TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: Standard European Book Sizes From:Alison Wyld <a -dot- wyld -at- kudos-fr -dot- com> To:"'techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com'" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 18 Jan 2000 10:48:35 +0100
This discussion reminded me of something:
> > Nigel's answer suits this case: If you distribute online but printable
> > manuals in, say, PDF files then providing a file that prints onto A4
> > is a considerable courtesy to your readers. (Our FrameMaker templates
> > use a 7.5" x 9" page area, which is reasonable to view onscreen and
> > printable on A4 or Letter sizes of paper. The margins vary for A4 and
> > US Letter but the effect isn't too bad.)
If you are delivering postscript generated with FrameMaker
internationally, with the intention that users print itout, you need to be
aware of the
following:
As stated above, a page area designed for letter usually fits onto an A4
sheet and vice-versa. But, when you generate postscript (at least with
Frame 4),
Frame embeds a code for the page-size in
the postscript. Mostly this doesn't matter
as most printers are too dumb to check and just handle it by default.
But, some clever high-end printers check for the
paper size and check to see whether the right paper size is loaded. So,
you send some postscript that says its "letter"
to a printer loaded with A4 and the printer refuses to print it on the
grounds that it knows it doesn't have any letter paper
available. This is easy enough to fix using a postprocessing script that
changes the postscript - either by replacing
letter with a4, or vice versa - or by putting something neutral
(sorry, this is from memory, but I think there is something
like any or all that you can use). If you're providing postscript
internationally, putting the neutral option is the best bet,
or, alternatively you could deliver 2 files one for letter and one for a4
(or whatever).
I'm not sure if this is an issue with Frame 5 and I'm not sure how it
affects PDF, but its quick to check for and fix,
and a real pain in the neck if you encounter it for real.
