
COPYRIGHT:

Mpage and all the files distributed with mpage are covered by copyright:

 Copyright (c) 1988 Mark P. Hahn, Herndon, Virginia
 Copyright (c) 1994-1996 Marcel J.E. Mol, Rijswijk, The Netherlands
  
     Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute verbatim
     copies of this document as received, in any medium, provided
     that this copyright notice is preserved, and that the
     distributor grants the recipient permission for further
     redistribution as permitted by this notice.

Mpage was written by:
   ...!uunet!\                       Mark Hahn, Sr Systems Engineer
              >pyrdc!mark            Pyramid Technology Corporation
 ...!pyramid!/                       Vienna, Va    (703)848-2050

 marcel@mesa.nl
   MESA Consulting  B.V.
   Voorburg
   The Netherlands
   Phone: +31-(0)70-3935147
   Fax:   +31-(0)70-3873683

=================================================================
DESCRIPTION:

Mpage is a program to reduce and print multiple pages of text per
sheet on a PostScript compatible printer.
It also has limited functionality to do the same with postscript files itself.

The following are the files you should have for mpage.

     README                 Notes and descriptions, this file
     Copyright              Copyright notice
     CHANGES                Change storys 
     Makefile               The Makefile
     TODO                   Wish List for changes
     args.c                 Command line and options processing
     encoding.h             Definition of internal default character encoding
     file.c                 Generic file handeling
     glob.c                 Global variable setup
     mpage.h                Definitions
     mpage.c                Main Control
     page.c                 Page layout routines
     post.c                 PostScript file processing
     sample.c               Prints sample page layout pages 
     text.c                 Text file processing
     mpage.1                Manual page

     fix                    Fix to mpage that makes it work with ArborText
     All.chars              Test file containing all ascii characters
     Encodings              Directory with character encoding library files
     Characters             List of postscript character encoding names
     Encoding.format        Description on how to create character encoding
                            library files
     gencodes.c             Util program to build All.chars file
     testpage               Test page

INSTRUCTIONS:

All you should need to do is run make.
This will create mpage and a program called msample.  Mpage is
the program to print n-up pages.  Msample prints a sample outline.  I
used it for debugging the placement of the layout.  It is also handy
for other layout purposes.  It accepts all the arguments that mpage
does, but does not print files.

As a quick sample try:

	"mpage -p mp_args.c"
or
	"mpage -p8 mp_post.c"
or
	"psroff -t -man mpage.1 | mpage -2"

The manual page, mpage.1, formats with UCB or ATT manual macros.



USING MPAGE:

You will find that it takes a while on an Apple LW or Apple LW+ to
print 4 pages per sheet, It takes "a good long time" for 8 pages.
Reduced PostScript documents take a while too.  (A rule of thumb might
be 4 times as long for 4-pages-per-sheet reduction :-) On a QMS 8ppm
printer 4 pages per sheet is about the same speed and other forms of
"1-up" output.  mpage prints some timing information back from the
printer so you can measure the time required for full jobs.



ADMINISTRATORS:

As a printer administrator you should see the wish list for caveats
and information about future versions.  I still have work to do to
make mpage more "administrator friendly", but figured that I'd better
get what's been done out the door.  The alternative is to constanly
make changes and never release anything.



BUG REPORTS:

Mpage is not a supported program.  I do not have the time or resources
to maintain mpage.  I am interested in receiving reports of problems
so that which I get spare time I can try to fix them.  If you have a
problem please send me a complete, succinct description of the
symptoms.  Please include the brand name of your printer, a copy of
the input file (especially if it is with PostScript input), and a
description of what to look for on the output.  If your printer has an
error log, please include as much of it as is revalant.  In general,
the more clearly organized information I have, the easier it will be
for me.



MAKING CHANGES:

Please, if you make any improvements, send them back to me so that I
can include them in future versions.  Also I would solicit comments as
to the usefulness, and effectiveness of mpage.  Let me know what you
like or dislike and feel free to ask any questions you have concerning
this mpage distribution.  Thank you, Mark Hahn.

-Marcel Mol
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marcel J.E. Mol               phone: (+31) 070-336151
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Delft University of Technology     | MESA Consulting BV
Netherlands                        | Networking and Unix Consultancy
marcel@duteca.et.tudelft.nl        | marcel@mesa.nl
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 They couldn't think of a number, so they gave me a name!
                                -- Rupert Hine
