RE: [Groff] some questions on mm

[Freudenberger Joerg]

Hallo Tadziu
> Shouldn't the paperlength for A4 be 842745?

I took this value from Dean Allen Provins' 
"The Groff and friends HOWTO"
(http://www.ucalgary.ca/~dprovins/groff.ps.gz #15.3 Page 57/58)
and it suits for all PostScript printers and viewers I use.

I'm not the "expert". I'm only a groff-looser ...

I changed only the paperlength in my environments 
and used the prerelease of -ma4 
Werner Lemberg provided to the mailing list long
long ago. And it fits. And this macro package 
has been part of the releases since then.

Would you please check the formular in the enclosed 
PostScript cut out of the referenced HOWTO.

Yours
        Jörg

-- Appendix --

        15.3. HowDoIChange the Paper Size? 
        
        Changing the paper size for the output of groff
        requires altering a single value in the device
        description file for a particular device. As
        shipped, groff supports several different devices,
        including PostScript (devps), LaserJet4 (devlj4)
        and DVI (devdvi). Inside each of subdirectories
        corresponding to the supported devices (all are
        found in /usr/share/groff/font/), is a file named
        DESC.  The DESC file contains name and values,
        such as print and paperlength.This latter name
        indicates the length of a page in points per inch
        times sizescale units. On my machine here in
        Canada, the default paper size is US letter. 
        On machines in Europe, and elsewhere, A4 is
        commonly used.  

Since A4 is longer than US
letter,the value of 792000, which is 11 inches
multiplied by 72 points per inch times 1000 (the
value of sizescale). A4 would use a value of
841890, which corresponds to a paperlength of 297
mm.  

        To account for a different paperwidth,(US
        letter is 216 mm, or 8.5 inches, and A4 is 210 mm,
        or 8.27 inches), macro calls for page offset, line
        length and other parameters, should be made.
        Forthe ms macros, see the table listed earlier in
        this document.