john13@garfield.UUCP (John Russell) (11/29/87)
In article <1127@sugar.UUCP> peter@sugar.UUCP (Peter da Silva) writes: >> > Troff? The non-WYSIWYG thing with the cryptic commands? Get real :-). >> >> I'm trying :-)! Let's face it, troff is stone-age text formatting. > >Troff is a different SORT of program than pagesetter. I wouldn't expect you to >do a fancy newsletter with graphics and images in Troff. On the other hand, >I'd hate to enter a book into Pagesetter. I was thinking more in terms of WordPerfect for book-type projects. And doesn't PageSetter Professional accept WordPerfect documents? Hmmmmm... BTW, a representative of one Canadian nation-wide distributer told me they wouldn't carry Pagesetter since Commodore was including it in the software promotions; I asked if this applied to Pagesetter Pro, and was told this was included in the Productivity Pack -- I had to tell them it was actually just regular Pagesetter with extra fonts and PostScript support. Which is just as good a lead-in as any for this: -- [Is comp.laser-printers moderated? This bounced when I tried to post it there.] The Unix system here has both Tex and ditroff online, with tons of fonts for each, and using a HP LaserJet for output. Unfortunately, this printer has no font cartridges or anything like that, so a WordPerfect sample print that I upload and print comes out looking like: This is font #1. This is font #2. T h e s e a r e b i g l e t t e r s . etc. Sure, the print is great and all the formatting is correct, but it's in that one (kinda big) font with no pizzazz. What I am looking for, then, is some way to have the fonts stored on the system downloaded into font positions on the LaserJet before sending the WordPerfect document, which would have font & pitch change commands embedded in it, this after "printing" the document into a file at home. My questions: - is this doable from within ditroff and/or Tex? It would require loading the fonts and then exiting *without* resetting the printer; the rest of the document could be printed as part of the same job, I suppose. Something like (ditroff fontfile ; cat doc.wp) | lpr -Pljet. - is there some simple utility already existing that would allow me to do this? Someone here mentioned Vgrind, I presume the source to it is informative? Barring that is there straightforward documentation on the font file formats I could use to write my own? - are there any copyright difficulties involved in using fonts from either package in this way? - if it works, will the resulting fonts be fixed in size or can they be made to vary with the print pitch/line spacing? - what are the limitations on the number and sizes of fonts that can be stored in HP laserjets of varying memory capacities? I know troff gives you 4 positions at once, WP uses 8 simultaneous font definitions. If you know the answers to any or all of these questions, please let me know. I have a semi-familiarity with *roff, no experience at all with Tex. John -- "MEGA BRAIN 8K MEMORY" -- ad for a portable calculator/notepad, Globe & Mail Nov. 27/87