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Multiple Column Output with GEOS Paint Overlay
by Bruce Thomas

Well, I had an idea that my 4 column newsletter screen shot in the last issue of the Loadstar Letter would draw some interest but I had no idea how much! This article will detail the steps it takes to create 3 or 4 column output using geoWrite, the Paint Overlay driver and geoPaint.

"We had people using the Paint drivers in ways we never anticipated. We basically created them so that you could do two-column output from Write. But some people have used the drivers to do color printouts."(by adding color in geoPaint). There you have it. Right from Brian Dougherty, founder of BSW and creator of GEOS, in the February 1989 issue of Commodore magazine. The Paint drivers were created to allow double column output and every article ever done (well OK, the two that I had seen) explained how to get two-column output. So how did I get a four column newsletter? Read on.

The place to start is with a pencil and paper and draw a sketch of what you want your page to look like. This is a very important step as, without planning, your page could end up looking quite bad. Do you want two columns, three columns, four columns? Are you going to have a large title at the top? How many graphics do you plan to add to illustrate your points? The next step is to get into geoWrite and write whatever it is you are going to place on your page.

The biggest decision is likely how many columns you want. If you can determine this prior to writing your article it is much easier to get the margins the way you want than to have to reformat your pages later. Of course, with geoWrite V2.1 you are going to want to work on the full page width so make sure you set that first. Choose 'Make full page wide' under the OPTIONS menu and you will be presented with a dialog box telling you that the previous file is being converted to V2.1 format (V2.0 is the default but the margins only allow you to use from 1.2 to 7.2 inches across the page). After the conversion is completed you will notice that your margins now go from .2 to 8.2 inches.

If you are making a three column flyer (see Figure A) you will want to set your margins at 0.3 and 2.8 inches on the first page (paragraph indent can be set however you wish - 2 tenths of an inch would be a good indent). On page 2 your margins would be set at 3.0 and 5.4 inches. For page three your margins would go at 5.6 and 8.1 inches. These settings (similar to the automatic gutters in geoPublish) leave some room between the columns of text for a dividing line if you wish. If your layout features four columns (see Figure A1) set Page 1 margins at the 0.3 and 2.1 inch marks, Page 2 at 2.3 and 4.1 inches, Page 3 at 4.3 and 6.1 inches and Page 4 at 6.3 and 8.1 inches.

The next decision is whether you want a big headline or not. I used a large one in mine to show how easy it is but it takes some work at the same time. To draw attention I used a 48 point Mega Font called Mega Roma. There are lots of Mega fonts available for GEOS users in lots of different styles. The trouble with Mega Fonts is that they weren't designed for use with geoWrite.

If you have ever tried to use a font that works in geoWrite in a geoPaint document and received the 'Sorry, font too large' dialog box you already know that different programs have different sized font buffers. The space needed to load a font is determined by the number of characters in the font (some only contain upper case letters) and the available point sizes. GeoWrite has the largest font buffer at approximately 6000 bytes. GeoPaint 128 is limited to fonts under 4500 bytes and geoPaint 64 and geoPublish max out at slightly less than 4100 bytes. To get around this limitation the Mega fonts were created.

A Mega Font is not like a normal GEOS font in that all characters are not contained in a single point size. Mega Fonts have the following layout:

Point Size 48 - 'space' ! " # $ % & ' ( ) * + , - . /
Point Size 49 - 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 : ; < = > ?
Point size 50 - A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O *
Point size 51 - P Q R S T U V W X Y Z (backslash - C= /) (uparrow - SHIFT UpArrow)
Point Size 52 - a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o
Point Size 53 - p q r s t u v w x y z (curly braces - C= : and C= ;) (vertical pipe - C= uparrow) (tilde - C= *)

Point size 54 contains just garbage.

The beauty of a Mega Font is that the total size can be much larger than the font buffer would otherwise permit. GeoPublish handles juggling the different point sizes and only presents you with one size when you choose the font (you would only see Mega Roma 48 for example). GeoWrite, on the other hand, is not Mega Font aware so will show you all of the point sizes in the font file when you select Mega Roma. Hang on to the listing above so that you can use the Mega Fonts easily in your projects.

Thankfully, geoWrite allows us to format the margins of each individual paragraph independently. We will use this feature to place our headline in geoWrite. I set my font at Roma 12 point, margins as above for page 1, and then pressed RETURN three times. I moved my cursor back up to the second line, chose Mega Roma font and typed in my headline. As you do this you must select the individual point size where the character is located. To save some time I typed M in 50 point size, chose 52 point size and typed l, i and e and finally inserted the 53 point u, t and p in the appropriate places. This line also requires the margins to be set at the 0.2 and 8.2 inch marks and CENTER spacing to be chosen. Move your cursor down to the last line and start typing your article. This will leave one blank line between your heading and your text (see Figure B).

As you near the bottom of page 1 you will have to insert a Page Break by choosing that option from the PAGE menu. This will move you onto Page two. For starters you will need to adjust your margins to the settings for Page 2 discussed above. Press RETURN three times and then position the cursor on the second line. Select Mega Roma 48 point size and press the SPACE bar. This will ensure that your lines of text are far enough down the page to leave room for your headline that is on Page 1. Move your cursor to the fourth line again and continue typing (see Figure C). As you get to the bottom of Page 2 insert another page break and follow the same procedure for the top of Page 3 as you did for the top of Page 2, but with the margins set at the Page 3 values. If you are doing a four column newsletter you will need to follow the same procedures again at the bottom of Page 3 and top of Page 4 using the Page 4 margin settings. Once you have all of your typing completed you are ready to 'print' your file.

Quit geoWrite and make sure you copy your file to a real disk if you are working in RAM or make a duplicate of it if you are working on a disk. This is always a good step to take prior to using any new procedure in case something goes wrong so you won't have to re-do all of your work. Choose 'select printer' under the GEOS menu and choose Paint Overlay as your printer driver. Make sure you have at least 40K bytes free on your disk.

Double click on your file again and, once you are in geoWrite, choose PRINT under the File menu. You want to print Pages 1 to 3 or 4 in High Quality with Tractor Feed selected. Upon clicking OK geoWrite will act exactly the same as it does when you print to your printer but a file called OVERLAY is actually being created on your disk. When the 'printing' process is complete exit to the Desktop and re-select your regular printer driver with the Select Printer option again.

Rename the file on your disk called OVERLAY, save it to a real disk from your REU and then open it with geoPaint. What you will have is a Paint file containing your headline across the top and 3 or 4 columns of text beneath it. Check the bottom of the page to ensure that your text didn't get cut off in the process (see Figure D). The applications have different page lengths so you will have to experiment to find the ideal spot to place the Page Breaks in geoWrite. You can now dress up the page with column dividers and heading underscores for a nicely polished look.

Once you have mastered this easy process of creating columnar output you will no doubt want to spruce things up with pictures. Your rough sketch will help you decide where you want the pictures. To leave room in your geoWrite document you need to know how big the photo scraps will be. This is quite easy to determine by placing the scrap into geoPaint and using the measurement tool (the ruler icon third from the top in the left column).

GEOS has a vertical printing resolution of 72 dots per inch. If you are using a 12 point font you will need roughly 6 blank lines to fit a 1 inch graphic in the space. Of course, you are likely to want a caption under your picture so will have to allow space for that and perhaps a line to separate it from the body of your text (see Figure E). All of these things can easily be added in geoPaint if you leave the necessary space in geoWrite. The biggest scrap you can place in geoPaint is 1.8 inches tall so keep that in mind as you work.

As mentioned previously geoWrite gives you the option to set the margins for each individual paragraph. By using this feature you can have a graphic extend across more than one column but still have text beside it (see figure B). For details on this type of document formatting see the article in LL #46 on geoPublish.

If you wish to make a two page newsletter with four columns on each page then you have to set your margins properly. Page of the geoWrite file would have the same margins as Page 1, Page 6 would be the same as Page 2, Page 7 like Page 3 and Page 8 like Page 4. You can also print multiple geoWrite files to the same OVERLAY file as long as you have your margins set correctly.

All in all, I hope you have a better appreciation of the power contained in the basic GEOS V2.0 package. While the system is slow on a simple 64 system with a single 1541 drive it lets you do more than you could do with 2 or 3 other products combined. The more hardware you have the better the software will perform. EnGEOy it!