PSMULTI(1l) PSMULTI(1l)
March 1992
NAME
psmulti - The Multi-talented postscript filter.
SYNOPSIS
psmulti [General Style Options] [Default Document Options]
[Filename(s) [Document Specific Options]]
DESCRIPTION
psmulti is a development of an original program called multips,
primarily designed to print multiple logical postscript pages onto a
single physical page. psmulti provides this facility in a more
convenient form and has additional capablilities such as the selection
of specific pages from a structured document, encapsulation of
postcript images within defined bounding boxes in EPS compliant
format.
OPTIONS
The options for psmulti are divided into two parts, general style
options, document specific options. The style options determine the
overall layout of the logical pages on the physical page, the document
options define how the pages of the specific document will be laid out
in their allocated space. Document options that are given before the
first filename are taken as defaults for all the documents processed,
these may be overriden for a specific document by document options
given after the corresponding filename.
If no filename is given or the filename is a `-' it is assumed that
the document is to be read from the standard input.
The default layout for psmulti is a 1x2 grid with the logical pages
rotated by -90 degrees (landscape orientation).
psmulti uses the bounding box information in the the documents comment
section if available to to scale and center the image on the logical
page. This provides a convenient way to preview images that are
actually larger than the physical page.
General Options
-v Print to standard error lots of interesting information on
progress of program.
-format name
This option allows for the selection of alternative document
formatters, currently only two are available, viz.
standard - The formatter for normal uses.
desired
raw - Use this for simple jobs, or when simplicity is
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March 1992
you have
`standard' is the default formatter, but raw may be useful where
something that is a bit stubborn!
-border name
This option provides different alternatives for framing the
pages, currently available styles are
pborder - A simple border around each logical page.
iborder -
A simple border around each images Bounding Box.
2border - A combination of the 2 above.
shadow -
Prints a shadow under the image bounding box.
frame - Prints a frame around the logical page.
psmulti -
Prints a banner for psmulti around the image.
border
The default style is determined by the format used. Other local
styles may be available see your administrator.
-nodecor Do not print any border decoration around the logical pages.
-pages Defines the number of logical pages to print on a physical
page. This utilises a rough and ready algorithm that
determines a grid geometry and image rotation that minimises
scaling.
-geom RxC Define the grid geometry that the logical pages will be
tiled over onto the physical page, default value 1x2.
-ttob Fill the grid from top to bottom, this is the default.
-btot Fill the grid from bottom to top.
-ltor Fill the grid from left to right, this is the default.
-rtol Fill the grid from right to left.
-rmajor Fill the rows first then the columns, this is the default.
-cmajor Fill the columns first then the rows.
-pbbox llx lly urx ury | page | a4 | letter ...
Defines the physical page bounding box, within which the
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logical pages will be tiled. If given as `page' it takes the
bounding box of the printable region. The bounding box may
also be given as a standard papers size e.g. a4, legal,
letter.
-o filename
Define the filename to which the output is to be directed,
defaults to the standard output.
Document Specific Options
-margin num
Specify the size of margin (in points) to leave around the
border of the image, the default is 5.
-eps,-neps
Declare that the document is/is'nt encapsulated postscript,
if this is not defined in the options it is determined from
the version comment at the beginning of the document.
-maxpect Scale document as large as possible to fit logical page
while maintaning the aspect ratio of the image. -maxxy
Scale the document to fill the page in both height and
width. This will result in a loss of proportion in the
figure.
-ibbox llx lly urx ury | page | dsc | a4 | letter ...
The defines the bounding box for the images in the document.
If given as `page' the bounding box is determined by the
printable region of the printer. If dsc it takes the
bounding box from the file comments. It may also be given
as letter, legal, a4 etc which identifies a standard paper
size. If the image bbox is not defined in the options list
it is derived from the comments section of the document or
taken to be `page' by default.
-p This set up psmulti to lay pages out in portrait fashion,
i.e. default rotation 0, ordering left to right, top to
bottom, row major.
-l This set up psmulti to lay pages out in landscape fashion,
i.e. default rotation -90, ordering top to bottom, right to
left, column major.
-r[otate] degrees
Specify the angle the images of this document are to be
rotated to when printing.
-select [ordinal | label] pageN:pageM,pageA,
Select the specified range of pages from the document, by
default this is done by their absolute numbering (ordinal),
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March 1992
but it may also be done according to their page labels is
which case `label' must be specified before the start of the
page range. A sequence of pages from N to M is specified by
N:M, if N is missing the sequence is taken from the first
page to M, and similarily if M is missing the sequence is
taken from M to the last page.
-reverse Reverse the order of the pages being printed from the
document.
EXAMPLES
1. eg% psmulti -pages 4 myfile.ps | lpr -Pcw
Print out a postscript document myfile.ps with four logical
pages to one physical page.
2. eg% dvips chap.dvi | psmulti -border psmulti -select 2,5:8
-reverse | lpr
Print the selected pages from chap.dvi in the order
8,7,6,5,2 with the ecosse border printed on them.
3. eg% psmulti -pages 1 -border shadow slides.ps | lpr
Produce a copy of slides.ps with the ecosse border
superimposed.
4. eg% psmulti -ibbox page doc.ps | lpr
Override the bounding box defined in the DSC comments of
doc.ps and use the bounding box of the page clippath.
5. eg% psmulti -ibbox a4 -pages 1 doc.ps | lpr -Pcs23
Print an A4 sized image on the colour A3 printer, in full A3
size.
6. eq% psmulti -pages 1 -margin 0 -nodecor idraw.ps | lpr
Preview the idraw image which is actually larger than a4,
but will be scaled to fit onto the page by psmulti.
DIAGNOSTICS
The diagnostics are supposed to be self-explanatory.
AUTHOR
psmulti was written and developed by D.Murray.Laing
Department of Chemical Engineering,
Edinburgh University,
The Kings Buildings,
Mayfield Road,
Edinburgh.
EH9 3JL
Scotland. UK.
Email : murray@uk.ac.ed.chemeng
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March 1992
The original postscript prolog from which this was developed was
written by Ross Cartlidge
University Computing Service,
Building H08, Sydney University,
NSW, 2006, Australia
Email : rossc@extro.ucc.su.oz.au
BUGS
Only those intended to be there !
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