Phil Taylor writes: | John Chambers wrote: | >Actually, there's a consistent problem that no software has a chance | >of fixing: Different printers (even of the same model) have different | >borders along the edges that they don't print. There's no way that | >I've ever seen to ask a printer for the size of its non-printing | >borders. | | It can certainly be done. Otherwise how would word-processors be | able to let you set the size of the margins? On the Mac, when the | user does a Page Setup command to set the paper size, the printer | returns a record which is stuffed with information, including two | rectangles which give the size of the paper and the size of the | printable area.
OK, consider my ABC tune finder. It does conversions from abc to ps and pdf on behalf of HTTP requests coming in from distant machines. How would it ask the client's machine for the printable area of its printer? And note that this is assuming that the user is going to print it on that printer. In reality, it will probably just be handed to a local ps or pdf handler, or written to a file. It could then be printed some time later on any printer available to the user. How would my CGI script go about discovering that printer and asking it for the shape of the printable area? The only feasible approach is to ask the user. But most users not only wouldn't know; they wouldn't even understand the question or have any idea how to answer it. (Nonetheless, I am working on making it possible for a knowledgeable user to supply such information.) | Unfortunately, some Epson printers seem to always return the page | size for the largest paper they can take, rather than the size of | paper which is actually loaded. This can complicate things a bit, | but the printable area seems always to be correct. Yeah; that's another problem. Not all printers will return the data. Others return it in a proprietary format that they won't tell you. Still others return it in a published format, but they lie. It's all utterly hopeless. To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
