mailing-list for TeXmacs Users

[Joris van der Hoeven <address@hidden>]

> On Fri, Dec 06, 2002 at 02:40:36PM -0500, address@hidden wrote:
> > De: address@hidden
> > > You have to set the printer page size in the menu
> > > "Edit->Preferences->Printer->Paper type". That menu will be moved 
> > > in a
> > > new "File->Page setup" menu.
> > 
> > I think that would be better under "Document -> Page -> Size" because In
> > my opinion the Page Size is a property of the document not a property of
> > the file.
> 
> You are right. But you are wrong :-)
> 
> TeXmacs uses two different page sizes: the document page size, which
> is set from the Document menu, and the printing page size which is
> currently set in the Edit->Preference menu and will be moved to the
> "File->Page setup" menu (which is the GUI standard location for such
> settings).
> 
> Actually, I am not really convinced the "printing page size" is a good
> feature.
> 
> When exporting to PostScript, users expect the Document page size to
> be used in the produced PostScript. Currently the document page size
> sets the "page bounding box" and printing page size sets the "paper
> size" in PostScript. That leads to unexpected behaviour in PS viewers.
> 
> Then, printing of exported PostScript is handled by the PS viewer, in
> which the user will set the correct paper size he uses and which may
> shrink the pages to fit on the paper.
> 
> When printing directly from TeXmacs, the printing page size setting
> does make sense, but only if it used to perform some useful action
> (like shrinking the page to fit on paper), which I do not believe it
> currently does.
> 
> Joris: what do you think of that issue?

Yes, exporting to postscript definitely should use the document's page size.

When the document's page size does not match your printer's page size,
the user should be prompted to

  1) use the printer's page size;
  2) use the document's page size;
  3) "fit" the document (do nothing if document's page size <
     printer's page size, and shrink otherwise).

If there is a volunteer for this, it would also be good to
have a popup window where one can specify

  1) the number of copies;
  2) the range;
  3) the page size (choices 1,2,3 above when necessary);
  4) printing only even or odd pages (for recto-verso printing on
     non-recto-verso printers);
  5) print several pages on one page or perform other transformations
     on the postscript output (psnup command).

As a temporary solution, we might use kprinter for this,
when this tool is in the PATH (do there exist similar tools
for other window managers?).