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<title>ploticus: making paper-based output</title>
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<td><br><h2>making paper-based output</h2></td>
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<small>
<a href="../doc/welcome.html"><img src="../doc/ploticus.gif" border=0></a><br>
Version 2.41 Mar2009
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<title>Manual page for making_paper-based_output(PL)</title>
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<h2>Paper-based reports</h2>
<p>
Paper continues to play an essential role
for meeting materials and reports.<tt> </tt>
Fortunately, <b>ploticus</b> can create attractive data displays on paper,
using vector graphics and PoscScript fonts, and control over page layout
and pagination.<tt> </tt>
<br><br><br>
<h2>Pre-press work</h2>
This is discussed
<a href="prepress.html">
here.<tt> </tt>
</a>
<br><br><br>
<h2>Supported printer languages</h2>
<p>
<b>Ploticus</b> can generate paginated PostScript or
Encapsulated PostScript (EPS).<tt> </tt>
Use the <tt>-ps</tt> command line option to get paginated PostScript;
use <tt>-eps</tt> for EPS.<tt> </tt>
Paginated PostScript may be sent directly to printers and
may contain multiple pages. EPS generally contains one picture or figure;
it may be printed directly or it may be imported by other software applications.<tt> </tt>
<br><br><br>
<h2>Image import</h2>
<p>
Another way to work is to create PNG,
<a href="svg.html">
SVG
</a>
, or GIF files with <b>ploticus</b>,
and import these into your document.<tt> </tt>
<br><br><br>
<h2>Considerations</h2>
Here are some issues that come into play with paper-based reports:
<ul>
<li>
Color: paper-based reports must often must be in monochrome
due to photocopying limitations. A background color of white
gives the best results.<tt> </tt>
Printers convert colors to grays
but results may not be quite what you would expect.<tt> </tt>
Foreground and background colors may be controlled from <b>proc page</b>
or from the command line.<tt> </tt>
When creating EPS, the default background is <tt>transparent</tt>.<tt> </tt>
<li>
Fonts: PostScript and
<a href="svg.html">
SVG
</a>
fonts are more attractive than with the other
output formats.
<a href="fonts.html">
More info on fonts.<tt> </tt>
</a>
<li>
When printing results directly,
graphs may need to be layed out properly with respect to
standard-sized sheets of paper.<tt> </tt>
<b>Proc areadef</b> includes several different methods for
specifying layout geometry.<tt> </tt>
<li>
Paper orientation is the way the paper is held. Paper may be portrait (tall)
or landscape (oblong). Orientation may be set in <b>proc page</b>
or on the command line.<tt> </tt>
<li>
Pagination - a single script file may generate multiple pages of results.<tt> </tt>
In <b>pl</b>, <b>proc page</b> is used to specify a page break.<tt> </tt>
<br>
<br>
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<a href="../doc/welcome.html">
<img src="../doc/ploticus.gif" border=0></a><br><small>data display engine <br>
<a href="../doc/Copyright.html">Copyright Steve Grubb</a>
<br>
<br>
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Ploticus is hosted at http://ploticus.sourceforge.net</td><td> </td><td>
<a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ploticus"><img src="http://sflogo.sourceforge.net/sflogo.php?group_id=38453&type=12"
width="120" height="30" border="0"
alt="Get ploticus data display engine at SourceForge.net. Fast, secure and Free Open Source software downloads" /></a>
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