XyWrite and PostScript

[OkAnnie@xxxxxxxx]

(was Re: XyWrite and Ghostscript: I should have changed the subj when I
reposted David Clarke's msg, because these are PS, not Ghostscript, matters.)

"Thanks for that information, Annie! It's a little advanced [ ... ]"

Dan: Bear with me. Say you sad that code to a file you name CHARWID.PS. Then
you write a memo, load a PostScript driver, and tyf the memo as SAMPLE.PS. If
you open SAMPLE.PS, you'll see an ascii file of PS source code, programmed by
EDITOR and the PS driver. CHARWID.PS also is an ascii file of PS source code,
programmed by David Clarke. Feed either file to any PS interpreter and it
will print hard copy or (if it has a screen driver) a preview. To use
CHARWID.PS, you need know nothing more than that about the language, except
how to designate and dl the font.

Because xyWrite PS support is primitive, no utility like the SoftMaker font
engine for other DOS word processors or ATM for guis integrates Type 1 fonts.
So DOS xyWrite/PS users sometimes must create our own width tables.
CHARWID.PS can help. If you print CHARWID.PS to screen or as hard copy you'll
see a page full of numbered PS character descriptions, each followed by
another number that represents the character's width in the font designated
in the last line of CHARWID.PS. For CHARWID.PS to be useful, you need to edit
the font named in the last line to the name of the font of interest.

And if the font's not resident (as the original, Helvetica, is), you need to
dl it. With a s/w interpreter you can dl the font with a run command in
CHARWID.PS. Hardware PS printer: Before printing CHARWID.PS, dl the font from
the system prompt. (If you didn't get the eof off the end of CHARWID.PS
first, don't be surprised if it crashes your h/w PS printer. If the coming
xyWrite revise doesn't have an option to save without an eof--a chronic
crossplatform headache--TTG will hear my howl without my posting it to the
list.)

Say I want to create a width table for Architect, Hank Gillette's freeware
knockoff of Adobe's popular Tekton font. I edit the end of CHARWID.PS (%
comments PS code to the next return):

	% Sample usage:
	% /Helvetica pwidths
	 (C:\\PSF\\ARCHTECT.PFA)run % software PS interpreter only!
	 /Architect pwidths

I store CHARWID.PS and feed it to the interpreter (if using hardware PS,
after downloading Architect). This generates a printout of Architect
character widths.

I wrote to David Clarke to thank him for posting the code and to say I'd
reposted it here. He replied that the printout may be long for 8.5x11 paper.
It looks fine in my previewer, but if you have a problem, I'll try to adjust
the code. I've tweaked the punctuation to clarify a bit the table CHARWID.PS
creates and will email it to you if you like. For building a width table, a
file of widths would be more useful than hard copy. If I get around to
converting CHARWID.PS to do that, I'll post it. 	--A

========================== annie fisher  nyc