henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer) (11/26/84)
While the HP LaserJet does have position control that is accurate enough
to get things placed to the dot, it's in a slightly odd form. The
cooordinates are expressed in "decipoints": 720ths of an inch. This is
especially peculiar since the resolution of the LaserJet is 300/inch, and
the two numbers are incommensurate -- there is no exact conversion between
the two units. The conversion factor is 2.4, but no, the LaserJet will
not take decimal fractions in its positioning commands. It won't choke
on them, but it doesn't seem to pay any attention to them either. After
a bit of experimenting, I have confirmed that the right thing to do is
what you might guess: when converting from 300ths to decipoints, round up.
[HP, are you listening? DOCUMENT THIS!!]
--
Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry