pal() pal()
NAME
Pal - Print Address Labels.
SYNOPSIS
pal [-h] [-c<config-file>] [-d<thickness>] [-pqf] [inputfile]
[outputfile]
DESCRIPTION
This programme reads a file containing names, addresses etc. and
converts them into postscript format for output to a printer.
OPTIONS
-h Write a help message to the screen and quit.
-c<config-file> Specifies <config-file> as the name of the
configuration file that pal should read.
-d<thickness> Draws a box around each address label. This is really
only be of use if you are creating a new configuration file (or
modifying an existing one) and are having trouble accurately
specifying the dimensions and placement of labels on the sheet of
paper. In such cases it is a good idea to print out, onto a plain
sheet of paper, a page of dummy labels (the "-p" option can be useful
for this) with boxes drawn around each label as a guideline. Then hold
this sheet of paper behind a sheet of blank address labels and check
that the boxes line up with the boundaries of the labels.
The width of the lines used to draw the boxes is given by <thickness>.
A value of 1 will probably be suitable. Increasing this value will
result in thicker lines and decreasing it (e.g, 0.5 or 0.2) will
result in thinner lines.
-p Output a page of labels for each address given in the input.
-q Quiet mode: tells pal not to print out any warning messages.
-f Pal searches in the PAL_FONTS_PATH directories for the Adobe Font
Metrics (.afm) file of the font specified in the configuration file.
Pal will also search these directories for the actual font file itself
(stored in either .pfa or .pfb format). If can find the font file
then, by default, it will include it in the output PostScript file.
The purpose of this is to allow you to use pal with any font you may
own, rather than just the fonts which happen to be built into the
printer. The "-f" option tells pal to _not_ include the font file
(.pfa or question had previously been down-loaded to the printer.
EXAMPLE
pal -p infile.txt outfile.ps
Prints a full page of labels for each address in infile.txt, and
produces the postscript file outfile.ps
- 1 - Formatted: October 29, 2025
pal() pal()
AVAILABILITY:
You may obtain the latest realease of pal source via anonymous ftp
from internet host ftp.dsg.cs.tcd in directory pub/utilities
AUTHOR
Ciaran McHale (cjmchale@dsg.cs.tcd.ie)
MAN PAGE
s4adj@csc.liv.ac.uk
- 2 - Formatted: October 29, 2025
