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2 $Header: /cvsroot/mpdist/mpdist/README,v 1.3 2002/10/15 19:09:31 richbastard Exp $
3
4 README for mp, mptool and mimep. PostScript pretty printers.
5
6 Version 3.7.1 October 2002.
7
8 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
9 CONTENTS:
10
11 1. What is mp?
12 2. What is mimep?
13 3. Installation.
14 4. How mp works.
15 5. Trouble shooting hints.
16 6. Authors.
17 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
18
19
20 1. What is mp?
21 --------------
22
23 The mp distribution now consists of two programs, mp and mptool.
24
25 The mp program will pretty print various files for you. It can be used
26 in conjunction with a mail reading utility for producing a pretty print
27 of your mail items. It can be used with a news reading tool to pretty
28 print news articles. Digests can also be printed, and this version can
29 pretty print ordinary ASCII files as well. Support for personal organiser
30 printing was added into the last released version. There are numerous
31 configuration options to allow you to adjust the way mp generates it's
32 output.
33
34 The mptool program is a graphical frontend to mp. It makes it easy to
35 configure the printout of your documents without having to remember lots
36 of complicated command line arguments. It also supports drag and drop of
37 text from other Gtk+ applications.
38
39 See the manual pages for more details on these various options.
40
41 ----------
42
43 The latest version of the mpdist distribution is available from:
44
45 http://mptool.sourceforge.net
46
47 ----------
48
49 There is a mailing list for people interested in mp. It is:
50
51 mp@Sun.COM
52
53 To get added to the list, send a request to:
54
55 mp-request@Sun.COM
56
57
58 2. What is mimep?
59 -----------------
60
61 The mimep program allows users to print multimedia messages composed with
62 any UA respecting the MIME standard. It can print most of the bodyparts
63 composing this kind of mail (gif, jpeg images, text/plain, text/enriched,
64 postscript files ...). To achieve its goal, mimep builds a LaTeX document
65 from the MIME message. Afterwards, it converts it into a "dvi" file, then
66 into Postscript, outputting either to a file or to a printer.
67
68 There is a mailcap_example file in the .../mimep directory which should be
69 copied to ~/.mailcap, if you don't already have one. Note that the mailcap
70 file is setup to call other programs (like xloadimage and ghostview) to
71 display various MIME types. You should configure this file accordingly for
72 your site (ie, xv and ghostprint as possible alternates).
73
74 See the mimep manual pages for more details on the various options available
75 with this program.
76
77 Mimep uses two other well known software distributions. If you don't have
78 them, then they can be obtained from the following sites:
79
80 LaTeX - anon ftp from labrea.stanford.edu in the pub/tex directory.
81 metamail - anon ftp from thumper.bellcom.com in the pub/nsb directory.
82
83 3. Installation.
84 ----------------
85
86 See the file 'INSTALL'
87
88
89 4. How mp works.
90 ----------------
91
92 When mp processes a file, it first reads the designated prologue and
93 extracts data from the following lines:
94
95 %%PageLength nn - the number of lines per page
96 %%LineLength nn - the number of chars on a line
97 %%NumCols nn - the number of columns per page
98
99 Then it reads the input files and reshapes them into PostScript using the
100 following structuring conventions:
101
102 %%Page: ? 1
103 (1) newpage <- physical page #1
104 ...data...
105 (1) 1 endcol <- logical page #1, 1st col on this page
106 ...data...
107 (2) 2 endcol <- logical page #2, 2nd col on this page
108 ...data...
109 (3) 3 endcol <- logical page #3, 3rd col on this page
110 (1) endpage <- physical page #1
111 %%Page: ? 2
112 (2) newpage <- physical page #2
113 ...data...
114 (4) 1 endcol <- logical page #4, 1st col on this page
115 ...data...
116 (5) 2 endcol <- logical page #5, 2nd col on this page
117 (3) endpage <- physical page #2
118 endfile <- end of first or only input file
119 %%Page.... <
120 .... <- 2nd input file, if any
121 endfile <
122 ... <- more, if any
123 %%Trailer
124 %%Pages: nn
125 %%EOF
126
127 Prologue files need to supply the above procedures, which may be empty.
128
129 The following prologues are supplied with mp:
130
131 mp.pro.ps standard prologue
132 mp.pro.alt.ps alternative prologue, page nos. bottom right
133 mp.pro.altl.ps alternative landscape mode prologue file.
134 mp.pro.l.ps standard prologue, landscape, 2 columns
135 mp.pro.ff.ps Filofax prologue
136 mp.pro.fp.ps Franklin Planner prologue
137 mp.pro.pp.ps ProPlan prologue
138 mp.pro.tm.ps Time Manager prologue
139 mp.pro.tsi.ps Time/System (International) prologue.
140 mp.pro.tsp.ps Time/System (Partner) prologue
141
142
143 5. Trouble shooting hints.
144 --------------------------
145
146 * From Mark Valentine <mark@spider.co.uk>
147 Possible problems with mailp. On some hybrid systems (such as MIPS' RISC/os),
148 testing for the existence of /usr/spool/lp isn't sufficient to determine the
149 spooler to use. On our systems, for example, the directory exists, but we use
150 only the Berkeley spooler (it's a site-specific decision which one you use).
151
152 * From John Macdonald <mauxci!eci386!jmm@apple.com>
153 setscreen tells the printer how to generate greyscales. Depending upon
154 the screen angle and the dot density (45 and 106 above) you get differing
155 patterns for the "grey" (a mixture of black and white portions that gives
156 the impression of grey).
157
158 There are various tradeoffs in these choices (hence the red-books
159 recommendation). Small dot density gives grainier greys where the fact that
160 it is built up from dots is quite evident. High dot densities allow for
161 fewer levels of grey.
162
163 The default for LaserWriters provides 33 grey levels with somewhat visible
164 dots.
165
166 The 106 45 setting provides only 9 grey levels, but much a smoother
167 appearance.
168
169 The default is more valuable if you are doing special effects like gradual
170 changes in darkness and image reproduction.
171
172 The alternate is more valuable if you use only a small number of distinct
173 grey levels.
174
175 If you have a postscript printer that is more than 300 dots per inch,
176 it is quite possible that the manufacturer chosen default has a better
177 appearance than the 106 45 explicit setting, since the number of spots
178 per inch that are possible with such printer is much higher than with
179 a 300 dpi printer. It is also possible that there is a similar sort
180 of trade-off in their choice between levels and graininess, but it will
181 be at a much finer level - magnifying glasses might be necessary to
182 determine the best one.
183
184 For further details, see Byte, July 1990, Don Lancaster "PostScript
185 Insider Secrets"
186
187 * From Bertrand Decouty <Bertrand.Decouty@irisa.fr>
188 As with patch #5 to v2.5, mailp (and friends) are now installed using
189 symbolic links, as opposed to hard links. This is a potential problem to
190 UNIX systems which don't have symbolic links.
191
192 * From Bjorn P. Brox <brox@dms.corena.no>
193 The /backspace definition in the PostScript prologue files won't work on
194 all PostScript variants using Type1 fonts. The problem is that the
195 backspacefont proc is using a feature in real PostScript: A CharStrings
196 entry does not have to be a Type1 encrypted charstring, but can also be
197 a function. If this is a problem, then replace:
198
199 /backspace { -600 0 setcharwidth pop } bind def
200
201 with
202
203 /backspace <6f0878dde70d23b542> def
204
205
206 6. Authors.
207 -----------
208
209 See the file 'AUTHORS'
210
211 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------