Re: [help-texinfo] changing font size in hardcopy

[Laurence Finston]

On Sat, 19 Mar 2005, Karl Berry wrote:

>     \ifletter
>     \hsize=8.5 true in
>     \vsize=11 true in
>
> But \hsize and \vsize are not the physical paper size.  They are the
> line length and page height for typesetting.
>

Yes, sorry.  Something like the following would have to
follow:

\advance\hsize by -2 true cm
\advance\vsize by -2 true cm

\advance\hoffset by -1 true in
\advance\voffset by -1 true in

\advance\hoffset by 1 true cm
\advance\voffset by 1 true cm

> Since Texinfo has commands for a bunch of paper sizes, and @pagesizes to
> arbitrarily set the printable area, it's necessary for \[hv]size and
> \[hv]offset to be recomputed after magnification based on what they
> previously were.  There's no way to write down constant dimensions for
> every case.

I believe constant dimensions would only be needed for the
starting values.

>
> Anyway, the overall approach of magnification is not as useful as
> changing font sizes, so given the choice of working on one or the other ...

I agree, but I think it would be easy to get magnification to work.

>
>     These could then be included as alternatives by `texinfo.tex'.
>
> Right now texinfo.tex is *one* file.  It turns out that this is
> extremely nice, because it makes updates simple.  So I have resisted
> temptations to break it up.
>

The alternative font settings could, of course, just be put in
conditionals in `texinfo.tex'.  I wasn't going so far as suggesting
that you make this "official" --- I haven't even done anything yet.

> It is certainly not impossible to parameterize the font setting stuff so
> that it can be done dynamically with different sizes, instead of just
> once when texinfo.tex is read.  It's not trivial, though.

If it just involves TeX, I think I should be able to manage it.  If it
requires an understanding of `texi2dvi' and `makeinfo', I'll have to
pass for now.

Laurence