🚀 go-pugleaf

royce@splunge.uucp (Royce Howland) writes:

>Does anybody know of a NeXT-friendly print filter that can be used to
>convert single page 1-up (one page per piece of physical paper) to 2-up
>or 4-up sort of output (i.e. multiple pages per piece of physical paper)?
>I've got such a thing that handles TeX dvi files, but nothing for PS
>output.

>I'm using NS 2.1, with a DeskJet 500 and the DeskJet 2.03 ('dj') driver
>compilation available on sonata, so would like a filter that can handle
>that setup.  Any pointers would be appreciated.  Respond by mail and I'll
>summarize any results.  Thanks.

After sending out the above query, I received three responses.  Thanks
to each responder.  I secured each program referred to, and attempted
to print portions of the NeXT Sybase documentation through a version
of the ptroff script, modified to pipe output through each multi-page
filter in turn.  Details below:

1) mp
Paul Martin Trunz sent me the source to mp, a program he uses on a Sun.
It consists of one PS file (multi.ps, written by Ross Cartlidge) and
one C file (mp.c, author unknown).  I compiled and installed the
program, which offers the fewest bells & whistles of the three, but
does allow separate specification of x and y page counts.

The program mostly works.  The main problems encountered were: the
default tile format scales output to about one half the size it should
be, in each dimension, but explicitly specifying tiling parameters
corrected this; lines that should appear in the document were lost;
aspect ratio is not always well preserved.

2) psmulti
Marcel Weiher pointed me toward a program called psmulti, which I
located on cs.orst.edu in /pub/src/printers.  It consists of two
perl programs, a number of PS files, some documentation, and a perl
installation program (all written by D. Murray Laing).  The package
is well put together, and installed cleanly.  It offers the most
features of the three filters (including options to control bounding
box, various border styles, tile fill options [row major, column
major, etc.], and arbitrary page selection).

Unfortunately, the program more or less completely screws up the
centering of document text within the tiled logical pages, even
though it does display borders in the proper places.  No amount of
fiddling with command-line parameters on my part fixed the problem,
and the documentation didn't provide any clues.

3) quarto
Ramesh Dodamani suggested quarto (written by M. J. Hawley), which
can be found at the moment in the submissions directory on
sonata.cc.purdue.edu.  It consists of a single C file, which I
compiled and installed.  The program offers a few more options than
does mp (e.g. arbitrary page selection and some border options), but
not as many as psmulti.  In particular, it lacks the ability to
control the x and y page counts independently.

However, of the three, quarto is the only filter that produced
correct and complete output with my test documents.  This makes
it the obvious pick of the three, although if I ever receive info
on how to make psmulti function, it would then become the choice
(for those who have perl).

Thanks again to those who responded.  If anybody has hints on
psmulti, I'd be grateful to hear them.
-- 
Royce Howland   --   Everything is IMHO   |  "I can eat enormous quantities
royce@splunge.uucp        (NeXTMail OK)   |   of ice-cream without being sick,
or royce%splunge@atlantis.uucp            |   Mrs. S-C-U-M."  --Mr. Neutron
or alberta!atlantis!splunge!royce or ...  |   C86Net: Mr._Neutron@RT.Alta

royce@splunge.uucp (Royce Howland) writes:

>royce@splunge.uucp (Royce Howland) writes:

>>Does anybody know of a NeXT-friendly print filter that can be used to
>>convert single page 1-up (one page per piece of physical paper) to 2-up
>>or 4-up sort of output (i.e. multiple pages per piece of physical paper)?
>>I've got such a thing that handles TeX dvi files, but nothing for PS
>>output.

>>I'm using NS 2.1, with a DeskJet 500 and the DeskJet 2.03 ('dj') driver
>>compilation available on sonata, so would like a filter that can handle
>>that setup.  Any pointers would be appreciated.  Respond by mail and I'll
>>summarize any results.  Thanks.

>After sending out the above query, I received three responses.  Thanks
>to each responder.  I secured each program referred to, and attempted
>to print portions of the NeXT Sybase documentation through a version
>of the ptroff script, modified to pipe output through each multi-page
>filter in turn.  Details below:

>[... details deleted ...]

After posting the above summary, I got a further response from Scott
Hess and Scott Anguish, both of whom kindly sent over source to a set
of PS utilities called psutils.  The source apparently is on sonata,
also.

I have not yet tried the filters out (there are 5 or so that do various
things, rather than a single filter that does it all), but both Scotts
staked their lives and reputations on the quality and reliability of
the programs.  :~)  Well, no, it wasn't really like that.  Anyway,
the set appears at least as comprehensive as psmulti, referred to in
my first summary.

Just wanted to update the summary.  Thanks again to Scott and Scott.
-- 
Royce Howland   --   Everything is IMHO   |  "I can eat enormous quantities
royce@splunge.uucp        (NeXTMail OK)   |   of ice-cream without being sick,
or royce%splunge@atlantis.uucp            |   Mrs. S-C-U-M."  --Mr. Neutron
or alberta!atlantis!splunge!royce or ...  |   C86Net: Mr._Neutron@RT.Alta