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Article #5698

Re: Text formatters turn PostScript upside down -- why?

#5698
From: Vidiot
Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 05:52
26 lines
1720 bytes
In article <1992Nov14.222532.8727@cs.brown.edu> jgm@cs.brown.edu (Jonathan Monsarrat) writes:
<Why do text formatters/converters like dvips (for TeX) and grops (for Troff)
<define everything upside down in PostScript?
<
<Just to be mean?

Upside down?  Nope.  I believe it has to do with printing the page from top
down, which is how the text is formatted.  But, PostScript's origin is the
lower-left corner.  So, groff moves it to the top-left corner, so that the
output can be top down.

OK, so it looks like the document should print upside-down, but it really
doesn't.  I'm not positive (James Clark will have to say for sure), but I
think that the fonts are re-encoded upside-down.  I couldn't find anyplace
else where it could be.  But a little test I did with my stuff seems to prove
out that theory.

So, in the end, everything comes out right-side up.

Is it mean to upside-down the upside-down?  While it is a necessary evil,
it definately keeps you on your PostScript toes.
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From: brown@vidiot.UUCP (Vidiot)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: Text formatters turn PostScript upside down -- why?
Message-ID: <4438@vidiot.UUCP>
Date: 17 Nov 92 05:52:19 GMT
References: <1992Nov14.222532.8727@cs.brown.edu>
Reply-To: brown@vidiot.UUCP (Vidiot)
Organization: Vidiot's Hangout
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