joyce@isieng.UUCP (Joyce Perrelli) (08/08/87)
We bought a legal size paper tray for our Apple LaserWriter, but
are running into some problems using troff macros and PostScript.
There seems to be a hardware limitation on the LaserWriter that
limits the writeable region on the paper to about 6.5" x 13". I
believe this may be a function of the limited amount of RAM
storage in the printer.
Does anyone know of a way around this? If I were to purchase an
Apple LaserWriter Plus, would I be able to print on the full
page (8-1/2" x 14")?
Any help is greatly appreciated. Send me e-mail at:
pyramid!isieng!joyce@isiengbobr@zeus.TEK.COM (Robert Reed) (09/02/87)
I ran into the same problem some months ago, and can tell you that the situation using a LaserWriter Plus is no better. I went to the extent of dumping the "legal" macro, where I found there is an area limit calculation done base (I assume) on available memory. My solution to the problem was to write a script that dumps my legal sized pages twice to standard sized paper. I generate a postscript file, dump it to the spooler, and then dump a sed filtered version which maps the bottom 11 inches of the 14 inch output. It then is a matter of cut and paste. This works fine for the small volume of legal size with which I have to deal. This may not be an acceptable alternative, depending on your volume. The makefile entry looks something like: soelim <file> | tbl | ditroff -me -t >tmp.lw lpr -Plw tmp.lw sed '/^\/xi/s/11/14/' <tmp.lw |lpr -Plw -- Robert Reed, Tektronix CAE Systems Division, bobr@zeus.TEK
bobr@zeus.tek.COM (09/08/87)
Ralph P. Sobek writes:
Normally, both the LaserWriter and LaserWriter+ get their page size
information from the codes on the paper feed trays. As such, if you send
legal size (14") text documents and you have the legal paper tray, it
will work properly. Unfortunately, packages, such as Transcript, *only*
understand letter size pages. It suffices to intercept the PostScript
document before it goes to the printer and specify \legal, \letter,
\note, \a4 , etc. in order to define the page to be of the correct size.
For example, TeX allows one to create legal sized documents. Then the
"\legal" option *has* to be specified to dvi2ps in order that it comes
out propely on the printer.
This is correct in-so-far as it goes. It's true that the LaserWriter(+) does
have interlocks to match the page size declaration to the loaded paper size.
LW has predefined macros for letter, legal, plus several European page sizes.
But my previous note regarded an apparent problem with the LW which is
circumvented in a rather frustrating way by these default macros.
As I said before, having decoded the letter and legal macros defined within
the LW, it appears that there is a limit to the amount of memory allowed for
scan conversion, and that limit is less than a full legal size sheet. If, by
whatever means, you invoke the \legal macro within the LW, the page length
mask gets set to something like 13.5 inches, but the width gets trimmed to
the 5 or 6 inch range. For my purposes, I wanted to render 8 x 13.5 inch
pages, and using the \legal specification would truncate the sides of my
output. My experiments were done by arming the single sheet feeder, so paper
cartridge identifications should not have been an issue.
Because of these problems and because of the foreseen problem of getting out
legal pages in a printer queue which is otherwise exclusively letter size, I
chose the method I previously described of outputing two sets of the
document onto letter sized pages, one appropriately transformed, and then
cutting and pasting to get legal size.ralph@lasso.UUCP.UUCP (10/01/87)
Normally, both the LaserWriter and LaserWriter+ get their page size information from the codes on the paper feed trays. As such, if you send legal size (14") text documents and you have the legal paper tray, it will work properly. Unfortunately, packages, such as Transcript, *only* understand letter size pages. It suffices to intercept the PostScript document before it goes to the printer and specify \legal, \letter, \note, \a4 , etc. in order to define the page to be of the correct size. For example, TeX allows one to create legal sized documents. Then the "\legal" option *has* to be specified to dvi2ps in order that it comes out propely on the printer. Ralph P. Sobek UUCP: mcvax!inria!lasso!ralph ARPA: sobek@shadow.Berkeley.EDU (automatic forwarding) BITNET: SOBEK@FRMOP11