[sane-devel] Off set printing (only as root)

[stephanos at writeme.com]

Good morning.

I am not 100 per cent sure this is the right forum for this 
enquiry about printing offset using an Epsom C80, CUPS (v that
came with Mandrake 8.2).  

Offset printing is when a page is printed with a greater margin
on one side because that side is going to be bound.  Where a 
project is going to be printed on both sides then the left page
is offset from the right margin by one centimetre (i.e the right
margin is one centimetre bigger)and the right page is offsett 
from the left margin by one centimetre.

I am using Open Ofice 1.0 and the printer options do not include
offset.  To access offset options the user starts a terminal as 
Root and type "alignmargins".  Then selects the printer from a 
list.  The printer outputs a page with a vertical line an inch 
from the left margin and a horizontal line an inch from the 
bottom.  The text on this page says:
   " Let the distance in inches from the left edge of the page to 
   the vertical line be H, and from the bottom edge to the 
   horizontal line be V; lrt the lengths of the gaps at the top 
   and bottom of the vertical line be T and B respectively, and
   the gaps at the left and right of the horizontal line be L 
   and R.  For correct alignment of pages, put the following 
   line in a file named (for example) margins.ps, and then 
   mention margins.ps on the gs command line when printing any 
   of your own files:
      << /.HWMargins [ml mb mr mt] /Margins [x y] >> setpagedevice
   [{
   %% Code for writinf CUPS accounting tags on standard error
   /cupsWrite {
     (%stderr) (w) file
      exch writestring
   } bind def
   /cupsEndPage {
     (PAGE: ) cupsWrite
     pop % ignore reason code
     1 add 40 string cvs cupsWrite
     () cupsWrite
     #copies 40 string cvs cupsWrite
     (\n) cupsWrite
     true
   } bind def
   <</EndPage{cupsEndPage} >> setpagedevice
   } stopped cleartomark
   where
     ml = L * 72, mb = B * 72, mr = R * 72, mt = T * 72,
     x = (1 - H) * 360.0, y = (V - 1) * 360.0 "

Meanwhile the terminal says:
   " Please read the instructions on the margin adjustment 
   page and determine the six numbers mentioned there. If 
   you measure in cm and not in inches, devide the measured
   quantities by 2.54 before you insert them into the 
   equations shown on the page. You do not need to create 
   any file with PostScript commands, this program will 
   insert your settings into your printer's configuration.

   If the adjustment page did not come out of your printer, 
   this method cannot be applied, press Ctrl + C to stop 
   this program. This can especially happen with very old 
   PostScript printers.

   Note also that this adjustment does not necessarily work 
   with every driver. The concept is taken from GhostScript 
   and the implementation of this program is not much tested 
   yet.

   Please enter your results now:

   ml: "

I am not keen to enter any results at all.  This is because 
it is not clear what the purpose of entering these results 
is and it is not clear if this will change each and every 
subsequent printout, something I do not want to do.

Ideally I want to enter a value to represent how much I want
to offset and another value to denote the choice of left or 
right.

Does anyone out there have any experience of this ?

Any guidance appreciated.

Stephen (Swansea, Wales, UK)
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