Creating a New .xpr File

The following are the mp(1) program defaults for different keyword values if these values are not specified in the .xpr file for the STARTCOMMON/ENDCOMMON section.

• ORIENTATION 0

• PAGELENGTH 60

• LINELENGTH 80

• YTEXTBOUNDARY 3005

• NUMCOLS 01

• HDNGFONTSIZE 120

• BODYFONTSIZE 90

• PROLOGDPI 300

• STARTTEXT 135 280

• PAGESTRING 0

No default values are needed for the other two sections bound by STARTPAGE/ENDPAGE and STARTCOLUMN/ENDCOLUMN.

When you create a new .xpr prolog file, you need to specify only the values that differ from the default.

To create a page with no decoration, use four logical pages per physical page, in portrait format.

• STARTCOMMON

• NUMCOLS 04

• LINELENGTH 20

• ENDCOMMON

In this situation, you do not need the other two sections:

• STARTPAGE/ENDPAGE

• STARTCOLUMN/ENDCOLUMN

These parameters are not needed if you are not putting decorations on the printed page. All the coordinates are in 300 dpi default unless you are not specifying the PROLOGDPI keyword. If target printer resolution is different, the .xpr file is scaled to fit into that resolution by the program.

When you create a .xpr file, you must know the paper dimensions beforehand. For U.S. paper, 8.5x11 inches, for a printer of resolution 300 dpi, 2550X3300 are the total dimensions. Most printers cannot print from the top left corner of the paper. Instead, they put some margin around the physical paper. That means that even if you try to print from 0,0 the printing won't be in the top left corner of the page. You need to consider this limitation when you create a new .xpr file.