kim@beowulf.ucsd.edu (Geoffrey K Kim) (10/19/89)
I'm posting this for a friend, but send replies to me, I'll pass them on. Has anyone out there successfully gotten proportional fonts to work under WordPerfect? By 'work' I mean getting the micro horizontal spacing to correctly obtain straight right edges using proportional fonts. Thanks in advance. +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ | kim @beowulf.UCSD.EDU (Home of the Garden Weasles) | | "... ENGAGE!" -- Jean Luc Picard, STTNG | +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
fgd3@jc3b21.UUCP (Fabbian G. Dufoe) (10/21/89)
In article <7263@sdcsvax.UCSD.Edu>, by kim@beowulf.ucsd.edu (Geoffrey K Kim):
asks about getting proportional fonts to work right with WordPerfect.
I spent quite a long time and a lot of work figuring out the printer
driver for my Radio Shack Daisy Wheel II printer. One of the tasks
involved building a character table for my proportional font. It requires
knowing (1) the microspacing unit the printer uses (1/60" for the DW2) and
(2) how many microspace units each character requires. When you build the
character table you may have to translate to a different microspace unit
(1/120") and convert the number of units per character accordingly. The
problem I've run into on other printers is the documentation doesn't tell
you the spacing the printer uses for proportional fonts.
--Fabbian Dufoe
350 Ling-A-Mor Terrace South
St. Petersburg, Florida 33705
813-823-2350
UUCP: ...uunet!pdn!jc3b21!fgd3mikes@lakesys.lakesys.com (Mike Shawaluk) (10/22/89)
In article <780@jc3b21.UUCP> fgd3@jc3b21.UUCP (Fabbian G. Dufoe) writes: >In article <7263@sdcsvax.UCSD.Edu>, by kim@beowulf.ucsd.edu (Geoffrey K Kim): >asks about getting proportional fonts to work right with WordPerfect. > (rest of Fabbian's reply removed) I didn't see the original message from Geoffrey, but I thought I'd mention that the new release of WordPerfect (i.e., that has the new & improved file requesters, separate screen and interlace support, IBM WP 4.2 import & export, and a buncha other good improvements) _also_ supports various font cartridges for the DeskJet (they don't specify DeskJet vs DeskJet Plus, so I'll assume that they work for either). Through the modern wonders of multitasking, I fired up WP in the background while we speak (I access my UN*X host via a modem from my Amiga), and the following is a list of the printer drivers that are shown in the "Select Printers" function of the Print program: HP DeskJet A: Cour Ital HP DeskJet B: P Elite HP DeskJet C: LetterGothic HP DeskJet D: TmsRmn HP DeskJet E: TmsRmn HP DeskJet F: TmsRmn HP DeskJet G: Helv HP DeskJet H: Helv HP DeskJet J: Helv HP DeskJet M: Presentations HP DeskJet P: TmsRmn HP DeskJet Q: Helv HP DeskJet W/O Cartridge So, with a little luck, you may not have to bother creating a special driver after all; it appears that WP has done that for you! (Assuming, of course, that you spend the $15.00 for the update diskettes and new manual pages, which, IMHO, are very much worth it!) -- - Mike Shawaluk "Rarely have we seen a mailer -> DOMAIN: mikes@lakesys.lakesys.com fail which has thoroughly -> UUCP: ...!uunet!marque!lakesys!mikes followed these paths." -> BITNET: 7117SHAWALUK@MUCSD
tomb@hplsla.HP.COM (Tom Bruhns) (10/24/89)
RE: Proportional Spacing in WP. I coincidentally just this weekend tried to get proportional working on my Dynax DX15 (Brother HR15). I found that the supplied driver didn't work with the supplied test file: the columns came out ragged (left edge) and the spacing wasn't right. I messed with the character table, and discovered that the width attribute worked OK, but the adjustment attribute didn't do anything to affect the spacing, but apparently did get counted in what the driver _thought_ the true position on the line was. That is, when I set all the adjustments to zero, the columns came out lined up perfectly -- but the spacing of the characters was still wrong, and still the same as it was with the original table. (For those who haven't looked at the test file, it prints columns of "NxN", where x is every ASCII character. Since the columns are separated by tab characters, they should come out in nice straight vertical lines...) This is on an old version of WP; just this morning I ordered the upgrade and am anxious to try it. The support person I chatted with said he could try to duplicate the problem, but would prefer that I try the new version first. That was slightly disappointing; I expected they would have a log of defects and he would tell me that it was either a known or a new problem. He seemed to not know. (I'll try to follow up when I solve the problem, but would like to hear from others with insight.) Tom Bruhns tomb%hplsla@hplabs.hp.com
phoenix@ms.uky.edu (R'ykandar Korra'ti) (10/25/89)
In article <5160059@hplsla.HP.COM> tomb@hplsla.HP.COM (Tom Bruhns) writes: >RE: Proportional Spacing in WP. >This is on an old version of WP; just this morning I ordered the >upgrade and am anxious to try it. The support person I chatted >with said he could try to duplicate the problem, but would prefer >that I try the new version first. That was slightly disappointing; >I expected they would have a log of defects and he would tell me that >it was either a known or a new problem. He seemed to not know. Interesting. I've got an order for WP in the queue. When I phoned up to ask about such things, the first person I talked to had no idea, but kept looking and found somebody who did know. In his words, he said that "we put those tables in there for that printer, so yeah, it should work." I think he was talking about the new version, but that's another story. He also mentioned the return policy, so if it doesn't work (I _require_ two columns of proportionally spaced, justified columns on a daisy wheel for certain purposes on the magazine) I can send it back. Maybe you got a new person. >(I'll try to follow up when I solve the problem, but would like to >hear from others with insight.) If there's interest, I'll let everybody here know what happens once my copy of WP arrives. - R'ykandar. -- | R'ykandar Korra'ti, Editor, LOW ORBIT | phoenix@ms.uky.edu | CIS 72406,370 | | Elfinkind, Unite! | phoenix@ukma.bitnet | PLink: Skywise | QLink: Bearclaw |
mark@isi.UUCP (Mark Bailey) (10/25/89)
In article <5160059@hplsla.HP.COM>, tomb@hplsla.HP.COM (Tom Bruhns) writes: > RE: Proportional Spacing in WP. I coincidentally just this weekend > [...] Since the columns are separated by > tab characters, they should come out in nice straight vertical lines...) > > (I'll try to follow up when I solve the problem, but would like to > hear from others with insight.) > > Tom Bruhns > tomb%hplsla@hplabs.hp.com About a year ago, I had endless problems with WordPerfect and proportionally spaced fonts. After much pestering of their support staff, I was told that WordPerfect versions 4.x did not differentiate between the widths of capital and small letters. (I was doing a thesis and lines containing all caps came out with bad spacing, overlapping characters and no alignment). At the time they had no intention of fixing this :-(. You might see if text with only small letters works any better. -- Mark Bailey (I didn't really say this.) via: ...!uunet!pyrdc!isi!mark ------Have a 8-| day!!!!!
phoenix@ms.uky.edu (R'ykandar Korra'ti) (10/25/89)
In article <561@isi.UUCP# mark@isi.UUCP (Mark Bailey) writes: #In article <5160059@hplsla.HP.COM>, tomb@hplsla.HP.COM (Tom Bruhns) writes: #> RE: Proportional Spacing in WP. [...] Since the columns are separated by #> tab characters, they should come out in nice straight vertical lines...) #About a year ago, I had endless problems with WordPerfect and proportionally #spaced fonts. [details] #(I was doing a thesis and lines containing all caps came out with bad spacing, #overlapping characters and no alignment). #At the time they had no intention of fixing this :-(. My copy of the new WordPerfect arrived last night. I got it installed and running and printed out a test version of next issue's editorial in two justified, proportionally-spaced-font columns. It worked great. Cleanly aligned, proportionally spaced. I was so happy to have gotten rid of that *&($!!! Courier 10 print wheel that I was bouncing around the house all last night. :-) Caviet: I'm using a daisy-wheel printer, with the BoldPS Diablo printwheel. Your mileage may vary by printer. Specifically, my system is: A500, 1 meg RAM, thin Agnus, two floppy drives, Tandy DWP-230 Daisy Wheel printer IN IBM WHEELPRINTER emulation mode (Tandy mode acts buggy; IBM mode doesn't. Veeedddy interestingk...) and newest version of WP (4.1.11?). Interestingly enough, 4.1.11(?) allows you to set an average characters- per-inch value when in proportional mode. (I don't know whether earlier versions of the software did this or not). Tinkering with that made a _big_ difference in how the output looked, although I didn't have problems with alignment at any setting. I found an average pitch of 14 Proportional to work best with my wheel... - R'ykandar. -- | R'ykandar Korra'ti, Editor, LOW ORBIT | phoenix@ms.uky.edu | CIS 72406,370 | | Elfinkind, Unite! | phoenix@ukma.bitnet | PLink: Skywise | QLink: Bearclaw |
tomb@hplsla.HP.COM (Tom Bruhns) (10/26/89)
mark@isi.UUCP (Mark Bailey) writes: >In article <5160059@hplsla.HP.COM>, tomb@hplsla.HP.COM (Tom Bruhns) writes: >> RE: Proportional Spacing in WP. I coincidentally just this weekend >> [...] Since the columns are separated by >> tab characters, they should come out in nice straight vertical lines...) >> >About a year ago, I had endless problems with WordPerfect and proportionally >spaced fonts. After much pestering of their support staff, I was told that >WordPerfect versions 4.x did not differentiate between the widths of >capital and small letters. ... >At the time they had no intention of fixing this :-(. You might see if >text with only small letters works any better. >-- >Mark Bailey (I didn't really say this.) But-but-but---that ISN'T how my version works! My experiments showed that the width attribute in the character tables did indeed work just fine on a per-character basis. However, the adjustment attribute did nothing for the printing at the character to which it was applied, but did get counted in total accumulated horizontal spacing that the WP driver thought had been output. So a non-zero adjust wouldn't do anything to clean up the spacing of the character it was supposed to help, but would screw up the spacing of things following. --- Putting it another way, if I set the adjust factor to zero for all characters in the table, the output was lined up in columns just fine, and I could change the width factor so there was just the right amount of space between the N's in the test table to accomodate each and every character, but typically the character would not come out in the right place. Usually it would be too far to the right. I even tried to put in micro-backspaces to position the character (the character tables let you output any single or set of bytes for each ASCII character); that worked, but then the column spacing was screwed up again. In fact, that just gave me an idea to try: I can put in micro-backspaces _and_ adjustment factors that should just cancel eachother out! Wow, how convoluted. I've thought that I might try to write my own printer driver if the new one doesn't work, though some of the column stuff might be a bit tough for me to get right. (Probably easier to try the thought at the end of the last paragraph!) Tom Bruhns
tomb@hplsla.HP.COM (Tom Bruhns) (10/27/89)
phoenix@ms.uky.edu (R'ykandar Korra'ti) writes: > My copy of the new WordPerfect arrived last night. I got it installed >and running and printed out a test version of next issue's editorial in two >justified, proportionally-spaced-font columns. > It worked great. Cleanly aligned, proportionally spaced. I was so happy >to have gotten rid of that *&($!!! Courier 10 print wheel that I was bouncing >around the house all last night. :-) Whew! Thanks for the good news, R'ykandar! My experimenting last night revealed that the problems with the _OLD_ WP version were worse than I thought: if you make all "adjusts" zero, columns line up. If you then change the adjust for only one character, the test page is screwed up everywhere, not just at the character you changed the adjust of. So I was really worried. ... > Interestingly enough, 4.1.11(?) allows you to set an average characters- >per-inch value when in proportional mode. (I don't know whether earlier >versions of the software did this or not). Tinkering with that made a _big_ >difference in how the output looked, although I didn't have problems with >alignment at any setting. I found an average pitch of 14 Proportional to >work best with my wheel... The old one let you do that, too. And there aren't limits like only 10, 12 and 15 pitch, as there are with other fonts (I believe). I think you could go in and edit the character table so the result is optimized for a given pitch setting: that is, you could make separate character tables for different pitch settings. Then you could make assignments of each of them to different fonts for the printer. Then when you set a new pitch in the document, you would also select the appropriate font --> character table. Just a thought. (The test document, "PS.TST" on the learn disk, sets the proportional pitch to 13 and the font to 3, BTW.) > - R'ykandar. >-- >| R'ykandar Korra'ti, Editor, LOW ORBIT | phoenix@ms.uky.edu | CIS 72406,370 | >| Elfinkind, Unite! | phoenix@ukma.bitnet | PLink: Skywise | QLink: Bearclaw | >---------- Again, thanks for the uplifting posting! Tom Bruhns tomb%hplsla@hplabs.hp.com
tomb@hplsla.HP.COM (Tom Bruhns) (11/01/89)
The new WP update also does indeed print proportional spacing correctly on a Dynax DX-15/Brother HR-15. Sounds like they got it pretty much right this time. I've always liked wp on my Amiga, but it's nice to have _all_ the claimed features work like they are supposed to -- and this update seems a good step in that direction. The new requestors are also nice, and especially nice is the ability to disable the "are you sure?" requestors for block delete and save over the top of an existing file. Overall, well worth the $12.50!