texinfo-4.0 settings for A4 paper

[Christian Cornelssen]

Dear Texinfo maintainers,

thanks for your efforts in maintaining and improving Texinfo.

Below, some texinfo-4.0 patches, oddities, and layout considerations
are presented in their respective sections.

The attached patch file specifies the patches mentioned in the
"Patches" section.  In my local texinfo setup, I have gone further:
removed the oddities (see section "Oddities"), and did some additional
A4 layout changes as discussed in the section "Layout considerations".


PATCHES

texinfo.tex (\texinfoversion{1999-09-25.10}):

- Fixed the A4 papersize definitions in \afourpaper, \fourlatex, and
  \afourwide.  The previous settings did not accurately match with
A4's 210mm x 297mm format, apparently due to typos or incomplete
changes.

Now the text areas of double-sided printouts come out congruent on A4
paper when using any of the A4 macros, as is the case when using the
default (\letterpaper) settings for printing on letter paper.

- The previous settings in \afourlatex apparently flip-flopped between
  two conflicting goals: (1) setting precise 24cm text height, and (2)
setting all margins, including top/bottom, to 30mm.  In the end, the
settings were left inconsistent, and thus achieved neither goal.  I
have decided to enforce 30mm (average) margins, but would also
appreciate other consistent settings.

- Changed another probable typo (\hoffset -> \voffset) in \afourwide

- Disabled \afourlatex from changing \voffset and \bindingoffset
  because all other papersize macros don't do that either.
Previously, if you had "@afourlatex" in your `texinfo.cnf' and then
did

        texi2dvi address@hidden foo.texi

the DVI output had @letterpaper's layout displaced by @afourlatex's
\voffset, which is obviously a bug.  Likewise for \bindingoffset.

Clearly, avoiding \voffset settings in standard papersize macros
reduces the set of representable layouts, so this workaround can only
be temporary.  Fortunately, \voffset is much less critical than the
horizontal parameters for two-sided printouts, and at least these are
correct now, so even @afourlatex users can benefit from these changes.

However, I have to admit that the RIGHT solution is to specify
explicit voffsets in EVERY papersize macro, thus enabling a higher
degree of layout specialization, while still allowing manual
modification of the offsets AFTER papersize selection.  But I have not
been able to figure out the most suitable \voffset values for every
papersize macro, because many textheight ond topskip settings in the
papersize macros are mysterious, or seem to be buggy.


ODDITIES

Hmmm... some author appearently tried to make \afourlatex use a 13.6pt
baselineskip, which became overridden by a subsequent \afourpaper
call.  One of these commands is unintended.  Currently, \afourlatex's
baselineskip is in effect, and the \setleading is futile.  If you
remove the \afourlatex command, please add a \parskip specification.
(Probably, \globaldefs=0 can then be removed, too.) If you leave it
in, consider removing the \setleading command.


LAYOUT CONSIDERATIONS

I cannot call these topics "bugs", but I sincerely hope that the
current A4 layout definitions are not meant to be engraved in stone.

- Currently, \afourpaper, and all derived A4 macros, use a 12pt
  baselineskip, in contrast to \letterpaper which sets 13.2pt.  Since
the font size has not been decreased with the baselineskip, paragraphs
on \afourpaper look squashed.  Indeed, the 12pt value seems to have
been copied from the definition of \smallbook, presumably mistaken for
that of \letterpaper.  Note that when changig to 13.2pt, the
textheight specification needs to be adjusted, as it is specified
relative to \baselineskip.

On the other hand, \afourpaper's and \pagesizes's topskip value (48pt)
is much too large.  \letterpaper's 36pt value should be a reasonable
maximum.  A typical usage of \pagesizes will be to shrink the page
size in order to fit on A5 paper or similar formats.  Clearly, using a
larger \topskip for a paper smaller than letter is counterproductive.

As a result of fair consideration and extensive testing, I suggest
changing \afourpaper to use a 13.2pt baselineskip and a 36pt topskip
(as \letterpaper does) and 50\baselineskip for the textheight.  Thus,
\letterpaper and \afourpaper differ only in the "macroscopic" position
and extent of the main text area, and in no "microscopic" detail such
as baselineskips etc., so we can continue using common settings for
the spacing of paragraphs, sectioning constructs, lists, tables etc.,
which you may find desirable.

- \afourpaper's baselineskip setting is inherited by \afourlatex and
  \afourwide.  Since these macros do not refer to \baselineskip in
their textheight specifications, there is nothing you have to edit.
However, you may like to accompany the "microscopic" typographical
change with an increase of \afourlatex's and \afourwide's topskip from
7mm to 8mm, but I mention this just for consideration.

- \pagesizes should better leave \topskip unchanged or set it to some
  fraction of the new textheight.


Sincerely,

Christian Cornelssen <address@hidden>

texinfo-4.0.patch
Description: Text document