Book layout with Lout

[Graham Douglas]

Hi All

 

I'm trying to get to grips with book

layout/design with Lout (I confess not to have

found this straightforward but that's probably

due to my lack of Lout know-how). As a 

simple visual aid I have written

a PostScript program which might be of

use to others? Basically, it puts

the following elements on the page:

 

> rulers (in mm)

> a grid

> proper printer's crop marks 

> a gray box behind the **book** page area.

 

I have found this helpful when experimenting with

the various margin parameters.

 

The PostScript code is controlled by

4 simple variables -- here are the ones

I'm using

 

/DocPaperWidth  210 MM def % A4 PAPER width
/DocPageWidth 156 MM def % UK Royal Octavo BOOK page width
/DocPaperHeight 297 MM def % A4 height
/DocPageHeight  234 MM def % UK Royal Octavo BOOK page height

 

I used @SysPrependGraphic to include the

code which uses (and *executes*) a PostScript

Level 2 feature called setpagedevice. Specifically,

the /BeginPage procedure writes all the above

elements to the page before Lout has done anything.

 

I have, so far, only tested it with Acrobat Distiller

but It seems to work well, so if anyone is interested,

mail me and I'll send it to you when I'm fully satisfied

its OK to release (it is about 9K). Or I could put it

in the Files section of the Yahoo forum.

 

Best wishes

 

 

Graham