Network Working Group                                       Jacob Palme
Internet Draft                                 Stockholm University/KTH
draft-palme-int-print-01.txt                                     Sweden
Category-to-be: Informational
Expires: July 1996                                         January 1997




Making Postscript and Acrobat Files International



Status of this Memo


This document is an Internet-Draft. Internet-Drafts are working
documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, and
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Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
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ftp.isi.edu (US West Coast).

This memo provides information for the Internet community. This memo
does not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this
memo is unlimited.


Differences between version 00 and 01 of this document

The second paragraph in the abstract is new, and text about "shrink to
fit" facilities has been added at the end of chapter 2.2. A note about
HTML has been added to chapter 1, a note about headers and footers has
been added at the end of chapter 2.1.


Abstract

Certain text formats, for example Postscript (extension .ps) and Adobe
Acrobat (extension .pdf) specify exactly the page layout of the printed
document. The commonly used paper format is different in America and the
rest of the world. America uses the "Letter" format, while the rest of
the world uses the "A4" format This means that documents formatted on
one continent may not be easily printable on another continent. This
memo gives advice on how to produce documents which are equally well
printable with the Letter and the A4 formats. By using the advice in
this document, you can put up a document on the Internet, which
recipients can print without problem both in and outside America.

A very short summary of the advice in this document: If you are using
U.S. Letter paper format, ensure that both the left and right margins
are at least 21 mm (0.82 inches). If you are using A4 paper format,
ensure that both the top and bottom margins are at least 35 mm (1.38
inches).

Table of contents

. Introduction
. Two methods for printing on different paper formats
   2.1 Method 1: Use wider margins
   2.2 Method 2: Print with reduced size
. References
. Author's Address


.    Introduction

Certain text formats, for example application/postscript (extension .ps)
and Adobe Acrobat (extension .pdf) specify exactly the page layout of
the printed document. The commonly used paper format is different in
America and the rest of the world. America uses the "Letter" format,
while the rest of the world uses the "A4" format.

The American Letter format is 8.5 x 11 inches (215 x 278 mm) while the
ISO standardised A4 format is 210 x 297 mm (8.27 x 11.69 inches). The
Letter format is thus 5 mm (0.19 inches) wider, while the A4 format is
 mm (0.75 inches) taller.

This means that documents formatted on one continent may not be
printable on another continent. It is oboviously desirable that
documents put up on the Internet are printable on all continents. This
paper gives advice on how to achieve this.

This memo is not intended for HTML documents, but the advice may be of
value also of HTML developers in case they are using fixed-size graphics
and fixed WIDTH sizes of objects in HTML documents.


.    Two methods for printing on different paper formats

2.1   Method 1: Use wider margins

Paper format
you use when
converting
the document                                 Suggested minimal margins
to Postscript Paper
or Acrobat    orien-      Suggested change   Left   Right  Top    Bot-
format        tation      of margins                              tom
-----------  -----------  -----------------  -----  -----  -----  -----
A4           Portrait     Add 20 mm (0.8     15 mm  15 mm  35 mm  35 mm
             (upright,    inches) to the top 0.59"  0.59"  1.38"  1.38"
             horizontal)  of page and bottom
                          of page margins

A4           Landscape    Add 20 mm (0.8     35 mm  35 mm  15 mm  15 mm
             (lying,      inches) to the     1.38"  1.38"  0.59"  0.59"
             vertical)    left and right
                          margins

Letter       Portrait     Add 6 mm (0.2      21 mm  21 mm  15 mm  15 mm
             (upright,    inches) to the     0.82"  0.82"  0.59"  0.59"
             horizontal)  left and right
                          margins

Letter       Landscape    Add 6 mm (0.2      15 mm  15 mm  21 mm  21 mm
             (lying,      inches) mm to the  0.59"  0.59"  0.82"  0.82"
             vertical)    top of page and
                          bottom of page
                          margins

The reason why you have to add 20 respectively 6 mm to both the top and
the bottom margin is that you do not know what kind of printer the
recipient uses, and different printers feed paper in different ways,
requiring the margin to be added either at the top or the bottom of the
paper.

Note: Ensure that also headers, footers and page numbers are within the
suggested minimal margins. Many word processors put headers, footers and
page numbers outside the specified text margins.


2.2   Method 2: Print with reduced size

This is a method useful for the recipient of a document with the wrong
paper size: The recipient sets the printer to print with reduced size.
When the sender produces the Acrobat or Postscript files, the sender
should "print" with 100 % size, but when the recipient prints the
Acrobat or Postscript files, and if the program for printing Acrobat or
Postscript files allows this, the recipient should print the document
with 92 % or less of full size. Many programs for printing Postscript
files do not allow this. In that case, the recipient can convert a
Postscript document to Acrobat format and then print it with the Acrobat
printing program. This requires, however, that the recipient has the
Acrobat Distiller program, which is not freeware. The user may also have
to specify the paper size as the actual paper size loaded in the
printer, not the paper size specified when the document was converted to
Acrobat or Postscript format.

Method 2 can be more difficult for the recipient, who has to manage
these settings himself. However, manufacturers of printing software may
in the future make method 2 easier by making this service automatic,
perhaps controlled by a "shrink to fit paper size" checkbox in the
printing window and a "default shrink to fit paper size" preference
setting.


.    References

Marcus Kuhn: International Standard Paper Sizes.
URL http://www.ft.uni-erlangen-de/~mskuhn/iso-paper.html

.    Author's Address

Jacob Palme                          Phone: +46-8-16 16 67
Stockholm University and KTH         Fax: +46-8-783 08 29
Electrum 230                         E-mail: jpalme@dsv.su.se
S-164 40 Kista, Sweden