Questions about default page element postions when using letter paper size.

Questions about default page element postions when using letter paper size.

[Thomas Porter]

I recently used the newest context to prepare a document where I experimented
with margin notes.  It seemed that the main body text was not centered
properly, and later I found that the margin notes I set up on the left side of
the page ran off the page.  Becasue I needed to get the paper finished in a
hurry, I decided to not use the margin notes, but went on to experiment a bit
later.

My document was setup very simply:

\setuppapersize[letter][letter]
\showlayout

\setuppagenumbering[state=stop]
\setupheadertexts[Basic Linux Security][\pagenumber]

\setupfootertexts[section][Piedmont Linux Users Group]

\setupheader[style=bold]
\setupfooter[style=cap]
\setupwhitespace[medium]
\setupindenting[medium]
\starttext
\startstandardmakeup
\midaligned{Basic Linux Security}
\midaligned{by}
\midaligned{Tom Porter}
\stopstandardmakeup

This presentation is aimed at the beginner level. It is primarily concerned
with securing a dial-up, cable modem or ADSL connected box.  It introduces the
concepts of:

<<much text cut>>

\stoptext

I then ran the file with the \showlayout command enabled and found that the
default \backspace setting seemed to cause the general page layout to be offset
to the left.  For example, the left hand side of the framed left margin was off
the page, while the right hand side of the right hand margin area was set in
from the right hand page edge a small amount.

If I changed my document to include a \setuplayout [width=middle] command, the
backspace stayed the same, but the \width enlarged wnough to cause the right
margin edge to move off the page as well.

I am trying to figure out if my use of letter as opposed to A4, which Context
defaults to, has caused some default dimensions to be set to A4 values as
opposed to ones better suited to Letter paper size.

Just to be obsessive, here is the dump of the values produced for \showlayout
for the fragment above:

paperheight 27.93602cm 794.96999pt \paperheight
paperwidth 21.58693cm 614.295pt \paperwidth
printpaperheight 27.93602cm 794.96999pt \printpaperheight
printpaperwidth 21.58693cm 614.295pt \printpaperwidth
topspace 2.3513cm 66.91061pt \topspace
backspace 2.5699cm 73.13124pt \backspace
height 23.51518cm 669.16685pt \makeupheight
width 15.4191cm 438.77812pt \makeupwidth
top 0.0cm 0.0pt \topheight
topdistance 0.0cm 0.0pt \topdistance
header 1.88112cm 53.53091pt \headerheight
headerdistance 0.0cm 0.0pt \headerdistance
textheight 19.75291cm 562.10503pt \textheight
footerdistance 0.0cm 0.0pt \footerdistance
footer 1.88112cm 53.53091pt \footerheight
bottomdistance 0.0cm 0.0pt \bottomdistance
bottom 0.0cm 0.0pt \bottomheight
leftedge 0.0cm 0.0pt \leftedgewidth
leftedgedistance 0.0cm 0.0pt \leftedgedistance
leftmargin 2.73064cm 77.70546pt \leftmarginwidth
leftmargindistance 0.43347cm 12.33539pt \leftmargindistance
textwidth 15.4191cm 438.77812pt \textwidth
rightmargindistance 0.43347cm 12.33539pt \rightmargindistance
rightmargin 2.73064cm 77.70546pt \rightmarginwidth
rightedgedistance 0.0cm 0.0pt \rightedgedistance
rightedge 0.0cm 0.0pt \rightedgewidth
bodyfontsize 12.0pt \globalbodyfontsize
line 2.8ex \normallineheight
height .72 \strutheightfactor
depth .28 \strutdepthfactor
topskip 1.0 \topskipfactor
maxdepth 0.4 \maxdepthfactor

BTW, running context on the fragment shown above resilts in four pages of
frames and settings, not just one!!  Also, having updated pdftex I am getting:

Warning: pdfetex (file /usr/share/texmf/dvips/config/pdftex.map): invalid entry
 for `hlcbot8rn': too big value of ExtendFont (850)

messages, which do not seem to be breaking anything, but I was wondering if
they might be causing some other problems.

Sorry for such a long post, but I wanted to supply enough info to be useful.

I guess I am trying to avoid doing a lot of manual dimension setting in order
to get my pages laid out in a useful default configuration.

-- 
Tom Porter                                       txporter@mindspring.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 
'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will 
the right answers come out?'  I am not able rightly to apprehend the 
kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."

Re: Questions about default page element postions when using letter paper size.

[Hans Hagen]

At 11:14 PM 1/20/2000 -0500, Thomas Porter wrote:

>My document was setup very simply:
>
>\setuppapersize[letter][letter]
>\showlayout
>
>\setuppagenumbering[state=stop]
>\setupheadertexts[Basic Linux Security][\pagenumber]

also accepted is:                       [pagenumber]

>\setupfootertexts[section][Piedmont Linux Users Group]

>If I changed my document to include a \setuplayout [width=middle] command,
the
>backspace stayed the same, but the \width enlarged wnough to cause the right
>margin edge to move off the page as well.

The main dimension to play with are 

backspace : also called binding edge 
topspace  : the distance between header and top op page 
width     : indeed the width 
height    : and the height 

So, start setting width to 'middle' and play a bit with backspace. 

The margins are virtual, in the sense that they don't count in locating the
main body text. Their dimensions play a role in (1) line breaks and
alignments and (2) backgrounds. Margin text btw can be positioned in such a
way that there are more virtual margins. Then, there are also edges (handy
for menus) and so. 

Did you read the english beta chapter on specifying the layout?   

>I am trying to figure out if my use of letter as opposed to A4, which Context
>defaults to, has caused some default dimensions to be set to A4 values as
>opposed to ones better suited to Letter paper size.

By default, the layout is defined in such a way that it scaled nicely with
the paper format. Since this happend to be A4 by default, you indeed need
to set the paper size to [letter][letter].  

>Just to be obsessive, here is the dump of the values produced for \showlayout
>for the fragment above:

>BTW, running context on the fragment shown above resilts in four pages of
>frames and settings, not just one!!  Also, having updated pdftex 

This is on purpose, since context supports single sided, double sided and
combined single/double sided output. There are some examples of this in the
big manual. 

I am getting:
>
>Warning: pdfetex (file /usr/share/texmf/dvips/config/pdftex.map): invalid
entry
> for `hlcbot8rn': too big value of ExtendFont (850)

This probably means that the font is buggy. 

>messages, which do not seem to be breaking anything, but I was wondering if
>they might be causing some other problems.

No. Just ignore them. 

>Sorry for such a long post, but I wanted to supply enough info to be useful.
>
>I guess I am trying to avoid doing a lot of manual dimension setting in order
>to get my pages laid out in a useful default configuration.

What you can do is to put your default settings in the cont-sys.tex file.

Alternatively you can put them in a file, say 'mylayout.tex' and input that
file in cont-sys.tex saying \input mylayout.tex or \readfile{mylayout}{}{} 

Maybe the best is to add the paper setting to cont-sys.tex. 

Hans

-----------------------------------------------------------------
                                          Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
              Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
      tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.nl
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Re: Questions about default page element postions when using letter paper size.

[Ed L. Cashin]

Hans Hagen <pragma@wxs.nl> writes:

> At 11:14 PM 1/20/2000 -0500, Thomas Porter wrote:
> I am getting:
> >
> >Warning: pdfetex (file /usr/share/texmf/dvips/config/pdftex.map): invalid
> entry
> > for `hlcbot8rn': too big value of ExtendFont (850)
> 
> This probably means that the font is buggy. 

I think there was a thread on this on the pdftex mailing list
recently. 

You can look for "extendfont" with the search engine:

	  http://www.tug.org/cgi-bin/marc-search.cgi

-- 
--Ed Cashin                     PGP public key:
  ecashin@coe.uga.edu           http://www.coe.uga.edu/~ecashin/pgp/