bracketing any sub job N with a save and a restore and avoidi
106. essed ABC you are WRONG You will find the NEW AXC in your old copy of oldstring Which makes what you thought was in oldstring wrong Such that it prints wrong includes extra characters repeats itself or else refuses to get properly compared Causing maddening and infuriating debugging problems What to do Well when you attempt an oldstring workstring def you do NOT create a new string All you have done is saved a POINTER that points to the OLD copy of workstring And if you change workstring with a PUT or a PUTINTERVAL sure enough oldstring also gets changed because oldstring is NOT a string it is just a pointer right on back to workstring There is really J UST ONE string involved THE CURE When you want to save the EXACT contents of some string you must create NOT A POINTER but a BRAND NEW STRING that will hold the contents for you Like so workstring dup length string cvs oldstring exch def This immediately creates a new string and pokes the current values into oldstring There is no longer any pointer involved and workstring can go ahead and change all it wants to without changing old string We can say that the two strings are DE REFERENCED The one has nothing to do with the other any more Note that cvs is normally used to change something else into a string But there is nothing that says you cannot use it to change a string into a new string Nothing at all To rehash To make su
107. etterheads and larger logos and does require some care 602 428 4073 Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Bonus Supplement 43 A Smith chart generator For more help 602 428 4073 Smith Chart Generator Code These routines explore building a Smith chart and also investigate using Postscript to generate real graphs by direct computation Smith charts have important analytical uses in satellites and microwave electronics The Smith chart math is much simpler than it seems at first glance The real circles are radius 1 1 r and center 1 1 0 The reactance circles are radius 1 x and center 1 1 x and 1 1 x The derivation appears in Section 10 8 of Potter amp Fitch THEORY OF NETWORKS AND LINES Prentice Hall 1963 The original Smith stuff appears in Electronics v12 Jan 39 p 29 31 and Electronics v17 J an 44 p140 A newer set of detailed Smith examples appears in Hund MICROWAVE COMMUNICATIONS McGraw Hill 1989 Hewlett Packard is also very big on Smith Charts especially on their newer instruments Current copyright status of the actual Smith Chart itself is unknown Emeloid Co of Hillside NJ was the key supplier at one time l ve purposely left the lettering easy and the rotor scale hard off as excercises for the student Let me know if you really need them also didn t bother to completely clean the code up just yet On the other hand it ain t broke Some working tools rr 1
108. exch def xpos exch def stringgonzo snapcf restore def cc accepts an input of form xpos ypos message cc and centers it on xpos txtwide IS IGNORED AND ANY WIDTH WILL GET CENTERED cc ave snapcc exch def linestring linestring2 def txtwide 5000 def justx justC def pmrun O def 3 1 roll ypos exch def 2500 sub xpos exch def stringgonzo snapcc restore def cr accepts an input of form xpos ypos message cr and sets it flush right against xpos txtwide IS IGNORED AND ANY WIDTH WILL SET FLUSH RIGHT cr ave snapcm exch def linestring linestring2 def txtwide 5000 def justx justR def pmrun O def 3 1 roll ypos exch def 5000 sub xpos exch def stringgonzo snapcm restore def gonzo begin rotstuff gsave 4 2 roll translate exch rotate 0 exch 0 exch def cca fotstuff cc grestore def center cla fotstuff cl grestore def left cfa fotstuff cf grestore def fill cra fotstuff cr grestore def right end For more help 520 428 4073 Rotating Text Don Lancaster s demo PostScript Secrets gonzo begin 250 100 90 A demo of vertical gonzo rotated text cla gsave 250 400 translate 18 20 60 0 Full gonzo rotated text cla 20 rotate repeat grestore end Bonus showpage quit Supplement 48 B txt changes cca cla cfa rotstuff with examples Rotating Text 7 YN gor Full gonzo rotated text A demo of vertical gonzo rotated text For more help 520 428 4073
109. f this is the flat label For more help pixellineremap showpage quit pastes label on can 602 428 4073 Dont forget that the green knob is backwards on the NT and the NTX The 9 setting uses the least toner Always use the highest number that gives you an acceptable print quality Watch this detail Any unbound PostScript operator could get diverted for nefarious uses Here s how you can redefine showpage so it can auto print a letterhead border 3 hole punch marks or other message 100 dict workdict exch def workdict begin MUST be o printtimestuff Save pts exch def mark Helveti 0 0 makefont setfont msg FILE COP e 5 e setlinecap 170 240 translate 45 rotate S X def msg trrx exch 0 exch put strrx tr rpath c t e newpath moveto forall cleartomar or ystemdict showpage get cvx exec def goes here Note that workdict must be above userdict on your dictionary stack for this to work All showpage commands must also be unbound One way to speed up printing a custom logo is to convert it into a character in a font and then cache your font character The font bitmap can be returned from the NTX hard disk to the host for a further dramatic speedup MATERIAL OF THE MONTH Laserwriter compatible THERMAL TRANSFER TONER which can iron directly onto T shirts or other fabrics in four colors is now available from Black Lightning at 800 252 2599 or Lazer Products at 303 792 5277 or Don Thompson at 714
110. f bind def unconditional justF end KKKKKWYKKYKKYKWYY KEYSTONE STUFF STARTS HERE gonzo begin This is the core keystone code routine It works by taking an average of the first two and last two string lengths to determine the keystone slope increment and starting width It then checks the length of each line and extends the starting width as needed so everything fits keyproc kadj exch def msg exch def yyl exch def xx1 exch def mark msg search xch pop exch msg exch def dup length 0 le pop if dup length O le fop if exit ifelse loop karray exch def O O karray O get cw 0 O karray 1 get cw add 2 div dup O O karray dup length 1 sub get cw O O karray dup length 2 sub get cw add 2 div sub neg karray length 1 sub div dup kinc exch def 2 div sub kstart exch def txtwide 10000 def O O 1 karray length 1 sub kpn exch def 0 O karray kpn get cw kstart kinc kpn mul add sub 2 copy It xch if pop for kstart add 1 01 mul dup kstart exch def txtwide exch def justifylastline true def O 1 karray length 1 sub posn exch def yy1 xx1 kstart kadj exch posn karray exch get cf txtwide txtwide kinc add def xx1 xx1 kinc kadj def yyl yyl yinc sub def for def these are the three keystone routines Use xpos ypos true msg strings cck etc true for keystone false for ordinary justify cck ave keysnap exch def exch 2 div sub keyproc c ifelse keysnap restore def callout centered keystone clk ave keysnap exch
111. fewer stack items cvx 400 or fewer stack items cvx 400 or fewer stack items cvx def This should run just fine on any Level 1 or Level 2 machine We will be doing LOTS more with path grabs so be sure to follow PSRT For more help 602 428 4073 To minimize extra heavy paper jams on an SX printer use only your straight through paper path keep your guide rails loose and any sheet curl down Then before you actually print manually force your sheet 1 8 of an inch onto the pickup roller and uniformly pull it back half of that Card stock and heavy parchment should now feed ok Here s a useful character border routine a4oa0V0o090000000000000 9009000 stringup char exch def save char show grestore currentpoint vcharsp add moveto repeat def OU stringright char exch def save char show grestore currentpoint exch hcharsp add exch moveto repeat def stringdown char exch def save char show grestore currentpoint vcharsp sub moveto repeat def stringleft char exch def save char show grestore currentpoint exch hcharsp sub exch moveto repeat def demo remove before use ZapfDingbats findfont 12 O O 12 O 0 makefont setfont 20 30 moveto vcharsp 20 def hcharsp 20 def 24 q stringup 13 q stringright 24 q stringdown 13 q stringleft showpage quit aqua 0o0000000 00900000 DOODO CDO DOUDOU O DODODLDODODODOCO A little known use for the Kroy Color process is to instan
112. g the character height with the fourth value There s all sorts of italic and rotation tricks you can pull by changing the zeros to something else For instance your second zero determines the climb the third the ean the fifth the horizontal offset and the sixth the vertical offset MATERIALS OF THE MONTH MerALPHOTO and FOTOFOIL are two competing processes that can generate anodized and colored aluminum nameplates dials and museum signs directly from your LaserWriter artwork transparencies Since all the images are actually locked inside the metal sheet and are protected by a sapphire overcoating they are highly vandal resistant From Metalphoto located at 1835 South Miles Road Cleveland OH 44128 216 475 0655 or through Fotofoil at 4400 North Temple City Boulevard El Monte CA 91734 818 444 4555 PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH The HEWLETT PACKARD 2686A SERVICE MANUAL 02686 90904 50 makes an outstanding and easy to get LaserWriter or LaserWriter Plus repair manual since nearly all of the CX engine mechanical parts are similar between the two machines H P is also a fast and convenient source of replacement parts albeit an expensive one And because of their refusal to provide any decent end user manuals there is some poetic justice to forcing Apple to pay a 50 cash rebate directly to H P for each Laserwriter sold From HP Manuals at 1320 Kifer Road Sunnyvale CA 94086 800 227 8164 The corresponding HP ma
113. gal documents may not image properly on the older machines Paper Plus stores Unusual boxit font Uhlrichts Dictonary Printing to the edge Reverse slash trickery New LaserWriter grays Some PostScript code listings will not print properly if you dump them to an emulator or page maker Note that most reverse slashes should be replaced with three slashes and a space Reverse slashes that force a line ending return should be replaced with three slashes Thus 033 will print as 1033 Embedded control characters should be replaced by their octal equivalents MATERIAL OF THE MONTH The nationwide PAPER PLUS chain is where you go for good prices on labels bumperstickers parchment letterheads astrobrites and bunches more 203 724 9671 209 445 0911 214 340 2596 301 499 1121 305 776 4529 312 922 4015 313 930 1600 315 425 1544 316 265 2475 407 687 0331 414 781 2882 503 345 3223 503 238 3607 505 881 8484 509 525 0229 512 820 3462 512 454 8741 516 248 3031 518 426 5555 602 834 1815 602 889 9500 602 937 2703 609 234 0110 614 846 7030 616 929 1221 619 562 0811 619 292 5608 702 731 2158 703 684 0066 704 521 8040 707 542 7012 713 785 1292 714 369 0470 804 855 0082 805 831 8646 813 884 2893 817 633 3959 818 247 0620 904 398 8586 919 272 4118 PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH That UHLRICHT S PERIODICALS DICTIONARY on t
114. gs more readable You can add carriage returns to hex ASCII listings to improve formatting You can add carriage returns to images to make them look better on a host screen But Bonus You CANNOT put any unwanted or extra carriage returns INSIDE A POSTSCRIPT STRING as they will be interpreted and used as REAL carriage returns or Supplement linefeeds 7 A You CANNOT put any unwanted or extra carriage returns INSIDE A BLOCK OF TEXT BEING READ AS A CURRENTFILE as once again they are likely to be intrepreted and used as REAL carriage returns or linefeeds in strings Carriage return a E 3 Sadly some editors and many earlier word processors have their heart set on hassles throwing in extra carriage returns either on an initial load or when formatting what they perceive to be a text line The usual results will be PostScript listings that get spacier and spacier or unwanted forced paragraph breaks The first and foremost cure is understanding WHEN and HOW your word processor or editor may try to throw in extra carriage returns Usually there is one or more simple cures A VERY IMPORTANT POSTSCRIPT RULE A carriage return or linefeed that is immediately preceeded by a reverse slash will get ignorted by PostScript There are three solutions Best 1 DO NOT EVER LET ANY UNWANTED CARRIAGE RETURNS HAPPEN Permissible 2 If an unwanted carriage return does happen preceed any and all of them with an immediate
115. gt Exch if if QlL sub values exch def newvalue exch def values dup 2 div cvi dup 2 add index newvalue It xch if pop values exch def 0 values 1 O index newvalue It 1 add exit ifelse for values sub neg 1 add newvalue exch 1 roll ifelse bind def demo remove or alter before reuse mark 45 insort 99 insort 22 insort 6 insort 66 insort 15 insort mygreatvalues exch def Ea mygreatvalues flush quit As with typical stack operations there is a Level I limit around 500 values For longer sorts a tree algorithm is faster and more appropriate Your PostScript filelengths can be significantly shortened by rounding the final positioning numbers to four decimal places The accuracy is still good enough even at medium high resolutions By running at a suitable subscale you can eliminate the decimal points from most numbers saving even more bytes MATERIAL OF THE MONTH To minimize paper curling and jams keep your printer humidity in the 20 to 45 percent range Your best source for several ultra cheap 5 HYGROMETERS is Klockit Box 636 Lake Geneva WI 53147 Call them at 800 566 2548 Sources for more expensive hygrometers do include Abbeon Cal at 805 966 0810 Edmund Scientific found at 609 573 6250 and Heathkit at 616 982 3200 PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH Davia Holtzgang s PURPLE BOOK UNDERSTANDING POSTSCRIPT PROGRAMMING is another beginner s book on PostScript It is particularly good on
116. h def xpos exch def stringgonzo curwide snapcl1 restore def end B MENU J USTIFY The cm routine takes a leading string and a trailing string separated by a delimiter and places a row of CONSTANT WIDTH PRECISELY SPACED VERTICALLY ALIGNED and WHOLE dots or whatever between the two It is based on putting down the dots first and ERASING only whole dots that are not wanted This has been modified specially for a 10X grid menudots def menufont font1 def mdoteht 0 3 def menudelim def cropleadingspaces true def drawmdots draws a line of menu dots using plain old show drawmdots gsave menufont xxm yym moveto txtwide menudots stringwidth pop dup mdot1 exch def div floor cvi nenudots show repeat grestore def spchomp takes a string and conditionally removes all leading spaces returning the truncated string spchomp ropleadingspaces up O exch 82 eq 1 add Hexit ifelse forall if exch dup length 2 index sub 3 1 roll exch getinterval def mlineproc takes the mline string and processes it into a leading string the dot row and a trailing string Unused dots are erased with logic to insure whole dots only Null strings are ignored mlineproc line length O gt rawmdots mline menudelim search Imstr exch def pop spchomp rmstr exch def if gsave 1 setgray xxm yym moveto mdoteht setlinewidth 0 O Imstr cw mdot1 div 10 mul ceiling 10 div for 10X grid only mdotl1 mul O rlineto stroke xxm txtwide md
117. he Flying Wedge For more help 520 428 4073 Using the Flying Wedge The flying wedge is a tool that lets you automaticaly stretch the vertical spaces between paragraphs art cuts or whatever so they exactly fill up a needed area The ultimate details will very much depend upon your selection of justification routines and your programming style For instance let s suppose you wanted to space each paragraph with a group of three bullets 0 6 We might start off with these PostScript procs lifted from my gonzo justify routines ypos is the current text vertical position xpos is the current text left margin txtwide is the width of the text line cc is your center justification routine fixedwedge is the fixed spacing above or below the wedge wedgeadjust is the flexible spacing above or below the wedge Then we might define a wedgeproc that creates the actual wedge artwork and a calling of flyingwedge that stretches down calls wedgeproc and stretches down some more wedgeproc pos txtwide 2 div add 1267 1267 1267 cc def flyingwedge ypos ypos fixedwedge sub wedgeadjust sub wedgeproc ypos ypos gixedwedge sub wedgeadjust sub def Your flyingwedge can be activated by a suitable macro define fmacro to do an automatic flying wedge on any text insertion of an esc f The amount of wedgeadjust to use is found by dividing the amount of space to be stretched or squashed by twice the number of wedges being used
118. he reference shelf of your local library holds the keys to the kingdom It lists many tens of thousands of free trade journals Included are printing signmaking art and typography GREE HANU The forall procedure can be used to put most any border or special effect around any existing font characters The boxes automatically get wider for W and narrower for I and spaces are bypassed Like so belowbase 8 def leftofchar 5 def abovebase 36 def rightofchar 5 def tweenchars 18 def str X def boxitproc msg exch def save bsnap exch def xpos ypos translate msg char exch def str O char put str ne save currentpoint belowbase sub exch leftofchar sub exch moveto 0 belowbase abovebase add rlineto leftofchar str stringwidth pop add rightofchar add 0 rlineto 0 belowbase abovebase add neg rlineto closepath gsave fill grestore gsave clip gsave 3 setlinewidth 1 setgray stroke grestore 1 setlinewidth O setgray stroke grestore newpath grestore if 1 setgray str show 0 setgray currentpoint exch tweenchars add exch moveto forall clear bsnap restore def demo remove before use Helvetica Narrow Bold findfont 40 O O 40 O 0 makefont setfont 100 200 moveto FREE FONT boxitproc showpage quit For more help 520 428 4073 The secret 300 DPI gray map Don Lancaster s P stScri t M st users and most applications packages do seem to insist on using the O
119. help 602 428 4073 Ail of those long page makeready times on your LaserWriter can be eliminated outright or else greatly minimized by going to a PostScript compiling process To do this you redefine awidthshow and the other operators so that they return only the essential final results back to your host for recording and later reuse See my Ask The Guru Il for full details Two elegant tools superstroke and superinsidestroke can improve any outlined borders pipes wires or create unusual font effects superstroke save sssnap exch def sscmd exch def 0 2 sscmd length 2 div cvi 1 sub 2 mul aposn exch def gsave sscmd aposn get setlinewidth sscmd aposn 1 add get setgray stroke grestore for clear sssnap restore newpath def superinsidestroke ave clip sssnap exch def sscmd exch def mark O 2 sscmd length 2 div cvi 1 sub 2 mul faposn exch def gsave sscmd aposn get 2 mul setlinewidth sscmd aposn 1 add get setgray stroke grestore for cleartomark sssnap restore newpath def demo remove before use 100 200 moveto 0 100 rlineto 300 O rlineto O 100 rlineto closepath 9 O 7 5 0 8 3 0 superinsidestroke showpage quit Each pair of the values in your array decides a linewidth and a grey level You always start with the widest value pairs A superstroke works symetrically while superinsidestroke works only inside the original path MATERIAL OF THE MONTH PeLLon otherwise known as NON WOVEN INTERFACING may be safely ru
120. hem developed in far more depth than we can do here From Synergetics Box 809 Thatcher AZ 85552 602 428 4073 The classic litho chokes and spreads are easily handled by using the Postscript language applied to existing fonts The secret is the charpath operator which must be called twice to prevent the spread on one letter from trashing the previous one Bookman Demiltalic findfont 50 O O 50 O 0 makefont setfont msg free font def ws X def 106 45 lup mul exch dup mul add 1 0 exch sub setscreen a nice gray spreadproc ws false charpath gsave 1 setlinecap 1 setlinejoin 10 setlinewidth 1 setgray stroke grestore currentpoint newpath exch 2 add exch moveto def letterproc ws false charpath gsave 0 99 setgray fill grestore gsave 0 25 setlinewidth stroke grestore currentpoint newpath exch 2 add exch moveto def 172 272 moveto 0 83 rlineto 292 O rlineto O 83 rlineto closepath fill 200 300 moveto gsave msg ws exch O exch put spreadproc forall grestore gsave msg ws exch O exch put letterproc forall grestore 218 7 rmoveto 0 12 rlineto 5 O rlineto O 12 rlineto closepath 1 setgray fill a manual patch For more help showpage quit 520 428 4073 Solving PostScript carriage return hassles Don Lancaster s PostScri t Witn two VERY IMPORTANT exceptions PostScript permits extra carriage p returns or linefeeds just about anywhere For instance you can use carriage Secrets returns for pretty printing to make proc listin
121. here else heavy handling of a toner image is involved The material is thinner and much more subtle than your usual peel and stick acetates Available from Kroy Sign Systems Scottsdale Airpark Scottsdale AZ 85260 800 521 4997 PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH A good TYPOGRAPHY CHEAT BOOK is super handy for layout and style ideas My favorite here is Biegleisen s Art Director s Work Book of Type Faces From Arco Publishing at 219 Park Avenue South New York NY 10003 212 777 6300 A few similar titles are available from ads in U amp c at 212 371 0669 or from North American Publishing at 215 238 5300 Pras FONT True 3 D lettering is almost as easy to do as plain old shadow printing although it does takes somewhat longer to print Here is the code 133 25 up mul exch dup mul add 1 0 exch sub setscreen shadowproc save shadowdepth 2 mul Q O moveto spread O msg ashow shadangle cos 2 div shadangle sin 2 div translate repeat grestore def charproc gsave 0 0 moveto gsave spread 0 msg ashow grestore 0 setgray 6 setlinewidth stroke grestore def shadowdepth 10 def spread 3 def shadangle 45 def demo remove before use AvantGarde Demi findfont 50 O O 50 O 0 makefont setfont msg FREE FONT def 200 300 translate 0 4 setgray shadowproc 0 9 setgray charproc showpage quit This works by a repeated stagger printing for the shadow followed by a single printing for the final letter Even more impressive resu
122. herwise 0 setgray 88 150 translate 6 dup scale pdis 1 3 def zdis 2 6 def 10 80 moveto hsquareknot 10 pdis 2 5 mul add 80 moveto 180 180 180 180 165 150 135 120 105 90 50 90 repeat 90 75 60 45 30 15 00 0 40 P repeat 15 30 45 60 75 90 50 80 repeat 90 105 120 135 150 165 180 12 180 repeat drawarope showpage The disk operating system for the NTX is incredibly flakey and will blow up if you so much as think about looking at it sideways Always have a host based NTX hard disk rebuilding program on hand and always stay 100 percent backed up at all times Be certain to budget at least three hours per week for your NTX hard disk rebuilding and maintenance Don Lancaster s PostScript MATERIAL OF THE MONTH Secrets Direct LASER TO LITHO PRINTING PLATES can let you use any laser printer as a platemaker for traditional litho printing at 20 cents a plate and involving zero chemistry or any other makeready Each plate is good for a thousand copies in real ink of any color including thermography REL Graphics at 800 521 1080 or from Dominick Argenio at 800 631 0039 PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH Dick Blick s SIGN MAKING AND SCREEN PRINTING CATALOG is crammed full of NTX disk blowups unusual materials some laser printable and some not These do include vinyl S bumpersticker stock fluorescents glow in the darks the Coburn and Scotchlite Signmaking catalog films signboards plus bunches more From Dick Blick at Box 12
123. hree Stopping NTX blowups times a day Re initialize once per month Never send anything new to your printer while the disk light is active Issue a control c before shutdown Sneaky 3 D striped font MATERIAL OF THE MONTH Low cost THERMAL BINDING TAPES are available from Planax and can use most any cover materials of your choice Unfortunately their binding machine pricing is ludicrously absurd so you will want to whip up your own 49 95 homebrew substitute Planax North America 15 East 26th Street Suite 1908 New York NY 10010 212 532 1988 PUBLICATIONS OF THE MONTH By far the two most important PostScript books are the BLUE BOOK otherwise known as the PostScript Tutorial and Cookbook and the RED BOOK also called the PostScript Reference Manual One stocking source is Synergetics Box 809 Thatcher AZ 85552 602 428 4073 Here is yet another subtle misuse of the setdash operator buried in a universal 3 D font routine charproc futlineweight setlinewidth gsave depth shadowangle cos mul depth shadowangle sin mul translate charstring newpath 0 0 moveto charstring false charpath stroke depthproc depth 2 mul hewpath 0 O moveto charstring false charpath gsave 1 setgray fill grestore stroke 0 5 shadowangle cos mul neg 0 5 shadowangle sin mul neg translate repeat grestore charstring false charpath gsave 1 setgray fill grestore stroke def charstring X def 3dfont gsave harstring exch O exch put O O moveto chars
124. idges here is how to fix it Open the machine and remove the cartridge Have a friend slide the two tabs above the cartridge hole enough to open the scanning window Blow into the scanning window by using a solder sucker or else a photographer s air bulb to remove the cathair that is stuck to the mirror If that does not do it very carefully and very gently wipe the mirror once with a brand new artist s brush Note that this is a delicate front surface mirror One sledgehammer cure to find the width of any text string no matter how much custom kerning font changes or character post processing is in use Do a gsave then select the nulldevice and do a 0 O moveto Image the string Do a currentpoint followed by a pop The stack will now hold the string width A somewhat muffled and intermittent yowling from inside your LaserWriter can often be cured by opening the lid and letting the cat out MATERIAL OF THE MONTH IVERIGRAPH is an ultra violet curing liquid resin you can use to convert any Laserwriter printed images into rubber stamps printing plates or even 3 D solid objects Available from Hercules 300 East Shuman Suite 260 Naperville IL 60566 Their phone number is 800 323 1832 PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH The new SIGNAL book from the Whole Earth folks is crammed cover to cover with outstanding communications tools and resources that span the gamut from desktop publishing to interspecies communications This must hav
125. ign symbol overlays This similar routine can be used for vertical kerning vkern urrentpoint 3 1 roll sub moveto def Another ultra powerful kerning trick is to pre define two custom characters in a font that only do a 4 or 1 point kern This lets you custom adjust circular text or use other fancy routines where the kerning was previously unavailable The latest versions of Adobe s hard disk firmware have stupidly locked out all the FC and BM font cache files and return an undefinedfilename error if you try to read them To access these files use shared SCSI comm Or else any SCSI system with a read and write to sector capability The lle SCSI card is ideal for this But similar solutions exist for all major hosts MATERIAL OF THE MONTH A great breakthrough REAL TONER COMPATIBLE THERMOGRAPHY J ust print as normal Spray on glop A to soften and expand the toner Dust on powder B Then apply heat from desklamp C For raised letterheads business cards and even Braille Lots of gold silver colors and metallics From Bennet LaserBrite at 720 Fourth Street Southwest Rochester MN 55902 507 280 9101 PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH The PRINTER S DEVIL a labor of love newsletter for small scale press owners and publishers A press in every home A home in every press 5 per year subscription The Printer s Devil Mother of Ashes Press Harrison ID 83833 Their phone number is 208 689 3738 How do you show a lit
126. in O setlinecap 0 01 9 42 9 41 38 41 38 42 38 40 38 41 9 41 9 40 roundpath closepath 0 8 0 0 5 1 0 28 O 0 1 1 superstroke set up the menu stuff txtwide 22 def textwidth cstretch 0 01 def extra character kerning sstretch 0 05 def extra space kerning yinc 2 6 def line spacing font1 Palatino Roman 1 2 gonzofont two nice yuppy fonts font2 Palatino Italic 1 2 gonzofont Use Bensquat if you have it font3 ZapfChancery Mediumitalic 2 5 gonzofont for header Trick to cure Mitzi s anoxerism font3 23 5 42 7 Mitzi s Yuppy Fare cc 23 5 42 75 Mitzi s Yuppy Fare cc 23 5 42 8 Mitzi s Yuppy Fare cc fontl 12 5 36 5 Knockwurst Ala King 3 27 Hot Clam Sundae 1 15 Coconut Anchovy Pizza 8 35 Butterscotch Pudding au gratin 1 25 Pastrami Kiwi Blintz 4 50 Sopapillas Enchilada Style 2 46 Grape Chili au jus 4 45 Avocado Liver Surprise 15 Chocolate Sushi 25 50 cm For more help showpage quit Ben 520 428 4073 Don Lancaster s PostScript This is what our menu actually looks like Secrets Bonus Supplement 36 C Menu justification Knockwurst Ala King Hot Clam Sundae Coconut Anchovy Pizza Butterscotch Pudding au gratin Pastrami amp Kiwi Blintz Sopapillas Enchilada Style Grape Chili au jus Avocado amp Liver Surprise Chocolate Sushi For more help 520 428 4073 Here s a simple center justify routine
127. insidestroke font PostScript superstroking For more help 520 428 4073 Avuncular sleezoid utility Don Lancaster s PostScri t There are times and places when you want to relate the graph space of a Bezier p cubic spline to its equation space and vice versa Among other things this lets Secrets you move anywhere along any portion of a SINGLE curveto cubic spline Which can lead to such exotics as controlled distortion In graph space a Bezier curve starts at x0 y0 and ends at x3 y3 It leaves x0 y0 with a direction and an enthuasiasm set by the first control point x1 y1 and Bonus enters x3 y3 with a direction and an enthuasiasm set by the second control oint x2 y2 Supplement Bee es 26 A Here are the same Bezier formulas in the algebraic equation space x t A t 3 B t 2 C t x0 y t D t 3 E t 2 F t yO 7 Note that t varies from O to 1 from the utility beginning to the end of your spline curve Sleezoid Here is how to get from equation space to graph space xl x0 C 3 yl y0 F 3 x2 x1 C 3 8B 3 y2 y1 F 3 E 3 x3 x0 C B A y3 y0 F E D And here is how to get from graph space back to equation space A x3 3x2 3x1 x0 D y3 3y2 3 yl y0 B 3x2 6x1 3x0 E 3y2 6y1 3y0 C 3x1 3x0 F 3y1 3y0 Our demo shows an avuncular sleezoid rather than the older transverse lenticular variation See H K Hornswoggle and N V Blatenworth s classic EXPLOITING SLEEZOIDS FOR FU
128. its Each gonzo line is then shown fill justified at the proper width and position to get the proper keystone effect Some hints 1 The closer your messages are to a decent keystone ahead of time the better the final result Use false to check and then rearrange reword or kern as needed 2 Make sure your initial txtwide is WIDER than the longest string or astoundingly bizarre things will happen 3 Set sstretch to the MAXIMUM ACCEPTABLE SQUASH for your tightest line For more help 4 Always change fonts AFTER changing cstretch or sstretch and NEVER before 520 428 4073 Gonzo Keystone J ustify Continued this is a repeat of the GONZO13B callout width proc Don Lancaster s PostScript gonzo begin Secrets endtheline curwide txtwide roomleft sub def justx cvx exec oktoprint fprintline if bind def cw fave snapcl exch def oktoadvance false def oktoprint false def linestring linestring2 def justx justL def 3 1 roll ypos exch def xpos exch Bonus def stringgonzo curwide snapcl restore def Supplement end 41 B YY 11 1 Vo This is a subtle correction to the gonzo fill justify that makes txtwide slightly Gonzo more precise ee keystone justify gonzo begin reallyjustF Ewallowandhang roomleft cstretch add numchars 1 sub numspaces spacecharratio mul add dup 0 eq Pop 0 001 if div dup cstretch add cfix exch def spacecharratio mul sstretch add sfix exch def xfix O def yfix O de
129. ius div msg tr exch 0 exch put gsave rotate O radius moveto str dup dup stringwidth pop 2 div 57 29578 mul radius div neg rotate show stringwidth pop arckern add sub dup 57 29578 mul radius div grestore forall pop pop grestore def demo remove before use Palatino Roman findfont 100 O O 100 O 0 makefont setfont 200 O 500 FREE FONT arcjustify showpage For upward curving text use a positive radius For downward curving text use a negative radius Note that arckern sets the between character spacing Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Pixie Dust magic Creating an array Arc justified fonts Forms Professional Secrets of superexec IBM LaserWriter cables For more help 602 428 4073 Don Lancaster s LaserWriter Secrets 300 DPI Halftone Spot Patterns Here are the actual halftone spot pattern locations as used in the LaserWriters and most other 300 DPI PostScript printers Ly UY Q Q ES Bonus p Supplement Cater OLO ale 19 300 SPI 0 degrees 2 grays Actual 300 DPI N N y y 212 SPI 45 degrees 3 grays 150 SPI 0 degre 134 SPI 27 degrees 6 grays Halftone Spot Patterns 75 SPI 0 degrees 17 gray
130. ixProc get superexec E flush forall superexec quit Po stSc ri pt Secrets Here s a simple routine to round the corners on any arbitrary path roundpath rpdata exch def rprad exch def rpdata length 1 sub cvi rppoints exch def rpdata O get rpdata 1 get moveto 2 2 rppoints 2 sub rpvalue exch def 0 1 3 pdata exch rpvalue add get for rprad arcto pop pop pop pop for rpdata rppoints 1 sub get rpdata rppoints get lineto def New banner font demo remove before use Display PostScript 100 300 translate 10 dup scale 1 setlinecap 0 8 12981 0110051019020 5 19 10 12 10 8 9 roundpath gsave Colorease process 0 6 setlinewidth O setgray stroke grestore gsave 1 setgray A 0 4 setlinewidth stroke grestore showpage pound pee rouung Internaldict FlxProc MATERIAL OF THE MONTH The COLOREASE process lets you convert laser images into multiple color real ink instant transfers that can be applied to most any surface Colorease 100 East Ohio Street Chicago IL 60611 312 440 1266 PUBLICATIONS OF THE MONTH The free DISPLAY POSTSCRIPT OVERVIEW and the new 30 DISPLAY POSTSCRIPT REFERENCE MANUAL now issued by the Adobe Systems folks at 1585 Charleston Road Mountain View CA 94039 415 961 4400 Here s a banner for your next parade vlinemap fave pirsnap exch def 300 mul 72 div cvi pixelshigh exch def 300 mul 72 div cvi pixelswide exch def O 1 pixelswide slinenum exch def save slinenum flu
131. l eight data bits as input Barcode resources This can result in error generating high ASCIl when getting input from BASIC Electronic Publishing AppleWriter 2 1 or from other older high ASCII programs Using AppleWriter 2 0 or else a custom machine language driver that clears the high bit resolves this hassle You could also try using mark parity on a newer LaserWriter IIgs AppleTalk hassles MATERIAL OF THE MONTH The folks at BADGE A MINIT offer a complete source of badgemaking tools and supplies that can go as low as eleven cents per badge From Badge A Minit 348 North 30th Road Box 800 LaSalle IL 61301 815 224 2090 PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING is a free trade journal that has good information on papers toners and lots of small quantity desktop publishing tools They also have a yearly supplier directory From Electronic Publishing at 401 North Broad Street Philadelphia PA 19108 215 238 5300 IS FREE FONT gi The quality of extremely small text can be dramatically improved by using the following routine You can now print legible text as small as 3 points on your 300 DPI LaserWriter printer currentchar X def fineprint urrentchar exch O exch put currentpoint dtransform exch ceiling exch idtransform moveto currentchar show currentchar eq urrentpoint exch spacekern add exch moveto urrentpoint exch charkern add exch moveto ifelse forall def demo remov
132. le Helvetica BoldOblique findfont 3 2 0 O 3 2 O 0 makefont setfont 10 10 FREE starburst1 showpage quit To change the number of points or their positions simply do a starburst2 etc with different array values in roundpath All of those usual 3 D and shadow For more help effects can easily be added 520 428 4073 Bezier curve length Don Lancaster s PostScri t Utility and demo to find the approximate length of a single Bezier curveto p cubic spline curve This opens up all sorts of new design opportunities Secrets especially when fitting text between two arbitrary curves WARNING Two way comm channel required for host length reporting Demo to find the length along a Bezier curve and selected parametric points Bonus along a curve Being able to use SELECTED PORTIONS of a SINGLE Bezier curve opens up all sorts of new possibilities Not the least of which is forcing text Supplement between two arbitrary curves 35 A Theory 1 For a parametric curve of x t axt 3 bxt 2 cxt x0 and y t ayt 3 byt 2 cyt y0 along with a Bezier graphing space of x0 y0 Bezier length x1 y1 x2 y2 and x3 y3 simultaneous solution yields cx 3 x1 x0 bx 3x2 6x1 3x0 ax x3 3x2 3x1 x0 cy 3 y1 y0 by 3y2 6y1 3y0 ay y3 3y2 3y1 y0 This transforms you from graph to equation space Theory 2 To approximate nearly any messy curve break the curve up into straight line segments and add up
133. le definitely does not want you to know about the incredibly powerful and zero cost two host network that always has been built into each and every LaserWriter This network does not require 150 cables does not use a AppleTalk can be ridiculously faster than AppleTalk and needs no A B switch box or manual intervention Simply use the serial comm mode and connect your first host to the 25 pin connector and the second one to the 8 or 9 pin connector The LaserWriter will automatically take turns accepting any job from Ticket Blanks any input and each host can make a status query at any time You can use the same idea for dual speed printing from one host using 19200 baud for A Copperplate font interactive and 57600 baud for any book on demand printing of compiled code Serial comm network IBM serial COM ports NTX second side jams Second side NT or NTX paper feed jams can often be traced to slick or worn pickup rollers or registration pads Do NOT ever use alcohol to clean these use Bove amp Rhodes Report a good office machine platen cleaner and reconditioner These can need replacement every 25 000 or so copies On the Apple LaserWriter you can use Hewlett Packard parts RG1 0931 00CN roller and RF1 1145 00CN pad following the instructions in H P s manual 33440 90904 The free H P phone number is 800 227 8164 MATERIALS OF THE MONTH Ticker BLANKS both plain and numbered are available from Paper Plus 213
134. lement 23 A Scribbling along a path For more help 602 428 4073 Scribbling in PostScript Sometimes the problem with PostScript is that it is TOO precise There are times and places where you want to pick up a hand drawn or sketched effect where a line only sort of followes a line or a curved path Or where you want slightly ratty results The following PRELIMIINARY tools should get you started Note that these tools are far more powerful in a level 2 environment but they certainly can be used in level 1 Watch your total path length in level 1 per the IMPORTANT NOTE below A SCRIBBLE UTILITY TOOLKIT random is borrowed from the gonzo powertools It returns a random integer as in 6 random gives you a value from 0 to 5 random fand 65536 div 32768 div mul cvi def scribblepat sets the exact pattern used assuming you want it to be the same for each and every copy Changing scribblepat changes when and where the wiggles appear Use any integer scribblepat 12345 def set fuzzy pattern scribblepat srand place this line at the start of your FIRST USE ONLY of the scribbling routines scribbleres determines how long each straight line approximation to the fuzzy line will be Use 1 for one point increments or 4 16667 or 0 24 for single pixels The smaller the number and the longer the line the longer your path This can cause problems on level 1 scribbleres 1 def le
135. lines PS Adobe 2 0 EPSF 2 0 BoundingBox LLx LLy URx URy Here LLx is the distance in points from the left sheet edge to the left side of your image LLy is the distance from the bottom sheet edge to the image bottom URx is the distance from the left sheet edge to the right image side and URy is the distance from the bottom sheet edge to the top image limit Note that all these numbers are completely independent of any translation scaling or rotation system in use within your EPS file To find your bounding box you print your file and then measure all these dimensions in points on your printed page Use a standard point rule to do this The purpose of a bounding box is to let an applications package know how large the standard size of the image is and where it is to be located from a reference location These two conforming comments are the only two actually required by an EPS file Any additional conforming comments could get added as needed or as requested by whatever is importing the EPS file It is suggested that all the conforming comments be ended by a EndComments final line The EPS code has to be well behaved and must not do anything that would corrupt what the importing applications package is trying to accomplish The PostScript EPS code should only involve a single page or smaller image These commands are not allowed banddevice copypage erasepage exitserver framedevice grestoreall initclip initgraphics initm
136. long scribbles A workaround is to place an INTERNAL currentpoint stroke moveto INSIDE OF the above routine This will allow ultra fancy or ultra long scribbling on a level 1 machine but will prohibit fancy path fills clips or multiple strokes It will also execute MUCH more slowly With internal stroking the demos will have to be modified so that they do not stroke or fill by themselves Scribbling in PostScript Don Lancaster s scribblecurveres uses setflat and flattenpath to approximate the curve as PostSc ri t line segments Allowable values in pixels are 0 2 to 100 The larger the value p the greater the deviation from the curve but the faster the execution time Sec rets scribblecurveres 5 def allowable curveto path deviation scribblecurveto works just like curveto except that an erratic path is generated that more or less follows the curve Bonus scribblecurveto save currentpoint newpath moveto scribblecurveres setflat Supplement curveto flattenpath mark XK X pathforall cpath exch store grestore O 1 cpath length 2 sub 2 div 1 sub cvi 2 mul posn exch def cpath posn get cx0 exch store 23 B cpath posn 1 add get cyO exch store cpath posn 2 add get cx1 exch store cpath posn 3 add get cyl exch store cx1 cx0 sub cy1 cyO sub scribblerlineto for def Scribbli cri ing demo remove or alter before reuse along a path O 100 translate improve position on page A A PLAIN O
137. lp 520 428 4073 How to refill a toner cartridge k is insane not to personally refill your own SX and CX toner cartridges since you can reduce your per page toner costs as much as 15 1 this way There are two popular methods called the punch and go and the total teardown very strongly feel that punch and go delivers far and away the lowest end user cost and that a total teardown often creates more problems than it solves Here s the punch and go details Drill a 5 8 inch hole using a 3 Vise Grip Unibit carefully clear all chips Drill 3 8 inch hole using a 3 Vise Grip Unibit carefully clear all chips Drill 5 8 inch hole using a 3 Vise Grip Unibit carefully clear all chips Be certain that the new hole is centered between the die sink marks Drill 3 8 inch hole using a 3 Vise Grip Unibit carefully clear all chips To refill an older CX cartridge with the punch and go method you first snap off the cardboard label and then drill a toner filling hole as is shown here A second CX hole is needed to let you empty the spent toner holding tank as shown here This area is found underneath the cartridge The SX cartridge punch and go refilling process is similar to the CX except for the hole locations The
138. lts can be obtained if you combine this technique with the charpath and the forall operators We ll see For more help more on this shortly 520 428 4073 Using EPS encapsulated PostScript files An Encapsulated PostScript or EPS file is some segment of PostScript code Don Lancaster s PostScript that can be safely imported by a larger application program This lets you move S t your figures or illustrations into pagemaking programs or otherwise link any ecrets individual or custom routines together The two key documents are the Encapsulated PostScript Files Specification Version 2 0 and the Document Structuring Conventions Specification Version 2 1 Both of these are available free from Adobe Systems at 415 961 4400 Bonus All of the document structuring conventions are voluntary and are completely Supplement ignored by your printer s PostScript interpreter Thus cooperation is required 10 between the EPS and host routines to decide what is really needed A conforming document comment will begin with a or a and will be less than 255 characters long Extensions can use a line Often used comments Using those EPS include the PostScript version title creator and date Other comments can be included for paper weight color included fonts files and procs Encapsulated PostScript Files On to an EPS file In its simplest form an ordinary textfile is used The only manditory requirements are these two initial
139. m environment To find your printer status do a t to reset slowly do a c d Initial recommended serial comm parameters are 9600 Baud 7 data bits the seldom used Space parity 1 stop bit and XON XOFF handshaking activated Use of the AppleWorks program is not recommended On a Macintosh use any old word processor to create your PostScript file Then save that file as a standard ASCII textfile and not as a word processor document If you are using AppleTalk send and debug your PostScript file using Send PS or the send file feature of the Adobe Font Downloader If you are using serial comm use FreeTerm or some other suitable two way communications package On an IBMor PC Clone you use any old word processor to create your PostScript file Then save that file in a standard ASCII textfile form and not as a word processor document Do NOT under any circumstances use the copy LPT1 command Instead use Crosstalk or ProTerm to send your file and receive your two way return error messages Initial comm values can be 9600 baud 8 data bits 1 stop bit no parity with the XON XOFF activated Use t to check printer status and a slowly sent c d to force a printer reset On any Other Systems use a word processor or an editor to create a standard ASCII textfile Then send that file in a two way comm environment using t to query status and a slow c d to force any printer reset Start with the IBM comm parameters above Avoid
140. matically compress your images especially with PostScript level Il Transmission times and storage space can be reduced by as much as 100 1 Copies of this 122 page horses mouth document available from Adobe Systems 1585 Charleston Road Mountain View CA 94039 415 961 4111 Cost is 18 00 IM IM Here s another route to precisely controlling fine line detail at 300 DPI based on working directly in whole pixels read from an array hstripearray 16 4144124104847464544434242423131 def widestchar 200 def extrakern 4 def strr X def workinpixels gsave 4 16667 mul floor 0 24 mul exch 4 16667 mul floor 0 24 mul translate 0 24 dup scale def hpixelstripes msg exch def workinpixels O O moveto O 1 msg length 1 sub msg exch 1 getinterval gsave dup false charpath clip newpath gsave O setgray 0 setlinewidth O 1 5 Q exch moveto widestchar 0 rlineto stroke for O 1 hstripearray length 1 sub fhstripearray exch get Q O moveto widestchar O rlineto stroke O 1 translate O O moveto repeat 1 currentgray sub setgray for grestore grestore stringwidth pop extrakern add O translate 0 O moveto for grestore def demo remove or alter before reuse AvantGarde DemiOblique findfont 180 O 0 180 O 0 makefont setfont 50 300 FREE FONT hpixelstripes showpage quit The hstripearray gives you 16 pixel lines of black 4 pixel lines of white 14 of For more help black 4 of white etc The effect usually looks best on l
141. mmended for all but the largest lettering whle 16 should be used for all Supplement but the very largest of long line graphics 44 B A boolean called showlinesascurves decides whether to allow shortcuts or not Using showlinesascurves false greatly speeds up initial layout mt Savecp mark 2 index 2 index lastmt exch def exch fontsize O get mul 001 Paper cup mul xoffset add exch fontsize 3 get mul 001 mul yoffset add nit moveto def ct font code Savecp 3 amp 2 roll exch fontsize O get mul 001 mul xoffset add exch fontsize 3 get mul 001 mul yoffset add nit repeat curveto def showlinesascurves false def numcurvesperlineto 4 def here s the switcher that decides what to do with a lineto the original li allows shortcuts lict does the actual lineto to multiple curveto conversion li Showlinesascurves fict Prigli ifelse def origli avecp exch fontsize O get mul 001 mul xoffset add exch fontsize 3 get mul 001 mul yoffset add nit lineto def lict yy exch def xx exch def yy ycp sub numcurvesperlineto dup add div yd exch def xx xcp sub numcurvesperlineto dup add div xd exch def numcurvesperlineto cp xd add ycp yd add 2 copy xcp xd 2 mul add ycp yd 2 mul add ct repeat def the cp closepath operator is similarly steered to avoid shortcuts The endpoint of cp is saved by the last mt moveto in a two element array called lastmt and of form x y as an internal working tool savecp holds the previous UNTRANSFORM
142. mul 72 div floor 72 mul 300 div for each axis This is one way to improve a fine gray grid or to image repeating line patterns to exactly the same width After a lock move only in exact pixel multiples or the lock will be lost Exact locking is best done at 1 1 scale While underlining can be tolerated in the second grade it should be strongly A discouraged in the third and severely punished in the fourth Beyond that anyone who even thinks about underlining in public should get staked to an AppleTalk cables anthill and left there until the next steering committee meeting Fortunately E this disease is self limiting since compulsive underliners eventually grow so Underlining rules much hair on the palms of their hands that they can no longer type Fomeboard sheets Pixel boundry locking LaserWriter Reference Popular Star Wars font MATERIAL OF THE MONTH k used to be that cardboard was cardboard and posterboard was posterboard But today there are dozens of EXOTIC NEW HIGH TECH DISPLAY MATERIALS also useful for signs and modelmaking One leading source of these products is Fomeboards 2211 North Elston Avenue Chicago IL 60614 312 278 9200 PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH The LASERWRITER REFERENCE MANUAL is a new hard bound Apple book which covers the LaserWriter LaserWriter Plus NT and the NTX machines Included are complete lists of those Diablo and Hewlett Packard emulation commands interface details har
143. n on through your LaserWriter NT or NTX It costs a buck a yard at your local cloth or notions store and can become a highly useful transfer stencil and pattern material WARNING Be absolutely sure to get the sew in style and NOT the heat fusable type The medium thickness works best PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH The PRINTER S SHOPPER is not really a shopper It is instead a company catalog that is chock full of a mind boggling variety of printshop materials and tools useful to all your small scale laser printing and desktop publishing Box 1056 Chula Vista CA 92012 619 422 2200 FREE FONT Superstroking can also give you all sorts of special font effects requires superinsidestroke from above strokeproc 5 O 1 1 0 5 0 superinsidestroke def sstr X def extrastretch 2 def superfont save msg exch def msg cval exch def save csnap exch def currentpoint sstr O cval put sstr false charpath strokeproc csnap restore exch sstr stringwidth pop add extrastretch add exch moveto forall grestore def demo remove before use 1 setlinecap 1 setlinejoin 100 200 moveto Bookman Demiltalic findfont 40 O O 40 O 0 makefont setfont FREE FONT superfont showpage Use superinsidestroke whenever you want to preserve the font outline and the superstroke when you want to fatten the original outline Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Compiled PostScript The Printer s Shopper Non woven interfacing Super
144. n true def lots of detail smithchart draw one Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Bonus Supplement 43 B Smith chart For more help 602 428 4073 Ada a stripe of fluorescent bumpersticker material to the bottom of your paper trays This gives you another out of paper indicator that is easier to notice when walking by an unattended printer Here s a simple and clean way to merge two PostScript strings mergestr 2 copy length exch length add string dup dup 4 3 roll 4 index length exch putinterval 3 1 roll exch O exch putinterval def merges top two stack strings into single stack string To use just do a stringA stringB mergestr to get stringAstringB The proc works by creating a new string of the proper length and then appropriately back to back copying the original strings Ana here s how you can use a string merging to generate the first hundred Roman numerals for book boilerplate or whatever Romnum up 10 div cvi x xx xxx xI 1 1x bod boo xc exch get exch 10 mod cvi i ii iii iv v vi vii viii ix exch get mergestr def demo remove before use Helvetica findfont 9 scalefont setfont 100 635 moveto The decimal number 18 is 18 Romnum mergestr in Roman Numerals mergestr show showpage quit You can easily extend this technique for higher Roman Numerals but these are rarely needed as calculated values Avoid ever using Zapf o
145. neg add tt mul For more help add yy0 add def 520 428 4073 Avuncular sleezoid utility Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets if you want more curves use pcurveto3 etc numpoints 25 def default dot currentpoint newpath 0 150 O 360 arc fill def from GUTILITY PTL plotdots 1 numpoints div 1 tt exch def xtt ytt moveto dot for ef plotsurface 1 numpoints div 1 0001 tt exch def xtt ytt moveto xxtt yytt lineto stroke for def Bonus demo remove before use Supplement gsave save graphics state 26 B 45 450 translate position on page 16 dup scale set size F 90 rotate orientatify Sleezoid 0 07 setlinewidth set thickness utility O O moveto 1 18 9 8 10 10 pcurvetol stroke draw first spline 5 9 moveto 20 23 10 48 10 17 pcurveto2 stroke draw second spline O O moveto 5 9 rlineto stroke far edge trim 10 10 moveto 10 17 lineto stroke near edge trim numpoints 60 def set spacing O setlinewidth plotsurface connect the dots grestore restore state showpage quit and end it all For more help 520 428 4073 That non PostScript LaserWriter SC seems to be a lousy buy The 1500 street price H P Laser et Il does far more with the same Canon SX engine Worse still whenever your inevitable SC upgrade to the PostScript NT or NTX is made you will be fined an upgrading penalty that can exceed 3000 If you can t affort a L
146. ng ever defining one procedure from within Don Lancaster S another one that gets called repeatedly Use your vmstatus command PostScript Secrets Here s a few sources of hot stamping foils Bind it Lamart 150 Commerce Drive 16 Richmond Street Hauppauge NY 11788 Clifton N 07015 800 645 5110 201 772 6262 Hoechst Corp Maple Roll Leaf PO Box 1400 2285 Ambassador Dr Greer SC 29652 Windsor ONT N9C 3R5 Hot stamping foils 803 879 5000 519 966 4721 Garbage collection Identicolor Transfer Print Foils Ask The Guru I II 720 White Plains Road PO Box 518 a N Scarsdale NY 10583 E Brunswick NJ 08816 Rebuilt LaserWriters 914 472 6640 201 238 1800 Classic litho chokes Transfer Print Foils has an outstanding Foiled Again newsletter Toner refill supplies MATERIALS OF THE MONTH You can get TONER CARTRIDGE REFILLING SUPPLIES from either Arlin Shepard at Lazer Products Inc 12741 East Caley Avenue 130 Englewood CO 80111 303 792 5277 or by way of Don Thompson of Thompson and Thompson 23072 Mullen El Toro CA 92630 714 855 3838 In addition Arlin manufactures the fusion wipers and drum lubricant while Don carries the special teardown tools low cost rebuilt LaserWriters and replacement fuser assembly parts PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH I like to think that my book on demand published ASK THE GURU REPRINTS I amp Il have bunches of useful PostScript LaserWriter and desktop publishing stuff in t
147. ngth of shortest scribble ratticity determines how violently the fuzzy line deviates from the intended path It is expressed as a fraction of scribbleres Use 0 2 for a fuzzy line 5 for a stock graph Experiment ratticity 0 2 def how erratic is the line to be hominginstinct determines how motivated the ratty line will be towards getting back on path This is really a high pass filter or a house take that prevents major deviations from piling up on a long term basis You can think of this as an excess deviation tax Normal range is O to 0 3 zero to thirty percent with a value of 0 3 being get back on track fast and 1 0 being wander all you want hominginstinct 0 01 def how fast does the line get back on track scribblerlineto works just like rlineto except that an erratic path is generated scribblerlineto urrentpoint 2 copy translate cury exch store curx exch def 2 copy exch atan dup curang exch store rotate dup mul exch dup mul add sqrt fulllength exch store fulllength scribbleres div ceiling cvi numsegs exch def fulllength numsegs div incr1 exch store deltay O store numsegs ncr1 101 random 50 sub dup 0 eq Pop 0 00001Jf 50 div scribbleres ratticity mul mul currentpoint exch pop hominginstinct mul neg add rlineto repeat curang neg rotate curx neg cury neg translate def IMPORTANT NOTE Level 1 machines only allow 1500 or so elements in any path and may overflow on fine detail or
148. ns the MIDDLE value of the heap b Compare the new value against sequential values in the heap starting either at the bottom or in the middle per the results of a c Roll the new value into the appropriate heap position The PostScript stack only allows 500 or so values maximum so this method in this form is only useful to sort 500 or fewer values It can be easily extended to sort any length The utilities shown below can certainly be improved and fine tuned stopped here because they were good enough for what wanted A free INCREDIBLE SECRET MONEY MACHINE for any faster code For more help 520 428 4073 PostScript insertion sorts INSERTION SORT UTILITIES insort does an insertion sort placing the top stack object in the appropriate position in a mark delimited set of stack values The LOWEST value is just above the mark as in mark 6 4 0 2 73 insort counttomark dup 3 It 2 eq 2 copy gt Exchjfjf L sub numvalues exch def newvalue exch def numvalues dup 2 div cvi dup 2 add index newvalue It exch if pop numvalues exch def O numvalues 1 O index newvalue It 1 add exit ifelse for numvalues sub neg 1 add newvalue exch 1 roll ifelse bind def abinsort does an absolute insertion sort placing the top stack object in the appropriate position in a mark delimited set of stack values The LOWEST ABSOLUTE value is just above the mark mark O 2 4 6 73 abinsort counttomark dup 3 It 2
149. nt down to a reasonable value It goes without saying that scanned images need not apply Prepare to repel borders First several excerpts from our great 270 GUTIL13A PTL utilities PAPPP Y GUTILI3A PTL EXCERPTS superstroke and superinsidestroke take a predefined path and a top of stack array of width1 grayl width2 gray2 widthn grayn and do multiple strokes for wires fancy borders or braiding Note that the FIRST array value pair has to be the WIDEST etc Use superstroke for wires superinsidestroke for borders superstroke save sssnap exch def sscmd exch def mark O 2 sscmd length 2 div cvi 1 sub 2 mul faposn exch def gsave sscmd aposn get setlinewidth sscmd aposn 1 add get setgray stroke grestore for cleartomark sssnap restore newpath def flushends setlinecap def roundjoins 1 setlinejoin def rounded path ends rounded path joins This creates a rounded path from radius x1 y1 x2 y2 xn yn roundpath Does NOT round path ends roundpath rpdata exch def rprad exch def rpdata length 1 sub cvi rppoints exch def rpdata O get rpdata 1 get moveto 2 2 rppoints 2 sub rpvalue exch def 0 1 3 fpdata exch rpvalue add get for rprad arcto pop pop pop pop for rpdata rppoints 1 sub get rpdata rppoints get lineto def L Y Y Y Y YY END GUTIL13A PTL EXCERPTS SOME HINTS Here are more examples of some serendipitous border code ss 5 O 2 5 1 0 6 O superstroke def fl
150. nt transform 3 div round 3 mul exch round exch itransform moveto Landscape printing currentpoint transform 4 div round 4 mul exch round exch itransform moveto Printing Impressions These are handy for fine and dropout free gray grids or for the elimination of Italic amp reverse italic variable widths of thin lines Vertical pixel locks can also be done J ust Horizontal pixel locks eliminate all of the exch commands from the above listings Be BI Unibind binding system MATERIAL OF THE MONTH The uNIBIND system is the best I ve found so far for small scale perfect book binding The covers are clear vinyl with a hot glue strip down them they are ideal for protecting toner over parchment title sheets Cost is around a dollar per book The machine is a simple toaster and is available on free lease if you purchase enough covers Unibind from Leonard s Distributors at 4125 Prospect Carmichael CA 95608 916 967 6401 PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH PRINTING IMPRESSIONS is a free middle of the road printer s trade journal with lots of ads for paper materials machinery and services in it From Printing Impressions 410 North Broad Street Philadelphia PA 19108 215 238 5300 They also publish many other useful magazines FREE FON In general if an italic or oblique version of a font is available it should get used But the Benguiat type you see here is not yet available in italic so you have to fake it Here is how you can tampe
151. ntial multiple curves to prevent short cuts The maxstraight variable determines how long the longest line is allowed to be without changing it into two or more curvea This prevents short cuts A very large value turns this feature off maxstraight 5000 def maximum allowable straight line length Because of the need to prevent shortcuts currentpoints in the PRE transformed space must be preserved The last currentpoint x0 and yO for lineto to curveto conversions and the initial moveto currentpoint for closepaths savecp 2 copy y0 exch def x0 exch def def mt Savecp xx0 x0 def yy0 yO def nit moveto def li roshortcuts def ct Savecp 3 2 roll nit repeat curveto def cp Kx0 yy0 li closepath def nimap does a nonlinear mapping of an ALREADY CREATED PATH using an nit algorithm to do the actual mapping It produces an on stack array of the nonlinear mapping nlmap save mark newpath cvx mt cvxMli cvxMct cvx cp cvx pathforall newpath grestore cvx def Spherical nonlinear transformations Don Lancaster s makecurves converts long lines into Bezier curvetos with control points on the PostSc ri t line at the 333 and 667 points This approximation is simple and fairly good p looking It is easily improved by reducing maxstraight at the expense of longer Secrets files and runtimes makecurves floor cvi y1 yO sub 1 index div 3 div ydelta exch def x1 x0 sub 1 index div 3 div xdelta exch
152. nto new dict 1 index FID ne def pop pop ifelse forall Encoding exch def FontName 1 index def currentdict definefont pop end bind def Copyright C 1991 by Adobe Systems Incorporated All rights reserved This file is an example of how to add character definitions to the CharStrings dictionary of a Type 1 font bdef find def bind def Max 2 copy It Exch if pop bind def Min 2 copy gt xch if pop bind def FilledBox CharStrings FilledBox pop 1000 O 100 100 900 900 setcachedevice 100 100 moveto 900 100 lineto 900 900 lineto 100 900 lineto closepath fill bdef NotFilledBox CharStrings NotFilledBox pop 1000 0 100 100 900 900 setcachedevice 100 100 moveto 900 100 lineto 900 900 lineto 100 900 lineto closepath stroke bdef infinity CharStrings infinity pop 713 O setcharwidth Symbol findfont 1000 scalefont setfont For more help O O moveto show 520 428 4073 bdef Adobe font recoding utilities Don Lancaster s RE NewFontName NewEncodingArray FontName RE H findfont dup length dict begin PostScript copy font dictionary into new dict Secrets 1 index FID ne def pop pop ifelse forall Encoding exch def FontName 1 index def Bonus currentdict definefont pop Supplement end bdef 14 B REA NewFontName NewCharsBBox NewEncodingArray NewCharNamesArray FontName REA Font recoding ReEncode font Adding new character procs to CharS
153. nual for the SX engine based NT and NTX is part number 33440 90904 This one is a must have Sample of NORMAL FONT with internal 123 456 7890 numbers Sample of FREE FONT with internal 123 456 7890 numbers Yeah this one is super subtle But subtle typography tricks become especially important at 300 DPI Which is one reason that always will use a four stage progressive microjustification and hanging punctuation along with hand crafted hyphenation copy fitting and post justification editing At any rate any long strings of caps or multiple sequential numerals will look oversize and out of place in any larger text body The trick is to substitute a second font that is six to ten percent smaller for any internal caps or number strings Here s a simple example font1 Helvetica Bold findfont 16 O O 16 O 0 makefont setfont def font2 Helvetica Bold findfont 15 O O 15 O 0 makefont setfont def 50 100 moveto font1 Sample of NORMAL FONT with internal 123 456 7890 numbers show 50 50 moveto fontl Sample of show font2 FREE FONT show font1 with internal show font2 123 456 7890 show font1 numbers show showpage quit The key test for the correct caps and numbers size to use is Does it look like it s not there This trick becomes super important when narrow columns are fill justified Note that the intentional use of obviously SMALLER CAPITALS will give you a totally different effect Don Lancaster s
154. num srand 300 mul 72 div rndhigh exch def 300 mul 72 div rndwide exch def 72 300 div dup scale 1 setlinecap 1 setlinewidth rndhigh rndwide mul density mul cvifndwide random rndhigh random moveto 0 01 O rlineto stroke repeat grestore def patnum 12345678 def density 0 09 def 72 72 randscreen showpage quit As we have already seen a two way environment that reports PostScript errors to your host screen is absolutely essential Above and beyond that you might want to go to a printing error trapper that prints your page up to the time the error occurs Suitable error trappers appear in the Green Book on the various Adobe support disks or in my PostScript Beginner Stuff package Note that the printing error trappers cannot report paper jams or similar errors MATERIAL OF THE MONTH MarrocoLor is yet another color proofing process that lets you convert laser images into multiple color real ink instant transfers that can be applied to most any surface From the Castcraft Industries folks at 23 West Hubbard Street Chicago IL 60610 312 722 6530 PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH The free ADOBE ILLUSTRATOR demo disk for the IBM and compatible clones available from Adobe Systems Inc 1585 Charleston Road Mountain View CA 94039 415 961 4400 Getting realistic looking pen skips for a curve traced signature or for effective splatter screens can be very tricky Here s a somewhat slow routine that has enough variables to do the job pro
155. o 150 O rlineto O 150 rlineto 150 0 rlineto closepath 10 10 moveto C false charpath eoclip 1 setgray fill initclip 10 10 moveto C false charpath 0 setgray stroke showpage A font can be reversed by changing the sign of the first number in the font matrix For instance here is how to do a hand pointing to the left ZapfDingbats findfont 24 O O 24 O 0 makefont setfont 100 200 moveto show showpage ei sl sl Similarly you can turn a font upside down by negating the fourth number in the font matrix Neat huh MATERIAL OF THE MONTH Krov koLor is a simple way to convert a black toner image into any of dozens of vibrant colors using nothing but a second trip through your printer a special machine or even an iron Cost is around fifty cents per sheet and free samples are now available From Kroy Kolor 14555 North Hayden Road Scottsdale AZ 85260 800 521 4997 PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH IN PLANT PRINTER is a free trade journal with lots of good printing ideas in it along with ads for papers supplies and materials which are all suitable for desktop publishing uses From In Plant Printer Box 368 Northbrook IL 60062 The phone number is 312 564 5940 Free Font The Zapf calligraphic font tends to get weak and thin in the larger sizes needed for certificates and awards Here s how to thicken it or any other font by reprinting it several times each of which is started one pixel to the right of the previous prin
156. o 304 0 rlineto O 54 rlineto closepath gsave fill grestore gsave 1 setlinecap 1 setlinejoin 0 7 setgray 5 setlinewidth stroke grestore newpath Palatino Bold findfont 50 O O 50 O 0 makefont setfont 10 10 0 8 FREE FONT emboss grestore showpage quit Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Applique film Fancy borders Error reporting Embossed font Siggraph Proceedings For more help 520 428 4073 Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Bonus Supplement 45 A Serendipitous border contest For more help 520 428 4073 PostScript serendipitous border contest J ust design and upload ANY decent looking raw PostScript border that uses very few bytes Your odds of winning Guru books software and or GEnie time are very high 35 design ideas are included to get you started This is a contest with only one rule Upload an original raw PostScript border that looks good and uses very few bytes of code Prizes will include INCREDIBLE SECRET MONEY MACHINES other Guru software and books and free GEnie time For the very best entry of all there will be an all expense paid FOB Thatcher AZ tinaja quest for two Your odds of winning are VERY high This is also a great first project in raw PostScript programming Some hints appear below Your particular border does NOT have to use arcto crowding roundpath or superstroke But you might choose to use these and other Guru utilities to keep your total byte cou
157. o a two way communication environment that lets you receive and record error messages Use an error trapper that dumps the stack Use a chopper tool to send an eexec file only up to a cursed character followed by a d Or use a inserter tool that adds an extra FF or AA into the eexec data stream The eexec file can then be reconstructed from the received and recorded return error messages MATERIAL OF THE MONTH Fsk SELF ADHESIVE PRODUCTS are covered in a free sample swatch book that includes clear self stick mylar silvers golds and vinyls Several of these are laser printable while others are ideal for the protective overlays for menus booklets or whatever Cost is around ten cents per sheet From International Films Inc 45 Industrial Parkway Woburn MA 01888 800 633 0140 PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH Font amp FUNCTION is a new Adobe PostScript typeface sample book and catalog that also includes lots of typography secrets and layout tips Free from Adobe Systems Inc 1585 Charleston Road Box 7900 Mountain View CA 94039 The phone number is 800 833 6687 free font A true outline clipping and a multiple stroking can be combined to produce some old fashioned lettering effects that look particularly good on very large display letters stretch 1 def str X def doubleoutline save initclip str exch O exch put str print flush str false charpath gsave clip gsave fill grestore gsave 2 5 setlinewidth 1 setgray
158. oYo Yo YoYo YoYo Yo Yo YoYo YoYo Yo Yo PP PPPA Keystone justification is a quite useful tool for blurbs advt copy or point of purchase sign use but it has been extremely difficult to do either quick or well in the past Or at least till now These Guru gonzo justification routines quickly and easily give you your choice of left centered or right keystone justifications in one or at most two passes with unbeatably superb print quality All of the gonzo justification features multiple line fonts lots of kerning options hanging punctuation space char ratio control outstanding typographic quality etc etc are fully retained There are three routines called cck clk and crk short for callout centered keystone callout right keystone and callout left keystone Here s how to use cck 306 center xposn 490 y position true true keystone false ordinary justify electronic tuning diodes two unusual newsletters parametric Amplification association book resources preventing modem dropouts cck your series of strings to be keystoned The algorithm works as follows An average length of the first two gonzo string lines is taken An average length of the last two gonzo string lines is taken From these a starting width a slope and a line increment is chosen The length of each individual line string is checked and the starting width is widened as much as is needed to be sure each line f
159. obe Systems Incorporated All rights reserved BeginExitServer 0 serverdict begin O exitserver TIMETOOL incomplete def elapsedtime O def timeToolDict 20 dict def systemdict realtime known timerop using realtime def gettime realtime load def timerop using usertime def gettime usertime load def ifelse beginTiming beginTiming begin interval timing tmptime gettime def bind def endTiming endTiming end interval timing gettime tmptime sub 1000 div elapsedtime exch def bind def TIMETOOL interval def PS Adobe 3 0 ExitServer Title Download Report To Screen Timing Tool Procedure Creator RH CreationDate August 14 1991 Copyright 1991 by Adobe Systems Incorporated EndComments Copyright C by Adobe Systems Incorporated All rights reserved BeginExitServer 0 serverdict begin O exitserver BeginProlog reportTime reportTime report value of elapsed time to screen Time obtained print timerop print elapsedtime 6 string cvs print seconds print bind def For more help 520 428 4073 Adobe timing utilities Don Lancaster s PS Adobe 3 0 ExitServer Title Download Report On Page Timing Tool Procedure PostScript Creator RH Secrets CreationDate August 14 1991 Copyright 1991 by Adobe Systems Incorporated EndComments Ri ua ees Systems Incorporated Bonus o Supplement BeginExitServe
160. ontinued Static cling vinyl Large letters font I O error messages Adobe Type Manager Font lists amp printouts Thermal binding ideas Autoboxing font PostScript spiral Exclusive orprocs Menu cover sources A Printer s Inkbook Persistent downloads NT save level bug Printer s shareware Moreon roundpath Starburstfontideas Missing case command Sandblasting amp etching Menu font lotsadots That Adobe Distillery Badge centering tricks Repeat procs for forms Scoring and perforating Passing beyond restore Simple right justify 3 D perspective font Simple center justify A photosensitive vinyl Type font black book Heavy paper jams Quick border routine Hidden font characters 1500 typeface directory Pelsaer thermal binding Pad printing details College pennant font Pad printing resources Standard Rate and Data Targeted Marketinglists Nonlinear transform use A keycap free font Revised Red Book II Useful sticker routine NTX ROM upgrade 3 0 Hard coated SX drums Make a Sticker variations ae Don Lancaster s Photolabels PostScript Hidden mirrors Secrets New Gary book Starwars free font Keystone justification TypeWorld MICR toner Invalidrestore Fineline free font Array justification Table of Contents 3 Log graphs Striped font String exec trick J PEG Tech Specs 9 up Post it notes Paper printing plates Paper cup
161. or more help 520 428 4073 Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Bonus Supplement 47 Classic bubble sort For more help 520 428 4073 Classic bubble array sorts While very klutzy and crude the classic bubble sort can often be the best method for sorting a few to a few dozen values in an array The algorithm is obvious Start with the final array value Compare it against the previous value and exchange the values if the final value is larger thus bubbling largest values to the left On the first pass the largest value will end up at the left You then repeat the process for all the remaining UNSORTED values To sort n items requires n n 1 n 2 comparisons or n n 1 2 or roughly n 2 2 comparisons To reverse the final order of either version change lt to gt THE BUBBLESORT UTILITIES bubblesort accepts an array of up to 500 elements on the stack top and does a classic bubble sort replacing it with a similar array whose LARGEST value is first and SMALLEST value is last bubblesort mark exch aload pop counttomark idx exch def 0 1 idx 1 sub Pop 2 copy It xch if idx 1 roll for idx 1 roll idx idx 1 sub def idx O eq xit if loop def bubbleabssort accepts an array of up to 500 elements on the stack top and does a classic bubble sort replacing it with a similar array whose LARGEST absolute value is first and left while the SMALLEST absolute value is last and
162. ore def Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Bonus Supplement 12 C Cardboard box layout For more help 602 428 4073 boxtype4001 save boxsnap exch def take snapshot setboxpage position on page showedges Arawbox4001 if draw the box if requested showfolds amp howfold4001 if draw the folds if requested boxsnap restore def and exit demo remove before reuse change the variables above or else repeat them here boxtype4001 print the box showpage and print test copy end close Boxdict Do NOT attempt to use freon or any other chemical sprays when cleaning your LaserWriter Freon converts toner into a conductive and a nearly indestructable varnish Some electrical cleaners such as Lectra Motive 05018 can actually dissolve your LaserWriter Use a solder sucker or a vacuum cleaner instead Don Lancaster s PostScript Here s how to get up to date on bar codes The UPC council has the standards Secrets the AIM is a trade group while the two others are free trade journals A 1 M IDENTIFICATION J OURNAL 1326 Freeport Road 2640 N Halsted Street Pittsburgh PA 15238 Chicago IL 60614 412 782 1624 312 528 6600 AUTOMATIC ID NEWS UPC COUNCIL 7500 Old Oak Blvd 7075 Corporate Way S106 Cleveland OH 44130 Dayton OH 45459 Smaller text fonts 216 243 8100 513 435 3870 Chemical cleaning Badgemaking stuff The AppleTalk driver on the Ilgs expects and uses al
163. ore def 111 demo remove before use NewCenturySchlbk Bold findfont 20 0 0 16 O 0 makefont setfont vertspacing 16 def 200 300 FREE FONT vertfont showpage quit In general vertical text looks best inside a border See LaserWriter Secrets 426 for border routines that involve the magic of superinsidestroke 2071 mmxm 2071 MMJ Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Vertical Fonts Transfer Magic Relative layouts Bakerizing secrets Translation sequence APDA Developer stuff For more help 602 428 4073 A Step and Repeat utility Don Lancaster S Here s a very powerful step and repeat that includes sequential numbering LaserWriter crop or tick marks portrait vs landscape and lots of other useful features o ER 3 Sec rets Create a dictionary of often used repeat patterns stepnrptparams 40 dict def stepnrptparams begin The repeat array values starting from the left are as follows numpages number of pages to be printed Bonus numhoriz number of repeats in horizontal direction numvert number of repeats in vertical direction Supplement inchoriz horizontal repeat spacing in points incvert vertical repeat spacing in points 5 horstart horizontal starting position in points lower left vertstart vertical starting position in points lower left portrait true portrait false landscape A Powerful ticklen length of tick in points ticktrue true or false for sho
164. orms of LaserWriter Corner 44 for printing on truncated cones Shown is PostScript Level code The process can be vastly simplified and sped up by going to a Level II machine with its immediately grabbable font paths Copyright c 1992 by Don Lancaster and Synergetics 3860 West First Street Box 809 Thatcher AZ 85552 602 428 4073 All commercial rights reserved Personal use permitted so long as this header remains present and intact mychardict 100 dict def mychardict dup start a closed dictionary F 722 426 O mt 426 53 li 363 56 li 306 58 306 70 306 123 ct 306 345 li 316 345 li 383 345 418 326 447 264 ct 458 241 462 215 464 191 ct 515 191 li 515 537 li 464 537 li 443 439 413 394 306 398 ct 306 604 li 306 620 304 642 318 654 ct 342 671 374 668 402 668 ct 548 668 606 593 640 459 ct 690 459 li 683 722 li 23 722 li 23 669 li 49 669 li 68 668 89 670 107 663 ct 128 657 128 633 128 615 ct 128 120 li 128 105 128 89 125 74 ct 123 71 122 67 120 64 ct 118 61 114 59 111 57 ct 101 53 92 53 82 53 ct 22 53 li 22 Oli cp put dup R 815 303 607 mt 303 627 304 653 323 664 ct 346 672 372 671 396 671 ct 487 671 537 642 537 545 ct 537 437 481 405 383 402 ct 356 401 330 399 303 400 ct cp 20 722 mt 20 669 li 52 669 li 75 668 100 673 117 656 ct 129 644 125 593 125 576 ct 125 113 li 123 72 123 55 75 54 ct 57 53 38 53 20 53 ct 20 0 li 413 0 li 413 53 li 388 53 li 371 54 353 53 336 56 ct 315 57 309 63 304 83 ct 303 94 303 106 303 117 ct 303
165. otl div floor mdot1 mul add yym moveto 0 0 rmstr cw mdotl div 10 mul ceiling 10 div mdot1 mul for 10X grid only neg 0 rlineto stroke grestore xxm yym Imstr cl xxm txtwide add yym rmstr cr yym yym yinc sub def if def Don Lancaster s mj menujustify accepts tabbed string pairs and converts them into dotted PostScript menu listings cm save msg exch def yym exch def xxm exch def msg search mline Secrets exch def pop msg exch def mlineproc mline exch def mlineproc exit ifelse loop grestore def demo remove or alter before reuse Bonus gonzo begin turn on the preloaded gonzo justification gutil begin turn on the preloaded gonzo utilities Supplement printerror show any errors to the page 36 B nuisance begin activate the nuisance dictionary showthegrid false def view the layout grid 20 20 10 setgrid get on the layout grid Menu showthegrid 60 50 showgrid if and maybe show it justification 9 41 mt 5 pu 29 pr 5 pd closepath bestgray lightgray fill black title fill goes UNDER border This is the magic border For other effects change the roundpath radius to 0 01 0 8 1 1 5 2 5 3 5 5 or 8 Or 2 or 6 DO NOT USE 3 0 Use 2 99 instead 1 setlinejoin 1 setlinecap 2 99 20 12 6 12 6 9 9 9 9 49 6 49 6 46 41 46 41 49 38 49 38 9 41 9 41 12 20 12 roundpath closepath 0 8 0 0 5 1 0 28 O 0 1 1 superstroke this draws the title bar and autoerases the ends O setlinejo
166. oveto 1 66 O 50 ashow 780 168 moveto 0 show The ruler name 465 146 moveto Helvetica findfont 40 O O 15 O O makefont setfont POINT RULE show The bottom line stripe newpath 776 135 moveto 870 O rlineto 1 setlinewidth stroke You ll want to cut this out and laminate it in plastic While useful point rules can be done at 300 DPI you ll get the best results using a higher resolution printer or phototypesetter When combined with an ad message the point ruler can be a popular and For more help f unique sales freebie 520 428 4073 A very sneaky and zero cost process called Bakerizing can make your toner images high gloss blacker and far more durable This is particularly good for business cards and parchment book covers Just get a sheet of 1 mil mylar place it in contact with the original and heat it with an iron or a Kroy Kolor machine A completely empty Kroy Kolor sheet will also work and can be reused many times for this calendering secret Avoid ever using absolute page locations Instead use gsaves and grestores with a translate to lock sub units to larger units This ridiculously simplifies any changes in layout and future reuse For instance if your whatever is inside a box let bl be boxleft and bb be the boxbottom Then doa gsave bl 10 add bb 50 add translate your great stuff goes here grestore As you reposition your box or change its size the contents will automaticall
167. p seventeenth lousiest gray available on your LaserWriter Here s the secret map Secrets from my Ask the Guru II to all of the other and usually better grays Bonus Supplement 18 The Infamous Secret 300 DPI Gray Map Screen density in dots per inch number of gray levels including black and white for each region 6 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 Screen angle in degrees Because of the integer tile arithmetic that is involved any other values will get converted to one of the numbers shown in the above map The best gray is often a 106 line 45 degree 9 level gray set with this command 106 45 lup mul exch dup mul add 1 0 exch sub setscreen For more help Other interesting grays are a 85 35 for reduced reproduction 75 15 for halftone 520 428 4073 photos and 135 25 for india ink wash effects The putrid default gray is 53 45 Here s the proper cables to get from an IBM 25 pin or 9 pin COM 1 port to your LaserWriter serial input TXD TXD TXD RXD RXD RXD RTS RTS CTS CTS DSR DSR DTR DTR SG SG DCD DCD DCD IBM Laser Comi Writer RS232 RS232 DB25 female DB25 male DB9 female DB25 male For complete return error messages or when compiling routines use CrossTalk or a similar comm program rather than attempting a simple COM 1 copy Be very careful how you creat
168. perly random fand 32768 div 65536 div mul floor cvi def dirdict 30 dict def dirdict begin O lobdist O def 1 lobdist dup def 2 blobdist def 3 lobdist dup neg exch def 4 lobdist neg 0 def 5 blobdist neg dup def 6 D blobdist neg def 7 hlobdist dup neg def 8 gocenter def 9 fgocenter def 10 fgocenter def 11 gocenter def 12 gocenter def 13 ocenter def 14 fgocenter def 15 gocenter def 16 gocenter def end gocenter urrentpoint dup retfract mul sub neg exch dup retfract mul sub neg exch def splat save splatgray setgray 72 300 div dup scale 300 mul 72 div splathigh exch def blobscale div 300 mul 72 div splatwide exch def patnum srand 1 setlinecap 1 setlinejoin 1 setlinewidth numsplats cvi save newpath splatwide random splathigh random translate 0 0 moveto maxsplatlength random fnumrandoptions 1 add cvi random cvs cvn dirdict exch get exec rlineto repeat stroke grestore repeat grestore def 200 300 translate Palatino Bold findfont 36 O O 36 O 0 makefont setfont 12 8 moveto FREE FONT show numsplats 1000 def patnum 44444444 def retfract 0 3 def numrandoptions 9 def maxsplatlength 60 def blobscale 1 def blobdist 1 def splatgray 1 def 235 40 splat showpage Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets A NTX paper jams Pen skip effects Adobe Illustrator A random screen Matrocolor proofing Printing error trapper For more help 602 428 4073 Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Bonus Supp
169. printing font Stopping starting test page Landscape printing Printing Impressions Italic amp reverse italic PostScript fractal fern Horizontal pixel locks Unibind binding system Fotofoil Metalphoto Using the font matrix Persistantdownloads Subtle caps amp numbers CX amp SX repair manuals Point Ruler Adding a reset knob Blackflashing secret Coburn sheet stocks Graphic Arts Monthly Save and restore tricks Vertical Fonts Transfer Magic Bakerizing secrets Translation sequence APDA Developer stuff Step and Repeat utility Arccos and Arcsin Instant Printer mag Dictionary overflows Courier font revisited Tamperproof Torx bits Fine Gray Grid Example Hot stamping foils Garbage collection Ask The Guru I II Rebuilt LaserWriters Classic litho chokes Toner refill supplies Screen Printer mag Double stroked font Silk screen suppliers Diablo page creep fix Stretching waittimeout Toner Cartridge Refilling Making a font bolder Multiple stroking ideas Searching text markers 3 D lettering font Printing backwards Version 47 upgrade Kroy laminating film Typography cheat book EncapsulatedPostScript Table of Contents 1 Sturdy Macho font Auto collating trick Rubber stamp glop Exotic string widths Curing white stripes Whole Earth s Signal New shinyfont effect PS integers into te
170. r 0 28 B serverdict begin 0 exitserver reportTime reportTime report value of elapsed time on page save Adobe timing O O moveto O 72 rlineto 288 O rlineto O 72 rlineto closepath utilities 1 setgray fill make sure report will be visible Times Roman findfont 8 scalefont setfont O setgray 40 56 moveto currentpoint initial line position statusdict begin product where pop product show show if printername where pop known as show 64 string printername show if end moveto 8 10 rmoveto currentpoint next line languagelevel where pop PostScript Level 2 show PostScript Level 1 show ifelse version show version show moveto 8 10 rmoveto currentpoint next line Name of job is show statusdict begin jobname where pop jobname type stringtype eq jobname not given ifelse not given ifelse show end moveto 8 10 rmoveto last line elapsed time measured show timerop show elapsedtime 10 string cvs show seconds show restore bind def Copyright 1985 1986 Adobe Systems Inc All Rights Reserved timepages ps Sending this at the beginning of any PostScript job will cause the execution time exclusive of printing time of each page to be printed at the top of all pages as follows lt productname gt lt version gt execution time gt lt y gt lt total gt seconds where lt x gt is execution time up to showpage including waiting for i o and lt y gt is execution
171. r BoldOblique Courier Oblique Eurostile Condensed Eurostile ExtendedTwo Eurostile BoldExtendedTwo FreestyleScript FrizQuadrata FrizQuadrata Bold Garamond Bold Garamond Bolditalic Garamond Light Garamond Lightltalic Goudy Goudy Bold Goudy Bolditalic Goudy Italic Helvetica Helvetica Black Helvetica BlackOblique Helvetica Bold Helvetica BoldOblique Helvetica Condensed Helvetica CondensedBold Helvetica CondensedBoldOblique Helvetica CondensedOblique Helvetica Light Helvetica LightOblique Helvetica Narrow Helvetica Narrow Bold Helvetica Narrow BoldOblique Helvetica Narrow Oblique Helvetica Oblique Hobo LubalinGraph Book LubalinGraph BookOblique LubalinGraph Demi LubalinGraph DemiOblique Lucida Lucida Bold Lucida Boldltalic Lucida Italic Melior Melior Bold Melior Bolditalic Melior Italic NewBaskerville Bold NewBaskerville Bolditalic NewBaskerville Italic NewBaskerville Roman NewCenturySchlbk Bold NewCenturySchlbk Bolditalic NewCenturySchlbk Italic NewCenturySchlbk Roman Optima Optima Bold Optima BoldOblique Optima Oblique Palatino Bold Palatino Bolditalic Palatino Italic Palatino Roman ParkAvenue QuillscriptFlowers Revue Round Showtime Sonata Souvenir Demi Souvenir Demiltalic Souvenir Light Souvenir Lightltalic Stencil StoneSans StoneSans Bold StoneSans Bolditalic StoneSans Italic StoneSans Semibol
172. r any other highly calligraphic font as ALL CAPITALS Because of those swashes and flourishes these fonts should only be used in Mixed Caps or single letter m modes MATERIAL OF THE MONTH An unusual cheap and reusable BAKERIZING FILM instantly gives a dense black a high gloss and extra durability to any toner image Great for business cards J ust temporarily place your image in contact with the film and apply heat and pressure From Synergetics Box 809 Thatcher AZ 85552 602 428 4073 PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH Ross Smith s POSTSCRIPT A VISUAL APPROACH a recommended beginner s book with a focus on grid based text and graphic constructs Through Peachpit Press at 1085 Keith Avenue Berkeley CA 94708 415 527 8555 While this non linear transform is handy for paper cups or megaphones the listing and the docs are a tad too long to show here See Bonus Supplements 44 A 44 B and 44 C for details Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Paper cup font Bakerizing film Roman numerals Calligraphic caps Paper out indicator PS A Visual Approach For more help 602 428 4073 Don Lancaster s LaserWriter Secrets Bonus Supplement 44 A Paper cup font code For more help 602 428 4073 Rootbeer Cup Font Code This detailed example shows how to do rootbeer or dixie cup transf
173. r permanent recording Naturally you ARE using full two way host recordable comm or you absolutely positively emphatically should not be here stall 87 sin pop repeat def useful delay proc 2500 stall optional host turnaround delay outlinepath E flush 50 stall forall optional internal character delay For more help 602 428 4073 Here is your expected host returned data for our example 19 52 2 35001 moveto 25 12 0 509979 35 52 2 06998 42 08 2 06998 curveto Don Lancaster s 45 44 2 06998 50 56 1 41998 53 76 0 769989 curveto 60 48 0 790009 63 68 1 95999 68 48 6 12 curveto PostScript 72 8 9 89001 74 56 15 09 74 56 19 9 curveto Secrets 74 56 26 53 70 4 32 25 63 36 35 37 curveto 58 08 37 71 51 52 38 88 45 6 40 05 curveto 38 08 41 61 lineto 33 44 42 52 24 48 43 3 24 48 48 5 curveto 24 48 54 61 32 16 56 43 38 56 56 43 curveto Bonus 49 6 56 43 57 44 49 93 62 72 42 78 curveto 63 36 42 39 63 36 41 74 63 84 41 35 curveto Supplement 70 88 41 35 lineto 70 24 61 63 lineto 37B 63 84 61 63 lineto 57 76 58 64 lineto 52 32 61 24 44 8 62 93 38 4 62 93 curveto 22 72 62 93 7 19998 56 3 7 19998 42 26 curveto font path grabber 7 19998 36 54 9 12 32 38 14 24 28 61 curveto 20 0 24 32 24 96 23 28 32 32 21 98 curveto 42 4 20 29 lineto 50 24 18 86 59 2 16 91 55 04 8 46002 curveto 52 0 5 21002 46 72 4 29999 41 92 4 29999 curveto 27 68 4 29999 18 88 12 62 13 12 22 11 curveto 6 07999 22 11 lineto 6 87997 0 119995 lineto
174. r with the third value in the font matrix to get any amount of lean you want font1 Helvetica Bold findfont 40 O 14 40 O 0 makefont setfont def font2 Helvetica Bold findfont 40 O 10 40 O 0 makefont setfont def font3 Helvetica Bold findfont 40 O 6 40 O 0 makefont setfont def font4 Helvetica Bold findfont 40 O 2 40 O 0 makefont setfont def font5 Helvetica Bold findfont 40 O 2 40 O 0 makefont setfont def font6 Helvetica Bold findfont 40 O 6 40 O 0 makefont setfont def font7 Helvetica Bold findfont 40 O 10 40 O 0 makefont setfont def font8 Helvetica Bold findfont 40 O 14 40 O 0 makefont setfont def 0 O moveto 2 0 fontl F ashow 2 O font2 R ashow 2 O font3 E ashow 2 0 font4 E ashow 2 O font5 F ashow 2 0 font6 O ashow 2 O font7 N ashow 2 0 font8 T ashow showpage quit Incidentally the fake Benguiat Book Italic you see here gets done this way font2 Benguiat Book findfont 9 O 2 9 O 0 makefont setfont def A much better although considerably slower way to handle the longer star For more help wars messages appears later in LaserWriter Secrets 21 520 428 4073 A PostScript fractal fern Don Lancaster S Here s one of the most stunningly beautiful PostScript images have ever run PostScript across anywhere ever Secrets Bonus Supplement 2 A PostScript fractal fern problistcreate mark counter 0 def probabilities 128 mul round cvi transforms counter get rep
175. ranslate gsave 290 O translate gsave 360 O translate gsave 430 O translate gsave 505 O translate 10 path ss grestore O path ss grestore 5 path ss grestore 8 path ss grestore 9 9 path ss grestore 11 path ss grestore 16 path ss grestore For more help 520 428 4073 PostScript serendipitous border contest Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Bottom row has INSIDE TRAPAZOID path 0 60 O 100 20 100 30 70 O 80 O 100 40 100 roundpath def gsave 80 0 translate 12 path ss grestore gsave 150 O translate O path ss grestore gsave 220 O translate 5 path ss grestore gsave 290 O translate 10 path ss grestore Bonus gsave 360 O translate 15 8 path ss grestore Supplement gsave 430 O translate 19 9 path ss grestore path 0 60 O 100 10 100 10 90 O 90 O 100 40 100 roundpath def 45 C gsave 505 0 translate 17 5 path ss grestore se grestore showpage Serendipitous border contest 12 ree ee ea ae rer E NS RPP PP ae EE EE WH cere rr rr rae TO PP a For more help 520 428 4073 small dab of beeswax on the tip of your Phillips screwdriver should greatly simplify most routine repair work on your PostScript printer The screw stays on the driver until you tighten or remove it Here s a fast insertion sort that puts numbers in stack order insort ounttomark dup 3 It 2 eq 2 copy
176. re a string copy does not change later ALWAYS create a new string by using the cvs operator rather than just defining a pointer For more help 520 428 4073 Version 47 ROM upgrade kits are now available for your LaserWriter or LaserWriter Plus through your dealer with a list price around 320 The upgrade runs most everything 1 3 faster and cures some nasty blowups of version 38 but has a stronger lock on fontpath Yes the framedevice blowups have been Don Lancaster s minimized and those copypage hassles have been fixed The upgrade should E rapidly pay for itself if you use your LaserWriter more than two hours per day PostScript Secrets Use this PostScript sequence to do backwards printing 612 O translate 11 scale You might want to do this for a window decal or other transparency You can also use O 796 translate 1 1 scale to turn things upside down or else use a 612 792 translate 1 1 scale to work both upside down and backwards The baseline setup for your serial communications should be 9600 baud eight 3D lettering font data bits one stop bit and no parity If this doesn t seem to work try using Printing backwards seven data bits and two stop bits instead Or call our helpline for assistance Version 47 upgrade 7 versus 8 data bits MATERIAL OF THE MONTH Kroy laminating film The KROY LAMINATING MATERIAL is a transparent overlay that is ideal for book Typography cheat book covers menus and anyw
177. reverse slash 3 Or throw in your own reverse slash carriage returns far enough ahead of time to PREEMPT any ones you do not not know about from ever happening The usual two methods of preventing unwanted carriage returns are A Always import text files with carriage returns ADDED AT PARAGRAPH ENDS ONLY B Always save your work as STANDARD ASCII TEXTFILES and NOT as word processor documents Generally the newer and the better your word processor or editor the easier this is to do Usually it is simply a matter of UNDERSTANDING WHAT IS COMING DOWN APPLe tle On AppleWriter on the Apple lle totally standard ASCII textfiles are used and there is never any problem inadvertently adding them when importing a text file Files are saved as standard text files so there is no problem using them with a comm program BUT if you try printing directly to your PS printer as do carriage returns will be forced every 240 characters or less chopping up longer paragraphs automatically solve this problem by using the WPL 200 routine on GENIE PSRT 242 NEWGTOOL AII Another route would be to use ProTerm to actually send For more help and receive files 520 428 4073 Solving PostScript carriage return hassles Don Lancaster s MacintosH PostScript On most Mac word processors ALWAYS import text files with carriage returns Secrets AT PARAGRAPH ENDS ONLY And ALWAYS use the SAVE AS feature being certain to
178. rickwide mul O prd stroke grestore for O ybri brickwide neg mul O prm O 1 ybri 1 sub cvi save pop O brickwide zbri brickhi mul neg prm currentpoint exch pop cph exch def 0 0 zbri brickhi mul prd cph currentpoint exch pop sub abs zbri div dup mark exch exch setdash stroke grestore for O ybri brickwide neg mul O prm 0 1 ybri 1 sub cvi save pop 0 brickwide zbri brickhi mul neg prm currentpoint exch pop cph exch def 0 O zbri brickhi mul prd cph currentpoint exch pop sub abs zbri div mark exch O setdash stroke grestore for def Here is how it all goes together 106 45 Hup mul exch dup mul add 1 0 exch sub setscreen 160 710 translate O setlinewidth xo 00 def yo 700 def zo 250 def objrot 45 def brickhi 5 def brickwide 16 def numbricksx 10 5 def numbricksy 2 5 def numbricksz 12 5 def bldz numbricksz brickhi mul def bldx numbricksx brickwide mul def bldy numbricksy brickwide mul def currentshade 1 def 0 0 O pm bidx bldy bldz pbox currentshade 0 9 def 0 O brickhi 11 mul pm bldx bldy brickhi 1 5 mul pbox currentshade 1 def 000 pm numbricksx numbricksz 1 5 sub xzbrickwall 0 00 pm numbricksy numbricksz 1 5 sub yzbrickwall 000pm numbricksy brickwide mul yrd numbricksz brickhi mul zrd numbricksx brickwide mul xrd numbricksy brickwide mul neg yrd numbricksz brickhi mul neg zrd closepath 0 8 setlinewidth stroke For more help showpage quit 602 428 4073 See the previous page for a sample brickwall graphic printout Paper curling pro
179. ro Cookbooks volumes I and Il Enhancing your Apple Il volumes I and I the Applewriter Cookbook All About Applewriter the Active Filter Cookbook his Apple Assembly Cookbook and Don Lancaster s PostScript Beginner Stuff About the along with his Introduction to PostScript videotape Author Other book on demand titles in this ongoing series are his Hardware Hacker volume and the Ask The Guru volumes and reprints Don s current software offerings include both his PostScript Show and Tell and his PostScript Technical Illustrations plus numerous companion disks for all his various books Write or call 602 428 4073 for a current listing Among his popular columns Don is well known as the Guru over in Computer Shopper as the Hardware Hacker in Radio Electronics magazine and as the Blatant Opportunist in Midnight Engineering Don is the head honcho of Synergetics a new age design and consulting firm specializing in Apple computing laser printing electronic prototyping desktop publishing technical writing and in innovative software development His avocations do include firefighting cave exploration bicycling and of course tinaja questing For more help 602 428 4073 Table of Contents Don Lancaster s A fancy scroll border Dover art books A Certificates borders Unibit cartridge drill PostScript Writing PostScript code Switch forced resets Secrets LaserWriters in schools Backwards
180. s seeceuecee CABAS CABAS GULELLLEED CABAS CABAS CABAS CABAS OO 60 SPI 0 degrees 26 grays YYW OOOO 5J OOO RE 53 SPI 45 degrees 33 grays 25 zn 100 SPI 0 degrees 10 grays 73 SPI 14 degrees 18 grays 60 SPI 37 degrees 26 grays CLG LIA DAL RA eae ae 7 95 SPI 18 degrees 11 grays TOR SODIO OOO SOON LO POS OPS O 0 0 83 SPI 33 degrees 14 grays 71 SPI 45 degrees 19 grays 50 SPI 0 degrees 37 grays 67 SPI 27 degrees 21 grays N aaa ORIGIN RIAS IN AN O The key secret to generating these spots is that the setscreen operator places each spot x and y coordinate on the stack in turn Your custom spotfunction can then use these pairs any way you like Instead of actually generating a spotfunction you instead draw graphs or return For more help 602 428 4073 key information to your host for recording Here s the proper cables to get from an IBM 25 pin or 9 pin COM 1 port to your LaserWriter serial input TXD TXD TXD RXD RXD RXD RTS RTS RTS CTS CTS DSR DSR DTR DTR SG SG DCD DCD DCD IBM Laser Comi Writer RS232 RS232 DB25 female DB25 male DB9 female DB25 male For complete return error messages or when compiling routines use CrossTalk or a similar comm program rather than attempting a simple COM 1 copy Be very careful how yo
181. save 1 setgray fill grestore stroke Now we put down some text in two different sizes Note that each character used MUST be precaptured as paths to mychardict numcurvesperlineto 8 def charproc fill def extrakern 0 3 def fontsize 4 0 0 4 0 0 def 6 13 2 FREE twsshow extrakern 0 2 def 5 9 9 3 FONT twsshow showlinesascurves false def extrakern 0 05 def fontsize 0 8 0 O 1 O 0 def 6 7 7 FREE FONT FREE FONT twsshow 6 7 5 5 FREE FONT FREE FONT twsshow For more help 602 428 4073 PostScript does not report errors if results from any internal calculation exceed 10738 or end up less than 107 38 Instead fixed values of Infinity or Nan O get substituted This can lead to subtle clipping errors during complex calculations A disgustingly serendipitous cheap shot l Il call ARCTO CROWDING can give you stunning borders in amazingly few bytes Ep ee ar path Q O moveto 0 100 20 100 rad arcto 4 Pop repeat 20 100 20 80 rad arcto 4 fpop repeat 20 80 80 80 rad arcto pop pop pop pop 80 80 lineto def fancystrokes save 5 setlinewidth O setgray stroke grestore gsave 2 5 setlinewidth 1 setgray stroke grestore gsave 0 6 setlinewidth O setgray stroke grestore newpath def O setlinecap 1 setlinejoin gsave 200 300 translate rad 19 9 def path fancystrokes grestore showpage quit ca qm Upper row has an inside loop Lower row uses outside loop Rad values left to right 12 O 5 10 16 19
182. sh plrsnap1 exch def gsave mapproc newpath slinenum 72 mul 300 div O moveto O pixelshigh rlineto O 0 2 rlineto O pixelshigh neg rlineto closepath clip newpath imageproc grestore clear pirsnap1 restore for clear pIrsnap restore Mef mapproc 60 200 translate cosrange neg degreeinc slinenum mul add cos dup adj exch def pixelshigh 72 mul 300 div mul dipdepth mul 2 div O exch translate adj cosrange cos sub dipdepth mul 1 exch sub 1 exch scale def imageproc orderfat 2 div dup moveto O ptshigh borderfat sub rlineto ptswide borderfat sub 0 rlineto O ptshigh neg borderfat add rlineto closepath borderfat setlinewidth stroke 10 8 moveto stretch 0 msg ashow def bannerfont osrange 0 48 mul ptswide div degreeinc exch def mark 10 10 setcacheparams vlinemap def demo remove before use NewCenturySchlbk Bold findfont 30 0 O 44 O 0 makefont setfont stretch 1 def msg FREE FONT def cosrange 60 def dipdepth 0 8 def ptswide 224 For more help def ptshigh 49 def borderfat 3 def ptswide ptshigh vlinemap showpage 602 428 4073 Those frustrating second side paper jams on your NT or NTX are caused by the pinch rollers on the upper exit tray curling the paper For hassle free two sided printing either let the pages sit overnight or else use the straight through paper path and reverse your page order with software Here s an unusual random screen for special effects random fand 32768 div 65536 div mul floor def randscreen save pat
183. shorter than the screen width a word processor that will save your file as ASCII text will work fine A text editor will let you run characters out on a line as far as you need to depending on the program have several single lines of text that run on for over 600 characters to the right without a hard return and gonzo just loves the stuff SPECIFIC PC CARRIAGE RETURN WORKAROUNDS WordPerfect 5 1 Word Processor ASCII files can be retrieved but MUST be saved as ASCII text CNTRL F5 1 1 Works fine for program code or small amounts of text It will insert soft and hard returns WP51 has 2 options to import ASCII text choice 2 on the menu converts all line codes to HRT s and then you are really up the creek Same comment on usefulness Choice 3 on the menu leaves the SRT s but still makes the document conform to its margins and page size Gonzo get a a nasty cold and acts like a camel it balks The output has a commented header and is PS unprintable without modification So don t use this option Workaround is to go into the setup menu and define a new page size made one that was 40 wide and now my text strings can run out 40 to the right Save in ASCII format and you re in PostScript heaven This is attractive because of the macro capability and command language of WP51 For more help 520 428 4073 Solving PostScript carriage return hassles Don Lancaster s Word Perfect Office Editor PostScript l l
184. shows you how it s done Bonus Supplement 6 Dropout Free Fine Gray Grid Detailed Example Creates fine gray grids without dropouts or rattiness The code shown is device specific for 300 dpi printers To create a grid use hpos vpos gridsize setgrid Until restored all further images will be locked to the grid and will expand and contract with it Note that optimum linewidths and font sizes will usually be much less than 1 0 after locking To show a grid use hlines vlines showgrid The seegrid command displays the grid when true The fat5 command emphasizes every fifth line when true the fatter10 command emphasizes every tenth line when true quadpixel transform 4 div round 4 mul itransform def setgrid Save rubbersnap exch def quadpixel size exch def quadpixel exch quadpixel exch translate size dup scale def drawlines 72 300 div Iw mul size div setlinewidth hposs O def hlines gs div 1 add cvi fhposs O moveto 0 vlines rlineto stroke hposs hposs gs add def repeat vposs 0 def vlines gs div 1 add cvi O vposs moveto hlines O rlineto stroke vposs vposs gs add def repeat def showgrid seegrid save vlines exch def hlines exch def 106 45 op pop O setscreen 0 9 setgray gs 1 def Iw 1 def drawlines fat5 gs 5 def Iw 3 def drawlines if fatter10 gs 10 def Iw 5 def drawlin
185. sibility vpixellineremap Q 1 oversample mul pxpwidth 4 166667 mul cvi sline exch def save snap1 exch def gsave mappingproc newpath sline 72 mul 300 div O moveto 0 pxpheight rlineto O O rlineto O pxpheight neg rlineto closepath clip newpath pixelproc grestore clear snap1 restore for bind def bottomhalf false def mappingproc amp line 44 pxpwidth div mul neg 91 add bottomhalf fheg if rotate sline 0 24 mul bottomhalf xpheight neg 1 333 mul ifelse translate bind def pixelproc amp setlinewidth O 50 moveto 100 O rlineto stroke 3 setlinewidth O 18 moveto 100 0 rlineto stroke 3 25 moveto 1 0 bottomhalf otmsg topmsg ifelse ashow def demo remove or alter before reuse mark 12 12 setcacheparams NewCenturySchlbk Bold findfont 25 0 0 25 0 0 makefont setfont pxpwidth 100 def pxpheight 50 def oversample 0 60 def topmsg FREE def botmsg FONT def 200 400 translate bottomhalf false def vpixellineremap bottomhalf true For more help def vpixellineremap showpage quit 520 428 4073 Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Bonus Supplement 32 A Spherical nonlinear transform For more help 520 428 4073 Spherical nonlinear transformations This code is the first in a new series of unique nonlinear transformations that allow you to rapidly and conveniently draw on apparently nonflat surfaces This particular example creates a globe or a sphere given text and graphics specified as latitu
186. simplecj up stringwidth pop 2 div 4 1 roll sub neg 3 1 roll moveto show def J Helvetica findfont 24 O O 24 O 0 makefont setfont Don Lancaster S 306 500 CENTERED HEADLINE simplecj showpage quit gt PostScript The 306 is the centering line and the 500 is the vertical position For a simple Secrets right justify eliminate the 2 div from the above MATERIAL OF THE MONTH New ETCH N PEEL photosensitized polyester masking films now use PostScript instead of a knife J ust expose pour on glop wash and you are cut to size For traditional graphics arts uses for back lit sign lettering bunches more From Kimoto USA 2915 182nd Street Redondo Beach CA 90278 213 370 7411 Simple right justify PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH 3 D perspective font That new BLACK BOOK or the ADOBE TYPE FONT FORMAT tells all From Adobe Simple center justify Systems 1585 Charleston Road Mountain View CA 94039 415 961 4400 A photosensitive vinyl Type font black book Now that font paths are grabbable genuine 3 D perspective is a snap T 611 14 729 mt 14 604 li 235 604 li 235 0 li 385 O li 385 604 li 598 604 li 598 729 li cpYH def N 722 68 729 mt 68 O li 218 0 li 218 508 li 513 O li 661 0 li 661 729 511 729 li 511 228 li 216 729 li cp def O 778 742 359 mt 742 469 702 579 634 650 ct 573 713 484 741 391 741 ct 298 741 209 713 148 650 ct 80 579 40 469 40 359 ct 40 249 80 139 148 68 ct 209 5 298 23 391 23 ct 484 23 573
187. ster s PostScript Secrets Bonus Supplement 23 C Scribbling along a path For more help 602 428 4073 Scribbling in PostScript D DRAWING A FILLED FUZZY CIRCLE 30 10 translate improve position on page 106 45 lup mul exch dup mul add 1 0 exch sub setscreen nice gray scribblecurveres 5 def allowable curveto path deviation hominginstinct 0 4 def how fast does the line get back on track scribbleres 1 def length of shortest scribble ratticity 0 5 def how erratic is the line to be 4 setlinewidth set width of stroked line 525 350 moveto initial position 525 391 4 491 4 425 450 425 scribblecurveto first quadrant 408 6 425 375 391 4 375 350 scribblecurveto second quadrant 375 308 6 408 6 275 450 275 scribblecurveto third quadrant 491 4 275 525 308 6 525 350 scribblecurveto fourth quadrant gsave 0 95 setgray fill grestore stroke outline and fill showpage Do NOT ever use a parallel output port on your IBM or clone to drive your LaserWriter or other PostScript laser printer Always use the serial COM ports Besides blatantly violating PostScript s device independence most parallel drivers prevent you from properly receiving error messages and prohibit you Don Lancaster s from recording compiled output or any other results sent back from your LaserWriter to the host computer In addition the higher serial baud rates are PostScript often faster than parallel comm standards Secrets App
188. t H onequarter onehalf threequarters questiondown Agrave Aacute PostSc ri pt Acircumflex Atilde Adieresis Aring AE Ccedilla Egrave Eacute Secrets Ecircumflex Edieresis Igrave lacute Icircumflex Idieresis Eth Ntilde Ograve Oacute Ocircumflex Otilde Odieresis multiply Oslash Ugrave Uacute Ucircumflex Udieresis Yacute Thorn germandbls agrave aacute acircumflex atilde adieresis aring ae ccedilla egrave eacute ecircumflex edieresis igrave iacute icircumflex Bonus idieresis eth ntilde ograve oacute ocircumflex otilde odieresis divide oslash ugrave uacute ucircumflex udieresis yacute thorn Supplement ydieresis def 14 D SkipISO dontload restore gt if pstack Font recoding vmstatus pop exch pop tmpvm sub pstack utilities For more help 520 428 4073 Remember that any unbound PostScript procedure can be redefined at any time for any reason For instance showpage can be redefined to put a border and three hole punch marks on each sheet or to automatically put down your letterhead and signature around the body of a letter or to add a large proof copy across an artwork image You can also switch between old and new definitions by creative use of new dictionaries The rule is that the top dictionary on the dictionary stack is scanned first for procedural commands A font character is stored two different ways in PostScript It is held as an integer from O to 2
189. tact roundpath rpd exch def rprad exch def rpd length 1 sub cvi rppoints exch def rpd O get rpd 1 get moveto 2 2 rppoints 2 sub rpvalue exch def 0 1 3 fpd exch rpvalue add get for rprad arcto pop pop pop pop for rpd rppoints 1 sub get rpd rppoints get lineto def bestgray 106 45 fup mul exch dup mul add 1 0 exch sub setscreen def showsegrule true def hdist Pdis 2 div dup mul zdis 2 div dup mul add sqrt def hangle dis pdis atan def pathtosteparray converts a path angO ang 1 angn into an array xa0 ya0 xb0 yb0 xal yal xb1 yb1 The a points are zdis normal above path center while b points are zdis normal below path center pathtosteparray mark exch curang exch def currentpoint yref exch def xref exch def mark curang hangle add dup cos hdist mul xref add exch sin hdist mul yref add curang hangle sub dup cos hdist mul xref add exch sin hdist mul yref add curang cos pdis mul curang sin pdis mul rlineto forall edgepointarray exch def def drawelement grabs three edgepoint sets and passes them on to drawproc drawelement Q 1 edgepointarray length 3 sub aposn exch def edgepointarray aposn 2 add get aload pop y5 exch def x5 exch def y4 exch def x4 exch def edgepointarray aposn 1 add get aload pop y3 exch def x3 exch def y2 exch def x2 exch def edgepointarray aposn get aload pop y1 exch def x1 exch def y0 exch def x0 exch def save dpsnap exch def drawproc clear dpsnap restore for def
190. ter output in here Subscription cost is around 28 per year Screen Printing 407 Gilbert Avenue Cincinatti OH 45202 513 421 2050 REE FONT We will be seeing more of double stroked fonts in future columns but for now here is a simple outlined and doublestroked font that has adjustable character kerning Bookman Demi findfont 50 O O 50 O 0 makefont setfont workstring X def doublestrokefont textstring exch def ypos exch def xpos exch def textstring stringwidth pop textstring length 1 sub kern mul add 2 div xpos exch sub ypos moveto textstring workstring exch O exch put workstring false charpath gsave 0 setgray fill grestore gsave gsave 0 setgray 1 5 setlinewidth stroke grestore 1 setgray 0 75 setlinewidth currentpoint stroke grestore exch kern add exch moveto forall def kern 3 def 200 300 FREE FONT doublestrokefont showpage quit What you do here is grab each character as an individual text string You then trace the outline first stroking wide white and then narrow black But note that the characters will fatten excessively if the narrow black gets too wide Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Sealing refill holes Screen Printer mag Double stroked font Silk screen suppliers Diablo page creep fix Stretching waittimeout For more help 520 428 4073 Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Bonus Supplement 8 Toner Cartridge Refilling Secrets For more he
191. the apple ONLY on LaserWriters Use the Red Book or a full 256 character dump to find the others Note that you must provide a reverse slash before any unbalanced or Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Heavy paper jams Kroy Color negatives Quick border routine Hidden font characters 1500 typeface directory Pelsaer thermal binding For more help 520 428 4073 Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Bonus Supplement 38 A nonlinear ashow operator For more help 520 428 4073 A non linear ashow operator This routine is similar to the PostScript ashow operator except that you can non linearly remap your text message onto any surface Use this for perspective star wars pennants spheres etc Here are some typical font paths T 611 14 729 mt 14 604 li 235 604 li 235 0 li 385 O li 385 604 li 598 604 li 598 729 li cp def IN 722 68 729 mt 68 0 li 218 O li 218 508 li 513 O li 661 0 li 661 729 li 511 729 li 511 228 li 216 729 li cp def O 778 742 359 mt 742 469 702 579 634 650 ct 573 713 484 741 391 741 ct 298 741 209 713 148 650 ct 80 579 40 469 40 359 ct 40 249 80 139 148 68 ct 209 5 298 23 391 23 ct 484 23 573 5 634 68 ct 702 139 742 249 742 359 ct cp 391 108 mt 343 108 295 122 257 157 ct 209 201 185 280 184 359 ct 185 438 209 517 257 561 ct 295 596 343 610 391 610 ct 439 610 487 596 525 561 ct 573 517 597 438 598 359 ct 597 280 573 201 525 157 ct 487 122 439 108 391 108 ct cp d
192. their total length The answer will always be a tad low but usually converges very quickly DEMO COPY OF MY SETGRID ROUTINES from 102 UTILITY GPS quadpixel transform 4 div round 4 mul itransform def setgrid ave rubbersnap exch def quadpixel size exch def quadpixel exch quadpixel exch translate size dup scale def drawlines 72 300 div Iw mul size div setlinewidth hposs O def hlines gs div 1 add cvi hposs O moveto 0 vlines rlineto stroke hposs hposs gs add def repeat vposs O def vlines gs div 1 add cvi Q vposs moveto hlines O rlineto stroke vposs vposs gs add def repeat def showgrid seegrid save vlines exch def hlines exch def 106 45 0p pop 0 setscreen 0 9 setgray gs 1 def lw 1 def drawlines fat5 gs 5 def Iw 3 def drawlines if fatter10 gs 10 def Iw 5 def drawlines if grestorejf def fat5 true def fatter10 true def seegrid true def pcurveto grabs the parameters for a curveto pcurveto copy y3 exch def x3 exch def y2 exch def x2 exch def y1 exch def x1 exch def currentpoint yO exch def x0 exch def curveto def xtt finds x t given t in the range of 0 to 1 xtt amp 3 x2 3 mul sub x1 3 mul add xO sub tt 3 exp mul x2 3 mul x1 6 mul neg add xO 3 mul add tt dup mul mul add x1 3 mul xO 3 mul neg add tt mul add x0 add def ytt finds y t given t in the range of O to 1 ytt 43 y2 3 mul sub y1 3 mul add yO sub tt 3 exp mul y2 3 mul y1 6 mul neg add yO 3 mul add tt dup mul mul ad
193. time if any for low level graphics operators executed after showpage origshowpage showpage load def showpage fuserdict begin startdump usertime def dumpdisplaylist enddump usertime def For more help starttime decodetime def 520 428 4073 Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Bonus Supplement 28 C Adobe timing utilities For more help 520 428 4073 Adobe timing utilities exectime startdump starttime sub 1000 div def dumptime enddump startdump sub dumpoverhead sub 1000 div def dumptime 004 It dumptime 0 0 def if gsave initgraphics 72 10 55 72 mul moveto O 16 rlineto 6 5 72 mul O rlineto O 16 rlineto closepath 1 setgray fill O setgray Times Roman findfont 12 scalefont setfont 100 10 6 72 mul moveto statusdict begin product end show show version show execution time show exectime string cvs show show dumptime sstring cvs show show exectime dumptime add string cvs show seconds show grestore origshowpage statusdict redclose known tatusdict redclose get exec if statusdict printerclose known tatusdict printerclose get exec if statusdict scoutclose known tatusdict scoutclose get exec if statusdict atlasclose known tatusdict atlasclose get exec if usertime encodetime end def dumpdisplaylist save initgraphics 100 500 translate 118 100100 image grestore def dumpoverhead usertime dumpdisplaylist usertime exch sub def
194. ting fatfactor 12 def kernfactor 2 def showbolder save currentpoint translate msg exch def fatfactor cvi DO moveto kernfactor 0 msg ashow 72 300 div O translate repeat grestore def ZapfChancery Mediumitalic findfont 60 O O 60 O 0 makefont setfont 200 400 moveto Free Font showbolder showpage quit The fatfactor is the stretch in pixels while the kernfactor is the extra character spacing in points These will change with your selection of point size Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets 14 Fatter calligraphy Fast irregular clip In Plant magazine Kerning a number Kroy Kolor process Backwards printing For more help 520 428 4073 Adobe font recoding utilities Don Lancaster s P tS ri t Three of the Adobe font recoding modules have been gathered together into OSTSC Ip one single file for convenience in downloading Secrets Font recoding lets you add or modify characters in an existing Type font The three modules included are the standard font reencoding algorithm adding definitions to Type font CharStrings and conditionally defining Latin ISO or Bonus other composite objects to save VM Supplement 14 A BR Copyright C 1991 by Adobe Systems Incorporated Font recoding All rights reserved ee utilities This is the standard font reencoding algorithm RE NewFontName NewEncodingArray FontName RE findfont dup length dict begin copy font dictionary i
195. tle vertical lettering on any otherwise horizontal layout By far the fastest and easiest method is to predefine a vertically printing font Instead of the stock wide O O high O 0 font matrix you can just use O high wide O O 0 instead Bookman Demi findfont 0 25 20 O O 0 makefont setfont 300 400 moveto FREE FONT show showpage Do not forget that minus sign On the ashow wshow or awidthshow procs you interchange the x y increment values For custom kerning you can use the vkern proc shown above FREE FONT FREE FONT Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets A Vertical font Printer s Devil Custom kerning Custom envelopes Undefinedfilename Toner thermography For more help 520 428 4073 Rotating Text Don Lancaster s PostScript B angle justify 2 20 91 Secrets allows callout text to run at any angle Format is xpos ypos angle message cca etc Bonus CALLOUT JUSTIFY MODES Supplement cl accepts an input of form xpos ypos message cl and shows it 48 A at xpos left and within xpos textwide right cl Save snapcl exch def linestring linestring2 def justx justL Rotating Text def 3 1 roll ypos exch def xpos exch def stringgonzo snapcl restore def cf accepts an input of form xpos ypos message cf and shows it flush left at xpos and flush right at xpos textwide cf Save snapcf exch def linestring linestring2 def justx justF def 3 1 roll ypos
196. tly create a totally opaque negative Simply Kroy Color in the usual way Then throw out the baby and keep the washwater Do watch carefully for fills on ultra fine detail MATERIAL OF THE MONTH The new PELSAER HOT BINDING process consists of a glue preform and two fly sheets The cost is around 50 cents each Yes you can now perfect bind any cover material and even print on the spine From Leonard s Unibind Pelsaer 4125 Prospect Drive Carmichael CA 95608 916 967 6401 PUBLICATIONS OF THE MONTH A handy directory of 1500 POSTSCRIPT TYPEFACES is available for 9 95 through The Font Company at 800 442 FONT Other type directories are available from Adobe at 415 961 4400 from Gerber found at 800 222 7446 International Typeface at 212 371 0699 Kingsley ATF at 602 325 5884 or Monotype at 312 855 1440 eee FREE FONT eee Most PostScript fonts have hidden characters which are not normally accessable by a single keystroke Here s some bullets AvantGarde Demi findfont 30 O O 30 O 0 makefont setfont 100 200 moveto 1267 1267 FREE FONT 267 1267 show showpage quit And here are several other shy characters 1261 on most fonts is an em dash 1267 on most fonts is a bullet 1274 on most fonts is the ellipsis 1320 on most fonts is an en dash 1251 on the Symbol font is a heart Y 1323 on the Symbol font is a copyright 1324 on the Symbol font is a trademark TM 1360 on the Symbol font is
197. tring ABC def oldstring currentstring def does not create a second string named oldstring All it does is stash a pointer right back to currentstring If currentstring changes with a put or putinterval so does oldstring But currentstring ABC def oldstring currentstring dup length string cvs def safely de references itself by creating a brand new oldstring having no pointer back to the original That cvs creates the new string That horrible black rightside stripe that often shows up on your SX cartridge output can sometimes get cured by thoroughly cleaning the cartridge corona wire and then placing two strip magnets made from magnetic sign sheeting inside the corona assembly You could try either Recharger 714 359 8570 or Signcraft 813 939 4644 magazines for suitable magnetic sheeting suppliers MATERIALS OF THE MONTH Two newer BINDING SYSTEMS that find to be way overpriced but offer fresh approaches to your Book on demand publishing The CHANNELBIND system which simply clamps pages in place with no punching Their hard covers look very good From Channelbind 3 Townline Circle Rochester NY 14623 800 562 7188 And the brand new OPTITHERM system which uses a revolutionary peel and strip hot glue system allows any cover materials variable thickness and easily lets you use any spline lettering From Planax 15 East 26th Street Suite 1908 New York NY 10010 212 532 1988 PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH Adobe s
198. tring charproc charstring stringwidth pop extrakern add O translate forall grestore def demo remove before use Palatino Bold findfont 50 O O 50 O 0 makefont setfont depth 4 def outlineweight 0 7 def depthproc 0 5 1 5 0 5 setdash def extrakern 3 def shadowangle 135 def 100 200 translate 5 10 moveto 55 55 rlineto 350 O rlineto 60 60 rlineto For more help closepath bestgray 0 85 setgray fill O setgray FREE FONT 3dfont 9 Or MEIR showpage quit bestgray 106 45 setscreen per above 602 428 4073 A fast 3 D perspective brick routine Don Lancaster s Here are some excerpts from my perspective drawing routines found in my LaserWriter PostScript Show amp Tell Secrets px zz exch def yy exch def xx exch def yo dup yy add div dup xx xo sub mul exch zz zo sub mul def psave zh zz def yh yy def xh xx def def pm px psave moveto def prm zi exch def yi exch def xi exch def objrot cos xi mul objrot sin yi mul sub xh add objrot sin xi mul objrot cos yi mul add yh add zi zh add px Bonus moveto psave def Supplement prd zi exch def yi exch def xi exch def objrot cos xi mul objrot sin yi mul sub xh add objrot sin xi mul objrot cos yi mul add yh add zi zh add px lineto 29 psave def xrd Q O prd def yrd D exch O prd def zrd Q exch 0 exch prd def zrm Q When You Are Up exch 0 exen prm def Against the Wall xzrect zdis exch def xdis exch def save zdis zrd xdis xrd zdis neg zrd closepath gsave
199. trings Dict Does not allow recursive calls to show Not copying UniquelD allows new procs to override old characters Installs a predefined Encoding Vector in new font All new character names must be present in the Encoding Vector Updates the FontBBox to account for BBox of New Characters Application must pre calculate BBox for New Characters There is 5KB overhead per font to copy the CharStrings Dict New Character Drawing Procs should be defined in main Driver Dict this allows the Procs to be shared by many Fonts New Character Procs are responsible for call to setcachedevice or setcharwidth to specify the widths of the characters utilities findfont dup begin dup length dict begin Copy Top Level Font Dict 1 index FID ne 2 index UniquelD ne and def pop pop ifelse forall CharStrings dup length Size of CharStrings 2 index length Plus Number of New Character Names add dict begin Create and Add to Dict Stack def forall Copy existing CharStrings entries Define new Procedures in CharStrings dup load def forall currentdict end CharStrings exch def Define new CharStrings Dict Encoding exch def Define new Encoding Array aload pop Put BBox values for new Chars on stack 3 12 Calculate new urx and ury values FontBBox load exch get Max Leave larger of two values on stack 4 1 roll for 1 10 Calculate new IIx and Ily values FontBBox load exch get Min Leave smaller of two values on sta
200. tterned To force a LaserWriter or LaserWriter Plus reset switch from 9600 to SPECIAL wait three seconds and then switch back Another method is to send a C D C from your favorite comm program But note that you cannot switch between AppleTalk and 9600 without a total shutdown and repowering MATERIAL OF THE MONTH The 3 VISE GRIP UNIBIT is ideal for drilling both the filling and emptying holes in the CX or SX toner cartridges You can reduce your per page toner costs as much as 15 1 by doing your own refilling following the secret drilling guides shown you on the previous page One stocking source of this drill is Jensen Tools 7815 South 46th Street Phoenix AZ 85044 602 968 6231 PUBLICATIONS OF THE MONTH There is quite a collection of low cost and HORRIBLY OUTDATED ART BOOKS available from Dover Publications In fact the contents of these books are so far out that they are back in Art Deco Thirties stuff wild typography unusual border art and great heaping bunches more From Dover Publications 31 East Second Street Mineola NY 11501 516 294 7000 FREE FONT This is Helvetica Bold This is Helvetica Bolder Helvetica or most any other type font can be made slightly bolder to match commercial typography simply by repeating it twice side by side But this method does degrade the font image and a little bit of stretching goes a very long way Use a double image only where you absolutely must approximate an e
201. u are printing The shape of the pad is typically an involute of your final printing path so that you usually obtain a distortion free result Dozens of pad shapes and sizes are common Several colors can even be done at once Here are some pad printer manufacturers BARTON NELSON 3201 Gillham Plaza Kansas City MO 64109 800 821 6697 BASCO 9351 DeSoto Avenue Chatsworth CA 91311 818 718 1506 ENERCON W140 N9572 Fountain Blvd P O Box 773 Menomonee Falls WI 53051 414 255 6070 PRINT CENTRAL Box JJ Rolla MO 65401 314 364 0339 SERVICE TECTONICS 2827 Treat Street Adrian MI 49221 517 263 0758 WAGNER 5 Capper Drive Pacific MO 63069 314 257 3908 TAMPOFLEX Germany BoschstraBe 5 D 7257 Ditzingen Postfach 3117 40 D 7000 Stuttgart 31 0 71 56 80 14 And here s a few recent useful papers on pad printing Pad printing J ack of all trades in industrial decorating Steve Duccilli Screen Printing April 89 pp 63 71 Pad geometry John Legat Screen Printing October 84 pp 92 96 Pad printing equipment review Editors Screen Printing October 84 pp 103 106 An evaluation of a unique image transfer process Tamas Grecska Screen Printing October 84 pp 157 165 Pad transfer printing Soft touch in a tough market David Karlyn Screen Printing August 82 pp 100 104 Looking at pad transfer printing For more help 520 428 4073 Paul Wasserman Screen Printing Octo
202. u create and use an array If you use the stack to create or aload your array you are limited to a maximum of 500 or so array values If you create your array ahead of time and use put and get then you are allowed as many as 65536 array values Here s how to activate superexec First you do a 1183615869 internaldict begin From that point on a forall superexec or a Yet superexec will often override and ignore any possible invalidaccess errors This greatly expands your abilities to customize PostScript code and operations MATERIAL OF THE MONTH Pixie Dust is a 3 per packet powder that you can dust onto the drum of your LaserWriter LaserWriter Plus NT or NTX It can significantly reduce the number and the severity of the drum scratches Do a very light dusting whenever you install or refill your cartridges From Lazer Products 12741 East Caley Avenue Englewood CO 80111 303 792 5277 PUBLICATIONS OF THE MONTH I you are at all into any forms or form building check into the free FORMS PROFESSIONAL and that BUSINESS FORMS AND SYSTEMS From North American Publishing 401 North Broad Street Philadelphia PA 19108 215 238 5300 FREE FONT Here s an arcjustify routine that is far faster simpler and much easier to kern than the pair in the blue book arckern 2 def str def arcjustify save msg exch def radius exch def translate msg dup stringwidth pop exch length 1 sub arckern mul add 2 div dup 57 29578 m
203. ude curves The method shown is level I friendly For level 2 just piling the entire path up on the stack without any saves restores is faster and more flexible latres 18 def latitude resolution in degrees lonres 18 def longitude resolution in degrees latlon fnewpath 90 lonres 90 ave IIsnap exch def 90 moveto O 180 rlineto nlmap exec stroke lisnap restore for 90 latres 90 ave IIsnap exch def 90 exch moveto 180 0 rlineto nlmap exec stroke for Ilsnap restore def spoutline emphasizes the sphere outline spoutline 90 90 moveto 180 O rlineto O 180 rlineto 180 O rlineto closepath def cspheremsg centers a character message on x y msg cspheremsg msg exch def ypos exch def xpos exch def newpath 0 0 moveto For more help xpos msg stringwidth pop 2 div sub ypos moveto msg false charpath def 520 428 4073 Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Bonus Supplement 32 C Spherical nonlinear transform For more help 520 428 4073 Spherical nonlinear transformations demo remove or alter before reuse use save and restore to minimize vm usage save spheresnap exch def pick a location and scale the unit radius sphere 200 200 translate 100 dup scale draw the latitude and longitude lines gsave O setlinewidth latlon grestore make the outline slightly heavier gsave spoutline nlmap exec 005 setlinewidth stroke grestore put some words on the sphere Font siz
204. ul radius div msg tr exch 0 exch put gsave rotate 0 radius moveto str dup dup stringwidth pop 2 div 57 29578 mul radius div neg rotate show stringwidth pop arckern add sub dup 57 29578 mul radius div grestore forall pop pop grestore def demo remove before use Palatino Roman findfont 100 O O 100 O 0 makefont setfont 200 0 500 FREE FONT arcjustify showpage For upward curving text use a positive radius For downward curving text use a negative radius Note that arckern sets the between character spacing Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Pixie Dust magic Creating an array Arc justified fonts Forms Professional Secrets of superexec IBM LaserWriter cables For more help 520 428 4073 Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Bonus Supplement 20 Kerned arc justified font code For more help 520 428 4073 Kerned arc justification This routine let s you kern individual characters inside an arc justified message To use xpos ypos radius message with individual character justification karcjustify A positive radius creates upward curving arcs A negative radius creates downward curving arcs Use arckern to stretch or compress message str def define a string abreviation customkernchar def define a character to use for kerning karcjustify save msg exch def radius exch def translate msg stringwidth pop O msg ustomkernchar O get eq l add if forall dup O gt
205. ushends roundjoins Top row has OUTSIDE TRIANGLE path 0 70 O 120 20 100 30 100 roundpath def gsave 80 0 translate gsave 150 O translate gsave 220 O translate gsave 290 O translate gsave 360 O translate gsave 430 O translate gsave 505 O translate 6 path ss grestore O path ss grestore 5 path ss grestore 8 path ss grestore 10 path ss grestore 11 path ss grestore 16 path ss grestore Second row has FLAT INSIDE NOTCH path 0 50 O 80 20 80 20 100 60 100 J roundpath def gsave 80 0 translate gsave 150 O translate gsave 220 O translate gsave 290 O translate 12 path ss grestore O path ss grestore 5 path ss grestore 10 path ss grestore gsave 360 O translate 15 8 path ss grestore gsave 430 O translate 19 9 path ss grestore gsave 505 O translate 25 path ss grestore PostScript serendipitous border contest Third row has ANGLED INSIDE NOTCH path 0 50 O 80 30 gsave 80 0 translate gsave 150 O translate gsave 220 O translate gsave 290 O translate gsave 360 O translate gsave 430 O translate path 0 40 O 80 30 70 20 100 60 100 roundpath def gsave 505 O translate Don Lancaster s PostScript 70 20 100 50 100 roundpath def Secrets 10 path ss grestore O path ss grestore 5 path ss grestore 8 path ss grestore 15 path ss grestore 19 9 path ss grestore Bonus Supplement 45 B 25 path ss grestore Fourth row has INSIDE LOOP path 0 60 O 100 20 100 20 80 O 8
206. wing crop marks Step and Repeat seqnumber true or false for sequential numbering Utility admitonetick 6 5 9 150 60 25 25 true 10 true true def babybumper 1 2 10 270 72 40 30 false 20 true false def badgeaminit 1 2 3 220 220 90 60 false 250 true false def bigbumpstick 1 1 3 792 205 O O true 40 true false def businesscard 1 3 4 256 143 12 20 true 20 true false def decaapus 1 2 5 306 158 O O false 50 true false def hexsplit 1 2 3 306 264 0 O false 50 true false def lilbumpstick 1 1 5 610 150 O 20 false 60 true false def octopus 1 2 4 306 198 O O false 50 true false def quadsplit 1 2 2 396 306 0 O true 50 true false def readerservice 1 12 25 25 15 120 450 false O false true def seqbuscard 1 3 4 256 143 12 20 true 20 true true def shiplabel 1 1 4 290 180 314 75 false O false false def stdplabel 1 1 1 254 74 320 5 false 20 true false def tenlabel 1 2 5 305 144 0 45 false O false false def vhsvideospline 1 1 13 424 56 80 35 false 0 false false def 3 5disklabel 1 2 3 216 226 100 60 false 20 false false def 5 25disklabel 1 1 7 316 110 275 35 false O false false def end the repeatparams dictionary setrepeatparams vn stepnrptparams exch get aload pop seqnumber exch def ticktrue exch def ticklen exch def portrait exch def vertstart exch def horstart exch def incvert exch def inchoriz exch def numvert exch def numhoriz exch def numpages exch def portrait 90 rotate 792 O translat
207. x jj exch def real2 exch def reall exch def jj 1 reall add atan 2 mul 90 sub angl exch def jj 1 real2 add atan 2 mul 90 sub ang2 exch def O 1 jj div dia 2 div mul dup angl ang2 arcn def creates a path from the intersection of the first r to the second r plotx fheg jj exch def real2 exch def reall exch def jj 1 reall add atan 2 mul 90 sub angl exch def jj 1 real2 add atan 2 mul 90 sub ang2 exch def 0 1 jj div dia 2 div mul dup angl ang2 arc def two tools to shorten the code px copy plotx stroke plotx stroke def px28 copy plotr2 stroke neg exch neg plotr2 stroke def And the actual chart generator smithchart 0 6 setlinewidth O rr stroke 0 4 setlinewidth O O moveto dia 0 lineto stroke O setlinewidth highresolution Q 0 01 0 2001 0 2 plotr stroke for 0 01 0 01 0 2001 exch 0 2 exch px for 0 2 0 02 0 5001 0 5 plotr stroke for 0 02 0 02 0 5001 0 2 exch 0 5 exch px for 0 0 02 0 5001 0 5 0 2 px2 for 0 2 0 02 0 5001 Q exch 0 5 exch px for 0 5 0 05 1 001 1 0 plotr stroke for 0 05 0 05 1 001 5 exch 1 0 exch px for 0 0 05 1 001 1 0 0 5 px2 for 0 5 0 05 1 001 0 exch 1 0 exch px for 1 0 1 2 001 2 0 plotr stroke for 0 1 0 1 2 001 1 0 exch 2 0 exch px for 0 0 1 1 001 2 0 1 0 px2 for 1 0 1 2 001 D exch 2 0 exch px for 2 0 2 5 001 6 0 plotr stroke for 0 2 0 2 5 001 2 0 exch 5 0 exch px for 0 0 2 2 001 6 0 2 0 px2 for 2 0 2 5 001 exch 5 0 exch px for 5 1 10 001 10 0 plotr stroke for 1 1 10 001 6 0 exch 10 0 exch px for 0 0 5 5 001
208. x dup eq Pop space if cvn load exec exec charproc fontsize O get mul 001 mul extrakern add xoffset add xoffset exch def forall def prd1 zi exch def yi exch def xi exch def objrot cos xi mul objrot sin yi mul sub objrot sin xi mul objrot cos yi mul add zi zz exch def yy exch def xx exch def yo dup yy add div dup xx xo sub mul exch zz zo sub mul def demo remove before use fontsize 72 0 O 72 O 0 def extrakern 10 def xo 300 def yo 700 def zo 500 def objrot 15 def 150 900 translate 6 6 0 currenty exch def xoffset O F helb def yoffset O def FREE FONT nishow for showpage quit or more nelp A font path grabbing routine appears on the next page 602 428 4073 PostScript level 2 font path grabber Don Lancaster s PostScri t There are lots of exciting and unique new features to PostScript Level 2 that p makes this a must have upgrade But by far the most useful and long Secrets overdue feature of Level 2 is that nearly all font paths are fully open and unlocked And thus easily captured Font paths are simply and quickly grabbable on the fly Besides the obvious use of creating outline characters you can use captured font paths for composite Bonus characters to eliminate the need for font downloads on a logo or letterhead to Su lement do the non linear transformations needed for perspective 3 D star wars and pp other distorted lettering and to capture letters for vinyl sign cutt
209. x1 inch piece of parchment cover stock makes a good tool for easing any paper feeding problems Vigorously saw the sheet back and forth paying extra attention to the paper path edges Don Lancaster s Exactly which part of no didn t you understand Like so PostScript Secrets eto 0 O size 2 div O 540 arc ul setlinewidth O setgray r mul setlinewidth stroke A true radial font Squiggly brackets will defer the execution of PostScript until your routine gets Die O Perf products called A zowie gleek zounds add def takes gleek and adds it to zounds at the Drawing a no logo definition time A zowie leek zounds add def takes gleek and adds it to zounds at the time it gets called Parchment path tool Recharger newsletter MATERIAL OF THE MONTH Laser printable DIE CUT BLANKS for tickets tents tags response mailers coupons and hangers Around a nickel per sheet in eight colors They feed and take toner beautifully Through Die O Perf at 1721 East Pioneer Drive Irving TX 75061 800 843 2807 PUBLICATIONS OF THE MONTH RecharGeR is a newsletter that covers toner refilling While their first issue is less than spectacular free samples are available and it just might work into something 25 per year from Recharger 3870 LaSierra Avenue Suite 266 in Riverside CA 92505 714 359 8570 This true radial font has curved tops and bottoms and gets fatter the further it strays from dead center Here s one pos
210. xch posnadjust 57 2958 mul ang exch def dup ang sin mul exch ang cos mul def hscaleadjust 1 def posnadjust fhscaleadjust mul def For more help 602 428 4073 Rootbeer Cup Font Code continued Don Lancaster s LaserWriter demo remove or alter before reuse The layout is done on a grid of nominal ten point blocks You can optionally Sec rets turn this grid on or off pi 3 1415926 def inches 72 mul def cupheight 220 def cuptopdiameter 180 def cupbotdiameter 120 def ch cupheight 10 div def ctd cuptopdiameter 10 div def cbd cupbotdiameter 10 div def circtr ctd dup cbd sub dup O eq Pop Bonus 0 001 if div ch mul def circbr circtr ch sub def ctal ctd circtr div pi mul def midgrid tal circtr circbr add 2 div ctal mul floor div def Supplement pra g I the translation below sets the CENTER POINT of the cup art this is usually FAR 44 C BELOW the cup itself and often off page xcen 307 def ycen 40 def xcen ycen translate 10 dup scale nit apercup def Paper cup showcupgrid true def showcupoutline true def showlinesascurves true def numcurvesperlineto 16 def xoffset O def yoffset O def font code put down the center point and cross gsave O setlinewidth 1 5 O moveto 1 5 O lineto stroke O 1 5 moveto 0 1 5 lineto stroke grestore These routines optionally let you show the grid and the cup outline hscaleadjust 1 def gsave sketchmode 0 setlinewidth showcupoutline tal 2 div neg circ
211. xch put str dup stringwidth pop 8 5 72 mul exch sub 2 div 11 72 mul letterheight sub moveto false charpath stroke showpage forall def demo remove before use letterheight 9 inches def From top of W to bottom of g letterwidth 9 inches def Usually same as letterheight fonttouse NewCenturySchlbk Bold def watch the spelling FREE FONT makebigletters quit no showpage needed You can easily extend the routine to show the sidebearings or for letters so big they take several sheets to print Several smaller letters could also be shown on For more help the same sheet as could a stencil library of the full alphabet 602 428 4073 Don Lancaster s LaserWriter Secrets Bonus Supplement 33 Alist ofthe often used fonts For more help 602 428 4073 Correct spellings for some common fonts Be sure to use these spellings when picking your fonts Aachen Bold AvantGarde Book AvantGarde BookOblique AvantGarde Demi AvantGarde DemiOblique BernhardFashion Benguiat Bold Benguiat Book Bodoni Bodoni Bold Bodoni Bolditalic Bodoni Italic Bodoni Poster Bookman Demi Bookman Demiltalic Bookman Light Bookman Lightitalic BrushScript Carta CenturyOldStyle Regular CenturyOldStyle Bold CenturyOldStyle Italic Classic ClelaBor1805 CooperBlack CooperBlack Italic Courier Courier Bold Courie
212. xisting extra bold type style Here s one possible code example Helvetica Bold findfont 28 O O 28 O 0 makefont setfont 100 100 moveto msg FREE FONT def gsave 3 0 msg ashow grestore 2 5 0 rmoveto 3 0 msg ashow showpage For smaller size fonts it would be a good idea to combine this with the pixel locking shown in LaserWriter Secrets 13 Don Lancaster s PostScript Secrets Dover art books Unibit cartridge drill Switch forced resets Making a font bolder Multiple stroking ideas Searching text markers For more help 520 428 4073 PostScript string de referencing Don Lancaster s PostScri t Have you ever had a PostScript string inexplicably change its contents or p refuse to get recognized halfway through a complex program Secrets l ve had this happen to me a number of times and it even sometimes shows up in the ADOBE DISTILLERY The problem is especially common in dictionary stashes think have now found both the cause and the simple but subtle cure so this short PSRT tech note Bonus Say you have a string named workstring Supplement 7 9 workstring ABC def Lets SUPPOSEDLY save a copy of this string oldstring workstring def Strin me And oldstring now of course contains ABC Now the fun begins Say you de referencing change workstring like so workstring X 1 1 putinterval And your workstring now contains AXC Now for the trick question What is now in oldstring If you gu
213. xt French cut envelopes Reverse slash secrets U amp Ic typography mag Scotchcal amp Color Key Smaller text fonts Chemical cleaning Badgemaking stuff Barcode resources Electronic Publishing IIgs AppleTalk hassles Fatter calligraphy Fast irregular clip In Plant magazine Kerning a number Kroy Kolor process Backwards printing Font characters Dictionary order Redefining procs Line breaker font The FORM X Films Adobe Systemdict A Mafia font The green book Save Restore bug Padding compond Communications bug Using the flying wedge For more help 602 428 4073 Don Lancaster s LaserWriter Secrets Table of Contents 2 For more help 602 428 4073 Table of Contents continued Font and Function Self Adhesive films Sight reading eexec A clip and stroke font ImageWriter emulation 2 way communications Paper Plus stores Unusual boxit font Uhlrichts Dictonary Printing to the edge Reverse slash trickery Secret 300 DPI Gray Map Pixie Dust magic Arc justified fonts Forms Professional Secrets of superexec Halftone spot patterns IBM LaserWriter cables A dotted outliner Signcraft Magazine GOCCO silk screens Persistent download Auto background font Random number intro AppleTalk cables Underlining rules Fomeboard sheets Pixel boundry locking LaserWriter Reference Popular Star Wars font New banner font Display
214. y track for you Always work relative and never absolute Watch the sequence in which you translate rotate and scale or adjustments and changes will get infuriatingly difficult For most uses most of the time you always do your translation first then a rotation and finally your scale MATERIAL OF THE MONTH TRANSFER MAGIC should be available at your cloth or notions store It instantly converts any toner image into an iron on applique You first make a toner on paper copy and stick the Transfer Magic to it Next you use water to dissolve the paper out from underneath the toner and then finally iron the applique in place Transfer Magic is supplied through EZ International at 130 Grand Street Carlstadt NJ 07072 201 935 9005 PUBLICATION OF THE MONTH The APPLE PROGRAMMER S AND DEVELOPER S ASSOCIATION or APDA for short is the lowest level of Apple s developer s services Anyone can join for 24 per year This gives you a monthly newsletter and a low cost access to all sorts of technical insider publications and software both Apple and third party One example is their Asynchronous LaserWriter Driver v4 1 at 14 there are many others APDA 20525 Mariani Avenue Cupertino CA 95014 408 996 1010 Here s my approach to a simple vertical font strr X def vertfont save msg exch def translate msg trr exch 0 exch put strr stringwidth pop 2 div neg 0 moveto strr show 0 vertspacing neg translate forall grest
215. y is lost because of roundoffs that occur when very small values are subtracted from very large values To get the best possible results in any PostScript accumulation presort your array by absolute values so that the LARGEST values are added to each other first followed by progressively SMALLER values For instance 4502 1 0 0042 4500 1 0 0052 1 3 9 9 3 3 15 3 6 43 43 bubbleabssort sorts to 4502 1 4500 1 43 43 15 3 6 9 9 3 3 1 3 0 0052 0 0042 Summing the first array gives a WRONG answer while summing the presorted array gives you the RIGHT answer quit Addressing your envelopes first and then manufacturing them last is one idea whose time is long overdue The obvious advantages here include an unlimited materials choice fast and jam free unattended flat sheet feeding letter perfect print quality and very few thermal fuser cycled lickum stickum surprises New products such as that roll on DryLine Permanent Adhesive from Liquid Paper can greatly ease assembly Here s a quick and dirty custom kerning routine that works on any font and is especially good on headlines hkern urrentpoint 3 1 roll sub neg exch moveto def demo remove or alter before reuse Helvetica findfont 30 O O 30 O 0 makefont setfont 100 500 moveto A show 3 hkern W show 3 hkern ARD show showpage Besides tightening awkward character combinations non obvious uses include complement bars and fore

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