[GRASS-user] Odd scaling issue with ps.map output and ghostscript ps2pdf

[Tom Russo]

On Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 09:34:07AM -0700, we recorded a bogon-computron collision of the <rshepard at appl-ecosys.com> flavor, containing:
> On Tue, 27 Apr 2010, Tom Russo wrote:
> 
> > In this instance I am now completely convinced it's an issue at the print
> > shop, probably because I'm trying to use margins that are too small and
> > they're "helpfully" adjusting the size of the image to fix my mistake so
> > the edges aren't cut off.
> 
> Tom,
> 
>    It may also be that the printer they're using has non-printing margins
> greater than what you specify. Try printing on larger paper (e.g., C size;
> they must have a plotter there) and trimming to size after.

I spoke with the fellow at the print shop this morning.  They had indeed 
"shrunk to fit" precisely because the very lowest line of text on my map 
collar was too close to the edge of the page.  Since I had a declination 
diagram on the map that had a caption saying "Diagram not to scale" they had 
mistakenly concluded that the entire document was not to scale and therefore 
scaled it rather than clip the edges. (The guy admitted that he hadn't noticed 
that elsewhere on the map it said "Scale 1:24000" in larger and more 
prominent letters.)

I went back and looked at the PDF from the last time this happened, and it, too
had some text that went perilously close to the edge of the paper.

So this was a cross between my fault for letting collar text get too close
to the edge, and theirs for not telling me "we scaled your document so the 
content wouldn't be clipped."  Now that I know what I did to cause the 
problem, and that it was indeed a setting that they needed not to select, I'll 
remember not to let my collar text get so close to the edges, and will also 
remember to state "I want this printed without being shrunk to fit, even if a 
little text is truncated" when I send them a job.

Again, sorry for having made noise on this list with something that has nothing
whatsoever to do with ps.map or ps2pdf.

(And in answer to Hamish's question about whether this only happens at the
print shop and not with self-printed maps, yes, it does --- because I only
send them stuff that's too large a format for me to print myself --- but 
I don't do PDF conversions for printing myself, because I have postscript
printers that don't need that step.  So there were multiple issues
leading me to the incorrect conclusion about where the problem lay.)

-- 
Tom Russo    KM5VY   SAR502   DM64ux          http://www.swcp.com/~russo/
Tijeras, NM  QRPL#1592 K2#398  SOC#236        http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?DDTNM
 "It is better to live on your feet than to die with your knees."
  -- Mil Millington on running, in Instructions for Living Someone Else's Life