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,xluo@lids.mit.edu), 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,eric@COEUS.UCSD.EDU, 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 . 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: 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: 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: william@cs.anu.edu.au 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. =========================================================================