Re: Producing postscript for custom paper size (9x12" manuscript paper)?

[John Hawkinson]

I <address@hidden> wrote on Mon, 3 Apr 2006 at 13:54:27 -0400 in
<address@hidden>:


> I wasn't very happy forcing /ManualFeed true, but without that, my
> printer produced a configuration error because it could not find the
> right paper size.  Setting various keys in the /Policies dictionary
> seem like they ought to fix this, but I wasn't really able to get it
> working right. Looking at the HP8000 series PPD file (I can't seem to
> find a postscript reference manual for it...), it looks like an
> alternative would be to set /DeferredMediaSelection true, but this
> looks like an HP-specific extension (though it seems to work ok...).

For the record, I was looking at the 2nd edition of the PLRM instead
of the 3rd edition. /DeferredMediaSelection is indeed standardized.
Here's a better version of my framework-ps.scm patch).

address@hidden
  John Hawkinson

--- framework-ps.scm    2006/04/03 04:16:31     1.1
+++ framework-ps.scm    2006/04/03 20:40:49     1.4
@@ -390,6 +390,57 @@
           (pfas (map font-loader font-names)))
       pfas))
 
+
+  ;; XXX: jhawk local patch to add support for manuscript paper. We
+  ;; need to tell the printer (or PDF writer) about the paper size
+  ;; so the right kind of page rotation happens, etc.
+  (if (equal? (ly:output-def-lookup paper 'papersizename) "manuscript")
+        ;; The desired behavior is that the printer will print on
+        ;; 9x12" ("manuscript") paper if that paper is loaded into
+        ;; a cartridge, otherwise it will pull that paper from the
+        ;; manual feed tray, perhaps prompting the user to insert it.
+        ;; 
+       ;; PostScript Level 3 supports /DeferredMediaSelection which
+       ;; allows the output device to decide on the media selection
+        ;; after the postscript interpreter has finished executing. In
+        ;; certain printers, like the HP 8000s, this is necessary to
+        ;; allow operator intervention to insert a necessary paper size.
+        ;;
+        ;; We assume here that this is the correct choice for any L3
+        ;; printer. But Level 2 printers are more limited. Instead, we
+        ;; simply set /ManualFeed true. Is is possible that some
+        ;; L2 printers would prefer to be told to implement PolicyNotFound
+        ;; "code 2," which means "Interact with a human operator or print
+        ;; manager to determine what to do." If you have an L2 printer
+        ;; and would like to experiment with that, try changing
+        ;;   /ManualFeed true
+        ;; to
+        ;;  /Policies << /PageSize 2 /PolicyNotFound  2 >>
+        ;; and let us know how it works.
+        ;;
+       ;; Really, we should get the page dimensions by multiplying
+       ;; the 'vsize and 'hsize values by the output-scale and multiplying
+       ;; that by the /lily-output-units. It should then be reasonable to
+        ;; remove the conditionalization on manuscript paper and always
+        ;; output the dimensions (except for level 2 postscript printers).
+       (display "%%BeginFeature: *PageSize Manuscript
+<<
+  % Determine LanguageLevel of implementation
+  /languagelevel where
+      { pop languagelevel }    % Execute languagelevel if it exists
+      { 1 }                    % Otherwise assume 1
+    ifelse
+  3 lt 
+      { % If <3, set ManualFeed.
+        /ManualFeed true }
+      { % If L3 or better, enable DeferredMediaSelection. This is certainly
+        % right for HP printers, and quite possibly for others.
+       /DeferredMediaSelection true }
+    ifelse
+/PageSize [ 648 864 ] /ImagingBBox null >> setpagedevice
+%%EndFeature: *PageSize Manuscript
+" port))
+
   (if load-fonts?
       (for-each
        (lambda (f)