Re: Layout issues

[Hans Hagen <pragma@wxs.nl>]

At 08:24 PM 3/8/2002 +0100, Giuseppe Bilotta wrote:

>a couple of questions on page layout.
>
>Issue #1: the default layout does not fit in an A4 sheet. First of
>all, as it is it puts part of the left margin outside
>of the printed page (at least on my system), as shown by

right, margin dimensions only play a role in alignment and stacking margins

>\setupinmargin[left][align=outer]
>\setupinmargin[right][align=outer]
>%%% ^^^^^^^^^^ Why can't I use \setupinmargin[left,right] ?

hm, is this a feature request? [should go into database then, even if i 
could implement it in 30 seconds; since you seem to like generating 
formats, i'll send you a new page-mar.tex -)]

This can be done already, but I was thinking of some slightly more
>'equationish' way of setting the parameters, something probably
>typical of the MetaPost approach (say,
>leftmargin=rightmargin=.2width, leftmargindistance=rightmargindistance,
>with some predefined equations like
>leftmargin+leftmargindistance+width+rightmargindistance+rightmargin=
>paperwidth-backspace-leftedge-leftedgedistance-rightedge-leftedgedistance).

i have been playing with this some time ago, something \definedimension, 
but it's impossible to get thsi robust (esp in tex versus etex);

however, if you look into your beta cont-new.tex, you will see:

\beginETEX \dimexpr

\definepapersize
   [oversized]
   [\c!breedte=\dimexpr(\papierbreedte+1.5cm),
    \c!hoogte=\dimexpr(\papierhoogte+1.5cm)]

\definepapersize
   [doublesized]
   [\c!breedte=\dimexpr(\papierbreedte),
    \c!hoogte=\dimexpr(2\papierhoogte)]

\definepapersize
   [doubleoversized]
   [\c!breedte=\dimexpr(\papierhoogte+1.5cm),
    \c!hoogte=\dimexpr(2\papierbreedte+1.5cm)]

\endETEX

>Issue #3: scaling/fitting
>
>Often (to save paper or for other reasons) I like to scale my work
>(usually done with \setuppapersize[A4][A4]) so that it fits in two
>pages per sheet. With LaTeX, I would achieve this by creating a
>DVI, converting it to PS and the use various the psutils to
>rearrange/merge pages.
>
>ConTeXt has its own imposition capabilities, so one would think
>that
>
>\setuppapersize[A5][A4,landscape]
>\setuparranging[2SIDE]
>
>would be enough.
>
>Yet this way to achieve things presents interesting problems
>related to the (possible) presence of absolute dimensions within
>the document. What is needed is thus some kind of arranging option
>that provides to automatic scaling/rotating AFTER the document has
>been typeset, so that, for example:
>
>\setuppapersize[A4][A4,landscape]
>\setuparranging[2SIDE,scaled]
>
>provides automatic scaling of the pages to fit the physical page
>---the scaling factor is
>max(paper_height/physical_paper_height,
>     paper_width/physical_paper_width)
>
>(Ab)using magnification could be an option as well.

   texexec --pdfarr --paper=A4A3 --print=2SIDE yourfile.pdf

(prints ok from acrobat since it scales down to A4) or

   texexec --pdfcomb --comb=2*2 yourfile.pdf

is your friend.

Hans

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                                   Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE | pragma@wxs.nl
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