Atari Works Document | 1993-09-25 | 10KB | 23 lines
Dutch 801 Roman
Classical Garamond
BAD_MARG.IMG
A:\BAD_MARG.IMG
GUD_MARG.IMG
A:\GUD_MARG.IMG
AtariWorks
Printer
Alignment
Copyright
1993 by Michael Hebert
The printer drivers supplied with SpeedoGDOS do an excellent job with AtariWorks until faced with border graphics that fill the entire page. This has led to some speculation that there is something inherently wrong with either the SpeedoGDOS drivers or in the way that AtariWorks makes use of them. That is totally incorrect. There is nothing wrong with the SpeedoGDOS printer drivers when used with the printers they were written for. Not all printers respond in exactly the same way. Factors such as builtin page offsets, printer wear, inaccurate paper dimensions, the thickness and moisture content of the paper all have a bearing. These, of course, are things the user has very little control over. What can be controlled is the way SpeedoGDOS and AtariWorks use the printer.
A little understanding of how AtariWorks treats margins is in order. Margins in AtariWorks are a function of two things, Page Setup and Font Size. The Left, Right and Top Margins are pretty much set in stone by the Page Setup. The bottom of the page is a different matter. AtariWorks compares the Lower Margin setting from Page Setup with the size of the fonts on the page, determines how many lines of text will fit and sets the page end or page break accordingly. If you apply an accurately sized 6.5 by 9.0 inch border graphic to a page that has 1.0 inch margins you will find that the bottom of the border is cut off.
The picture at the left is with default 1.00 inch margins all around, 12 point Dutch 801 Roman as the default font and the HP Deskjet 500 Printer Driver. As you can see from the positioning of the hard page break indicator this border is not going to print correctly. There is a remedy, however, and that is to set a combination of Lower Margin offset and some judicious adjustment of font size for blank lines.
Compare the position of the page break indicator in the screen shot at the right to the one on the first page. The only changes are that the Lower Margin has been offset by 0.05 inches and the last line on the page set to 6 points. To do the point size adjustment click on the last line then select Fonts . . . under the Style menu and set the point size to 6 points. Hit the [Space Bar] one time and the last line will be adjusted to the new point size. Now that wasn't so difficult was it?
Of course you won't always be using 12 point fonts without fancy line spacing adjustments on the page. As soon as you change the point size of any part of the text the Page End gets moved dynamically on you. What to do, what to do? Well move on up to some
blank
lines toward the bottom of the page and do some font size adjusting. Watch the position of the hard page break indicator until you see that the alignment of the page break and the bottom of your border is correct. Remember that 1 point is approximately 1/72nd of an inch. Combine that with 1/100th inch precision in defining the Lower Margin and you should be able to find a combination that works with very little time spent doing it.
This degree of precision is not necessary if your page has no border graphic since text does not visually provide a clearly defined lower edge. The eye is easily fooled into thinking the margin is accurate. Put a set of straight lines around the page and the eye suddenly becomes a highly accurate comparator.
So give the companion printer alignment template a try on your printer. Make sure that Print Area Offsets is set to ON in the Speedo Printer Driver Accessory. Print the template one time and make any adjustments needed for Right, Left and Top Margins. Scroll to the bottom of the template then adjust the Lower Margin and last line point size until you get a good fit. Remove any unneccessary lines below the page break then dump it to your printer and take some measurements. If the ruler says it's still off a little bit take a look from 12" to 18" away. If it looks good leave it alone! Make a note of the settings in your AtariWorks manual or wherever you keep such things for ready reference.
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