Subject: What is GB2PS? -- GB2PS HELP FILE [long] (Re: GB2PS 2.02 is out)

From: William Sun <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 24 Aug 1992 10:11:24 EST

Hi,

Because there are some people asking this question, I think
I'd better post some thing that can answer this kind of questions
before my mail box complain.

W. SUN

======================== gb2ps.help ============================================
Last change: 23 August 1992

			GB2PS 2.02 HELP FILE
			====================

o What is GB2PS?
================
	GB2PS is a conversion program, which converts the GB code and HZ
code article into PostScript printable files that can be printed on
PostScript printers.

o What's new in this version?
============================
	In this version, GB2PS can do simple page formatting, change chinese
font and font size, select pages to be converted, cover page, page
number, etc. But more importantly, its performance has been
improved dramatically (Thanks Zhi Quan Luo,[email-masked]), the size
of average PS file(10 pages) reduces almost 5 times (from over 2.3MB to
about 440KB) compare with version 1.0, and printing speed is about
15~30 second/page. You don't need to worry about printer memory and
spooling area any more.

	Five chinese fonts are provided in this release, they are Song,
Kai, Fang Song, Hei and FanTi fonts.  This version also supports the HZ
ENCODING, so don't be confused by the name of 'GB2PS'.  It can do more
than just 'GB-to-PS'.

o Usages of GB2PS
=================

  	gb2ps 	[-h][-y year][-m month][-i issue][-p][-t][-f][-b page_no]
		[-e page_no] input_file [output_file]

	OPTIONS:
		-h		Help, print the usage of GB2PS

		-y year
		-m month
		-i issue	These parameters are used for generating the
				cover page file, they will be passed to
				the coverpage PS file directly.
		-t              do not generate cover page.
		-p		do not generate page number.
		-f		enable page formatting.
		-b page_no	begin generating PS file from page page_no.
		-e page_no	end generating PS file at page page_no.

	Normally, PostScript program is big. In this version, I have tried
to reduce the size of PS file as much as possible. However, it's still
possible that the spooling area be overflowed if a large print job is
sent. In this case, use -b and -e options to generate a series of PS
files, then print them separately.

	This version of gb2ps can automatically generate cover page for the
HXWZ printouts. The year, month and issue number can be set manually or
generated by system following the HXWZ name convention:

	cmyymmi.gb -- 	yy: year
			mm: month
			i:  issue
	ie.cm9105a.gb

Note: The page number of cover page is 0.

	COVER.PS is the cover page description PS file, users can design their
own cover page if they can follow the rules, see file COVER.PS for more
details.

Examples:
	input:	gb2ps -h
	output:	the usage of GB2PS

	input:	gb2ps cm9203d.gb cm.ps
	output: Converts gb file cm9203d.gb to PS program cm.ps.

	input:	gb2ps cm9208a.hz cm.ps
	output: Converts HZ file cm9208a.hz to PS program cm.ps.

	input:	gb2ps -b 3 -e 5 cm9105a.gb cm.ps
	output: Converts gb file cm9105a.gb to PS program cm.ps from page
		3 to page 5.

	input:	gb2ps -f -b 6 cm9202a.gb cm
	output: Converts gb file cm9202a.gb to PS program cm.ps from page
		6 to the end of the article with page formatting enable.

o ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
=======================
	GB2PS allows user to change the chinese characters font and cover page
PS file at run time through environment variables, these variables
are:

	CFONT		Chinese characters font files directory.
	COVERPAGE	Cover page PS file.

o Printing the PS programs
==========================

	You can get the chinese article by sending the PS programs to your PS
printer:

		print -P printer_name -M PostScript PS_program
Examples:
		print -P dcslw -M PostScript cm

* Note: The 'print' is a printing command in SUN OS(UNIX) system.

o System environment
====================
	GB2PS is developed in UNIX system, but I don't think you will have any
difficulty to port it into DOS or VMS system.

o Chinese fonts
===============
	GB2PS version 2.02 uses a new format chinese font file, compare
with the GB2PS version 1.0, it saves almost 220KB space. The format of
the font file is:
		XXXX YYYY
XXXX -- four digits QUWEI code
YYYY -- 24X24 chinese character bitmap

	The version can support up to six 24X24 chinese fonts, Song, Fang Song,
Kai, Hei, Fan and user defined chinese font. This release provides five chinese
fonts (Thanks Bo Yang,[email-masked], for his 'c2cc').

o Basic Concepts of Page Formatting
==================================
	The followings are basic concepts that have being used in GB2PS.
Margins, baseline and first indent are logical concepts, they are
invisible.

+------------------------------------------+
|                                          |
|   +----------------------------------+   |
|<->|<-left margin(72) ^ right margin->|<->|
|   |                  |    (72)       |   |<----blank paper
|   |            top margin(72)        |   |
|   |                                  |   |
|   |                                  |   |
|   |                                  |   |
|   |                                  |   |
|   | first indent(0)                  |   |
|   |<--->|                            |   |
|   |     XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX_______ <- baseline
|   XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX   |
|   XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX  ^            |   |
|   |                     |            |   |
|   |                     |            |   |
|   |                  a paragraph     |   |
|   |                                  |   |
|   |                                  |   |
|   |                                  |   |
|   |                                  |   |
|   |                                  |   |
|   |                                  |   |
|   |                                  |   |
|   |                                  |   |
|   |                                  |   |
|   |                                  |   |
|   |            bottom margin(72)     |   |
|   |                 |                |   |
|   |                 v                |   |
|   +----------------------------------+   |
|                                          |
+------------------------------------------+

o Page Formatting Commands
==========================
	This version supports basic page formatting, this is done by user
manually insert the page formatting command. All the commands begin
with '<' and end with '>', you can write multiple commands in one < >.
The units that is being used in the GB2PS is point, 1 point=1/72 inch.
Space is the separator between commands. The correct command looks like
<FS FZ 10 20 ML 72>.

Note: You should give -f option when running GB2PS with page formatting.

1. Font command 'F':
	The font command allow user change current chinese font, font size and
orientation.

	s or S:		Choose Song style chinese font.
	k or K:		Choose Kai style chinese font.
	f or F: 	Choose Fang Song style chinese font.
	h or H:		Choose Hei style chinese font.
	g or G:		Choose Fan style chinese font.
	u or U:		Choose user defined chinese font.

	z XXX YYY or Z XXX YYY:
			Change font size, follow by two numbers
			specifies the scale of the font in X and Y
			directions. Default XXX and YYY are 10.
	o or O:		Switch font orientation between horizontal and vertical.

	example: <FS FZ 20 10 FO>

2. Margin Command 'M':
	Margin commands control the format of the printout. For A4 paper, the
margins are from 0 to 596 horizontally and from 0 to 842 vertically.

	L nnn		Left margin, default is 72.
	R nnn		Right margin, default is 72.
	T nnn		Top margin, default is 72.
	B nnn		bottom margin, default is 72.
	I nnn
			First indent. If nnn<0, the formatted paragraph
			is a hang-up paragraph. The default first indent is 0.

	example:	<ML 72 MR 72 MT 72 MB 72 MI 0>

3. Other commands:
	<		character '<'. Anytime when GB2PS encounters
			'<<', it prints a character '<' in printout.
	G nnn		Set gray level, 0<=nnn<=100, default is 0.
	L nnn.nn	Line space, default is 3.0.
	C nnn.nn	Character space, default is 0.07.
	B [-]nn		Adjust baseline, if the number is negative, it moves
			baseline up, otherwise moves baseline down.
	m XXX YYY	Move current position to (XXX,YYY). XXX and YYY should
			be integer. This command allows user to put text
			anywhere on the paper.
o Quality
=========
	In the laser printing world, the quality of 24X24 font is really
not good enough, but, in my experience, if you make another copy on
photocopier from the original printout (printed by laser printer), this
copy will be much better in quality than the original one.

o FTP site
==========

	The current GB2PS can be obtained via anonymous FTP from:

        Site: bellatrix.anu.edu.au (150.203.23.14)
        Directory:  /pub/gb2ps
        File:   gb2ps.2.02.tar.Z

o AUTHOR
========

  	The author can be reached by E-mail:  [email-masked]
 or mail at:

 	   Wei Sun
 	   Department of Computer Science
 	   The Australian National University
 	   Canberra, ACT 2601
 	   Australia

Comments or reports on bugs and problems are welcome.
=========================================================================