czychi@ethz.UUCP (Gary Czychi) (10/02/90)
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Organization: ETH Zuerich, Switzerland
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After playing around with print records and a couple of printers I wonder
which random methods define the printable area of the page, the 'page
rectangle'.
This is, what I found:
For example: ImageWriter
------------------------
(page rectangle - paper rectangle)
Format Paper Size top,left,bottom,right margins
inches points
US Letter 8.5 X 11.0 36,18,4,18
US Legal 8.5 X 14.0 36,18,4,18
It's very likely that mechanical restrictions define these margins. But what
happens when I choose an A4 letter size?
A4 Letter 8.3* X 11.7 36,10,6,11
Why do the margins change?? Is there a reason for it?
For example: LaserWriter IISC
-----------------------------
margins
Format Paper Size t,l,b,r printable area
Inches points points
US Letter 8.5 X 11.0 15,18,15,18 438912
US Legal 8.5 X 14.0 54,66,54,66 432000
Does anybody know the reason why the printable area of the bigger page is
smaller than that of the smaller page?? Why is there such a big difference
between the left/right margins and the top/bottom margins of the legal
paper?
A4 Letter 8.3* X 11.7 15,58,15,59 389760
Again, the A4 page is bigger than the US Letter page, but the printable area
is is *much smaller*. Why? If there were memory restrictions we could have
at least 438912 points (if not more**) to print with.
And again, which is the reason for the big difference in the margins?
The reason why I put so much effort in this 'investigation' is very simple.
For the user, it can be very annoying not being able to adjust margins
smaller than 0.8" !
When you draw into the page rectangle it is much easier if you can assume
that the margins on each side of the paper are more or less equal.
So, please shed some light on this mystery and break the spell...
Gary
Gary T. Czychi University of St.Gallen, Switzerland
czychi@csghsg52.BITNET (preferred)
czychi@bernina.ethz.ch.UUCP (CZYCHI@ETHZ.uucp)
Tel.: --41 / 71 / 57 17 22
--- Footnotes ---
*A4 letter width is better represented by 8.3" X 11.7" (instead of Apple's
8.2" X 11.7"). The correct A4 paper size would be 8.27" X 11.69" or 595
points X 842 points (exactly 210 mm X 297 mm).
**Which is the biggest possible printable area for a given printer (in points)?
If you have any questions, please contact me. I even would like to help in
defining methods for adjusting the page rectangle and other things.