briefopmaak / letterhead / personal stationery setup

["Frans Goddijn" <frans@goddijn.com>]

Since I use TeX mostly for writing letters and memo's (and I already use
ConTeXt for any book projects I embark upon) I have been very interested in
the possibility to migrate from LaTeX to ConTeXt for the letters that I
process frequently.

In LaTeX I have, though the years, created and refined a bunch of macros in
a personal style file that enable me to switch from one personal letterhead
to the one from the office, with the adressee's information neatly placed in
a light grey area where the envelope's window will be.

Way back in september 1999, Wybo Dekker wrote about his attempts to convert
to ConTeXt for letters and he was looking for a ConTeXt replacement of the
LaTeX iso-letter functionality. Hans answered: "[...] the iso letters were
already on my 'private' agenda [...] Now enveloppes have been added. So, in
the end you will be served ... but a bit more complete."

In October 1998 (this is me searching the archives...) Hans explains Wybo
some stuff about letterhead material getting placed in background layers but
I can't follow the what-and-how there. Looks like hints from one inventor to
another.

In the big 1997 ConTeXt manual MS-CO-NL.PDF i searched for "briefpapier" and
copied the logo macro's for the "\techdesignlogo" definition and placement.
I'd prefer a simpler example to start from, but then it's typical for Hans
that he can't bear to show something simple if that page can also be
utilized to show some nifty trickery for the connoisseurs ;=}}}

Anyway, I couldn't copy the text on that manual page to my editor in the
normal way but I managed to copy all the text on that interactive PDF manual
screen using Ctrl-A, Ctrl-C and in my editor Ctrl-V (losing the layout,
getting all keywords from the index page thrown in but still workable).

Contrary to my dark expectations (anything technical I count on not
functioning unless I get lucky), the \techdesignlogo definition worked! I
asked Taco Hoekwater if he knew of any other working example of letter head
than the one in that old manual but he said it is still a good and only
starting point for beginners like myself.

Below, I will provide a generalized version of the file that I have working
now. It is basically identical to the one I am actually using, but for the
sake of the subscribers who'd like to compile the file, I replaced my own
commercial Times/expert set fonts with the definitions for oldstyle numbers
in Computer Modern.

So, now anyone wanting to have the file I was looking for this morning can
start where I am now.

I still have some questions:

1) The logo information should actually start higher up on the page, higher
than the rest of the text on subsequent pages starts. How can I accomplish
this?

2) I now copied
   "\definieerbeeldmerk [groot logo] [hoofd] [rechts][commando=\fglogo]"
   but actually my letterhead is not "rechts" (right) but spanning the full
textwidth.
   How can I make the definition moge logical?

3) My office letterhead has a P encircled. How can I encircle a letter in
ConTeXt?

4) even though my sample text only spans one page, I get a PDF file with an
extra page. This is also the case with my longer documents lately, say a 17
page doc gets an 18 page PDF file with the last page perfectly blank. How
and where shouwld I correct this?

Thanks for your time, Frans

see my example [dutch] ConTeXt file below:

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\steluitvoerin[pdftex]

\stelpapierformaatin
  [A4][A4]

\stellayoutin
  [plaats=midden,
   markering=aan,
   hoogte=midden,
   kopwit=30mm,
   hoofd=0mm,
   voet=20mm,
   marge=0pt,
   rugwit=40mm,
   breedte=midden]

\stelkorpsin
  [ptm,phv,12pt]

\stelnummeringin
  [variant=dubbelzijdig,
   plaats={voet,midden},
   letter=\oldstyle]

\stelvoetnootdefinitiein[plaats=links]

\stelwitruimtein[middel]

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
\font\fgos=cmmi12 at 12pt
\newcount\hh \newcount\mm
\hh=\time \divide\hh by 60
\mm=\hh \multiply\mm by 60 \mm=-\mm
\advance\mm by \time
\def\now{\number\hh:\ifnum\mm<10{}0\fi\number\mm}
\def\oldnow{{\fgos\number\hh:\ifnum\mm<10{}0\fi \number\mm}}
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

\def\fglogo%
   {\vbox

       \font\fgkopletter=cmr12 at 14pt
       \font\fgkopcijfer=cmmi12 at 14pt
       \font\fgsubkopletter=cmr12 at 10pt
       \font\fgsubkopcijfer=cmmi12 at 10pt

      {\fgkopletter Frans Goddijn}
      \hfill
         {\fgkopletter Postbus } {\fgkopcijfer 30196}
      \hfill
         {\fgkopcijfer 6803 } {\fgkopletter ad } {\fgkopletter Arnhem}
      \crlf
      {\fgsubkopletter gsm:}
           {\fgsubkopcijfer 06}  {\fgsubkopletter -}
           {\fgsubkopcijfer 2181}{\fgsubkopletter .}{\fgsubkopcijfer 5881}
      \hfill
         {\fgsubkopletter frans@goddijn.com}
      \hfill
         {\fgsubkopletter www.goddijn.com }
      \hfill
      {\fgsubkopletter Postbank }
            {\fgsubkopcijfer 125}{\fgsubkopletter .}%
            {\fgsubkopcijfer 50}{\fgsubkopletter .}%
            {\fgsubkopcijfer 25}
    }}

\definieerbeeldmerk
[groot logo] [hoofd] [rechts]
[commando=\fglogo]

\starttekst

\plaatsbeeldmerken[groot logo]

% tekst wat lager beginnen:
\blanko[forceer,100pt]

Booischot, {{\fgos{\huidigedatum[dag]}}
               \huidigedatum[maand]
             {\fgos{\huidigedatum[jaar]}}} \oldnow

\alinea\blanko

Eerste regel van de brief:
Wall Street kon voor het eerst in vijf dagen tijd met
lichte winst afsluiten. Positief macro-economisch nieuws over
de bedrijfsbestellingen kon de indexen voor het grootste
gedeelte van de dag uit de rode cijfers houden.
Van hoopgevend bedrijfsnieuws echter geen spoor.

\stoptekst
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

That's it!

Frans