[comp.os.msdos.apps] You can *rotate* raster image file in WP 5.1!

ong@d.cs.okstate.edu (ONG ENG TENG) (03/18/91)

Hey guys, believe it or not, you can actually rotate raster images
in WordPerfect 5.1!  Yes, by 5 degrees, 10 degrees, whatever, something
you cannot do in 5.0.  I moved to 5.1 only because it allow use of
80x50 text editing screen.  

Now, any more special features you 5.1'ers out there know of? 

lair@ellis.uchicago.edu (Scott A. Laird) (03/18/91)

In article <1991Mar17.222435.24418@d.cs.okstate.edu> ong@d.cs.okstate.edu (ONG ENG TENG) writes:
>Hey guys, believe it or not, you can actually rotate raster images
>in WordPerfect 5.1!  Yes, by 5 degrees, 10 degrees, whatever, something
>you cannot do in 5.0.  I moved to 5.1 only because it allow use of
>80x50 text editing screen.  
>
>Now, any more special features you 5.1'ers out there know of? 

Yep.  Try this:

1)	Make a backup copy of your printer's .ALL file.

2)	Run the printer editor, PTR.EXE.

3)	Copy the definition for your printer, and call it something like
	"Epson LQ-850+."  (But only if it was an LQ-850 in the first place...)

4)	Edit each of the font definitions so the character set only contains
	one character, such as [12,255], or any other character that you never
	use.  This will cause WP to use its own grahpics character set for
	all characters.

5)	Now return to the main menu, and select, I think, Miscellaneous 
	Options, or something similar, and select the option (I think)
	Scalable fonts.  It's been a while, and I don't remember the 
	exact name, but its close to that.

6)	Now save and quit PTR, and run WP.  Select the new printer you created,
	and you _should_ be able to print text any size you want, with WP
	doing the scaling on the fly.  The ability of WP to do this has 
	increased with time, with the early releases of 5.1 crashing with
	a full page, or anything over about 100pts, and the later versions
	giving me almost 200 or so. 

You should now have a nice, cheap (Well, WP isn't cheap, but you already have
that, so it doesn't count) way to print scalable fonts on your printer.  If you
have a Postscript printer, it obviously doesn't matter, but this method works
on any printer that WP can print grpahics on.  There are a few problems with
this, since small sizes (below 18 points) don't come out well, this isn't
good god for text, but you can use WP to make signs and so on that look far
better than our old friend (or is it enemy?) The Print Shop.

Getting this to work can take some time, and there are a few bugs in the
system, since the graphics character abilities in WP come from the need
to do print preview as much as anything, and aren't really designed to make 
huge printer fonts, but it works, if you're careful.

There are only three fonts that WP can do this with, internally.  There is a
Times Roman, a Helvetica, and a Courier, with obliques for Helvetica and 
Courier, and a real italic on Times.  

If you have any questions, I might be able to answer them, but email debugging
just isn't my thing...  If this works for you, feel free to send me some mail,
just so I know that someone's tried it and it works.  Also, if you've seen this
method printed anywhere before, tell me.  I haven't seen it in the manual, but
It's big enough that I could have missed it.  Still, that doesn't seem like
WP's style.  

Good luck!





-- 
Scott A. Laird            |  Any semblance of the above to anything is purely
lair@midway.uchicago.edu  |  coincidental, as it was the result of an infinite
The University of Chicago |  number of monkeys sneaking in to use my computer 
                          |  for the afternoon. 

userDHAL@mts.ucs.UAlberta.CA (David Halliwell) (03/21/91)

In article <1991Mar17.222435.24418@d.cs.okstate.edu>, ong@d.cs.okstate.edu (ONG ENG TENG) writes:
>Hey guys, believe it or not, you can actually rotate raster images
>in WordPerfect 5.1!  Yes, by 5 degrees, 10 degrees, whatever, something
>you cannot do in 5.0.  I moved to 5.1 only because it allow use of
>80x50 text editing screen. 
> 
>Now, any more special features you 5.1'ers out there know of? 
   
   I can think of a long list, but my favorites are:
  
   - equation formatting
   - graphics output of the 1500 characters added in 5.0 (but which
     wouldn't print out if your printer didn't have them in its own
     fonts; now WP says "hell, I'll just do a graphic that LOOKS like
     the character)
   - tables: you can actually import portions of Lotus 123 or Quattro Pro
     directly into tables in WP. No need to go through an intermediate
     PRN file.
  
   I bought WP 5.1 for the first two!
   
Dave Halliwell
  
  
P.S. The raster output also seems to scale well when you resize the
     graphs: if you import a scanned image at, say, 300dpi, you can
     rescale it and still get good output. No need to match scan size
     with output size (at least in my limited experience).