COPYRIGHT:
Mpage and all the files distributed with mpage are covered by copyright:
Copyright (c) 1994-2004 Marcel J.E. Mol, The Netherlands
Copyright (c) 1988 Mark P. Hahn, Herndon, Virginia
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
marcel@mesa.nl
MESA Consulting B.V.
Nootdorp
The Netherlands
Mobile:+31-6-54724868
email: info@mesa.nl http://www.mesa.nl ftp://ftp.mesa.nl
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DESCRIPTION:
Mpage is a program to reduce and print multiple pages of text per
sheet on a PostScript compatible printer.
It also has limited functionality to do the same directly with postscript
files.
The following are the files you should have for mpage.
README Notes and descriptions, this file
README.OS2 OS/2 port description
Copyright Copyright notice
CHANGES Change history
Makefile The Makefile
TODO Wish List for changes
FAQ Useful tips and hints
NEWS Global changes, User visible changes
Mpage.lsm LSM file for mpage
args.c Command line and options processing
encoding.h Definition of internal default character encoding
encoding.h.CP850 Popular for renaming to encoding.h
file.c Generic file handling
glob.c Global variable setup
mpage.h Definitions
mpage.c Main Control
page.c Page layout routines
post.c PostScript file processing
sample.c Prints sample page layout pages
text.c Text file processing
util.c Misc utility functions
mpage.1 Manual page
All.chars Test file containing all ASCII characters
Encodings Directory with character encoding library files
Characters List of Postscript character encoding names
Encoding.format Description on how to create character encoding
library files
gencodes.c Util program to build All.chars file
Test Directory with test pages
OS2 Directory with simulated lpr for OS/2
Contrib Directory with contributions by others
Contrib/mfix Fix to mpage that makes it work with ArborText
INSTRUCTIONS:
All you should need to do is run make. Actually it is probably better
to have a look at the Makefile and to check settings like for example PAGESIZE
to set the default page size (e.g A4 or Letter ...).
This will create the programs mpage and msample. Mpage is
the program to print n-up pages. Msample prints a sample outline. I
used it for debugging the placement of the layout. It is also handy
for other layout purposes. It accepts all the arguments that mpage
does, but does not print files.
As a quick sample try:
"mpage mp_args.c"
or
"mpage -8 mp_post.c"
or
"groff -man mpage.1 | mpage -2"
The manual page, mpage.1, formats with UCB or ATT manual macros.
USING MPAGE:
You will find that it takes a while on an Apple LW or Apple LW+ to
print 4 pages per sheet, It takes "a good long time" for 8 pages.
Reduced PostScript documents take a while too. (A rule of thumb might
be 4 times as long for 4-pages-per-sheet reduction :-) On a QMS 8ppm
printer 4 pages per sheet is about the same speed and other forms of
"1-up" output. mpage prints some timing information back from the
printer so you can measure the time required for full jobs.
ADMINISTRATORS:
As a printer administrator you should see the wish list for caveats
and information about future versions. I still have work to do to
make mpage more "administrator friendly", but figured that I'd better
get what's been done out the door.
BUG REPORTS:
Mpage is supported but this is done in spare time. So please send in
bug reports, requests or other things related to mpage and once in
a while I'll release a version...
If you have a problem please send me a complete description of the
symptoms. Please include the brand name of your printer, a copy of
the input file (especially if it is with PostScript input), and a
description of what to look for on the output. If your printer has an
error log, please include as much of it as is revalant. In general,
the more clearly organized information I have, the easier it will be
for me. And please do not forget to mention the mpage version you're
using. Also the output generated by your mpage might come in handy...
MAKING CHANGES:
Please, if you make any improvements, send them back to me so that I
can include them in future versions. Also I would solicit comments as
to the usefulness, and effectiveness of mpage. Let me know what you
like or dislike and feel free to ask any questions you have concerning
this mpage distribution. Thank you!
-Marcel Mol
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Marcel J.E. Mol
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| MESA Consulting BV
| Networking and Unix Consultancy
| marcel@mesa.nl
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They couldn't think of a number, so they gave me a name!
-- Rupert Hine
