Re: [tlug] CJK Printing with Fixed Width Font: Keep It Simple Plain Text

[jep200404 <jep200404@example.com>]

Curt Sampson wrote:

> On 2008-07-12 22:31 -0400 (Sat), jep200404 wrote:
> 
> > The fixed width I want is of characters, not pages. 
> > That's mainly so that columns of text line up. 
> 
> So why not just start the columns at specific positions on the page,
> and not worry about the width of individual characters? 

I value simplicity. 

The text is plain text for very mundane stuff. 
I don't want to make it any more complex than that. 

There certainly are many ways to line up columns, 
from hard tabs characters (with tab stops on the printer), 
to HTML to TeX, but all those ways have more complexity 
than I want. 

In a word: KISS

> I'm not sure how you're rendering, ...

In my first post, I wrote: 

>        paps --font='Sazanami Mincho 7' --paper letter \
>        --bottom-margin=12 --top-margin=12 \
>        --left-margin=12 --right-margin=12 <cjk-width-test | lp

back to what Curt wrote: 

> ... but it would be rather unusual for a system that gave you 
> proportional spacing not to give you arbitrary placement of
> characters.

Indeed. 

Hence back to what I originally wrote: 

> How can I print plain text with mixed CJK/European characters
> with a "fixed width"? 
...
> I've been concentrating on selecting the right font so far, 
> but my focus on fonts might be too narrow, hence the broader 
> question of how to print fixed-width plain text.