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1993-11-11
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FOLD-and-PRINT
version 3.3
User's Manual
(C) Konrad Budych 1989-93
FOLD-and-PRINT is a utility that allows you to print an ASCII text in
a multi-column format using either single sheets or a fanfold paper on
(probably) any line printer. This saves paper costs and makes it easier to
read texts. It is useful when you want to print long source code listings,
software documentation, or any long and unformatted ASCII texts.
FOLD-and-PRINT always prints in text mode to avoid slow graphics
printing and may use all features that are specific to your printer as the
program is completely configurable. It is possible to print selected pages of
the text: even-, or odd-numbered, starting from, or ending after a given page.
You may prepare easily printouts that you may bind in a binder. All features
are described later in this manual.
I have been using and writing this program for more than 3 years. It
was improved, changed, and rewritten many times. As I find it really useful I
think it may be useful to others too. Just give it a try, play with some
configurations, and very soon you will discover its value.
Real life example: the Canonical List of Blonde Jokes dated 27 Sep
1993 takes 34 pages (17 sheets) if just copied to printer. But it takes only
13 pages (10 sheets saved) if printed in two columns on any ESC/P compatible
printer using 80 lines of 160 characters or 6 pages (14 sheets saved) if
printed in three columns on ESC/P2 printer (Epson LQ-100) using 128 lines of
192 characters. Of course the sheet size is always the same. And magnifying
glass is not necessary to read these printouts.
Laser printer users: sorry. This program cannot be configured to page
oriented printers, you can use it only if your printer is or emulates some
line printer.
WHAT DOES FOLD-and-PRINT EXACTLY DO?
====================================
When you print a text with 'COPY ATEXT.EXT PRN', 'PRINT ATEXT.EXT', or
something similar, you usually get a sheet or two (or hundred) of paper or few
meters (or miles) of fanfold paper that has text printed only near the left
margin, has about 50 to 60 lines on page, and is printed with font which you
can set on the printer's panel.
When you browse through the user's manual of any printer, you should
see, that the printer can print in many modes that are mostly unused by
professional, big applications. These applications usually offer much more
features, but they print mostly in graphic modes, and if you have a slow
printer you sooner or later stop using them for printing ASCII texts (if you
have ever started).
Most dot matrix printers can emulate ESC/P commands. This commands
allow to select different font pitches and line spacings. It is no magic to
print 80 lines of 160 characters on a page. This is still very readable and
there is about 3 times more text on such a page than when you use default 55
lines of 80 characters. Of course if your printer does not support ESC/P
commands you may still use FOLD-and-PRINT. Only you will probably have to
experiment with different features of your printer.
What FOLD-and-PRINT really does is this: it formats a given ASCII
texts into multi-column format, and sends it to the printer, page by page,
preceded and followed by some control codes. The page length, width, margins,
line spacing, etc. are all up to you. Just give FOLD-and-PRINT control codes
to be sent to printer, tell it how many lines fit on a page, how many
characters fit in a line, and that's all! You may make your printouts even in
9 columns from now!
To find more details on how to configure FOLD-and-PRINT see below. If
your printer supports ESC/P (most printers do), you may test using the example
configurations included in the package.
HOW TO INSTALL FOLD-and-PRINT?
==============================
Follow these simple rules when installing FOLD-and-PRINT:
* All *.P files should be in the same directory in which you keep FOLD.EXE.
* It is nice to be able to run FOLD-and-PRINT from any directory and drive.
* Do not install FOLD-and-PRINT if you do not have DOS version 3.0 or newer.
You may just copy FOLD.EXE and *.P files to some directory listed in
your PATH, or create separate directory (like C:\FOLD) and create a BATch file
in one of directories listed in PATH. The batch may look like this:
@echo off
set fold=-tW -qt -i
c:\fold\fold.exe %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9
set fold=
echo on
The FOLD environmental variable is used to turn on default options.
You may SET it in the batch, in AUTOEXEC.BAT, or do not set it at all if you
do not need it. See below for options description.
After you have learned how to use and configure FOLD-and-PRINT, do not
keep *.DOC files on your hard disk --- the manuals are longer than the program
itself! Just hide the original archive file on some forgotten diskette in
case you ever want to read this text again or your hard disk crashes.
FOLD.EXE and a couple of .P files is enough to use FOLD-and-PRINT.
USING FOLD-and-PRINT
====================
First you will be presented some examples introducing step by step the
major features of FOLD-and-PRINT. The complete syntax and full options
description is presented at the end of this section.
All these examples assume that you have FOLD-and-PRINT configured and
ready to use. If your printer supports ESC/P, FOLD-and-PRINT is ready to use
with default parameters: the condensed Elite font of 80 lines of 160
characters per page is used by default. Use another mode by copying any .P
file to DEFAULT.P or (which is better) using 'p' option, for example:
FOLD -pTINY FOLD.DOC
If your printer does not support ESC/P commands you will have to configure
FOLD-and-PRINT first. See 'COFIGURING FOLD-and-PRINT' section for details.
QUICK START
-----------
To print this file in two columns run:
FOLD -2 FOLD.DOC
You will be prompted for confirmation before the printing starts, and before
each page. Pressing [ESC] always exits to DOS.
If you want to know how many pages of the text will be produced by
FOLD-and-PRINT run:
FOLD FOLD.DOC
FOLD-and-PRINT will analyze the text first, and display how many pages, and
how many 'cuts' (see below) you will get if you use 1, 2, 3, up to 9 columns
of text. Then you will be prompted to press [1], [2], ... [9] to start or
[ESC] to quit. You may always force the analysis of a text using 'a' option:
FOLD -2 -a FOLD.DOC
In this case when prompted you just have to press [ENTER] to use 2 columns.
Of course, thanks to 'a' option, you may use 3 or 8 columns even if you
specified '2' in command line.
WHEN COLUMN IS TOO NARROW
-------------------------
When column is too narrow a 'cut' occurs. Normally the text which
would not fit in a column will be printed in the same column in the next line.
The number of cuts in texts can be determined in text analysis.
When the text is cut, a word may be broken in any place. When many
words in text are broken, the text becomes illegible. To prevent this, you
may use 'tw' option. This makes FOLD-and-PRINT not break words in the middle,
but move an entire word to the next line in the same column. For example:
FOLD -4 FOLD.DOC
would produce a very hard to read printout, but
FOLD -4 -tw FOLD.DOC
would produce a not so hard to read printout. Sometimes when a word is longer
than the width of a column it is not possible to leave it intact. In such
cases FOLD-and-PRINT will behave as if the 'tw' option was off.
You may not want to print the line endings that do not fit in a
column. They may