Graph Paper in Postscript
This is a collection of postscript programs to generate various types of graph and ruled paper.
Contents
The following types are currently available:
- regular graph paper (uniform squares);
- iso paper;
- hex paper;
- pointed paper (squares marked by small points at the corner instead of lines);
- knot paper (squares with a point pattern to draw celtic knots);
- music paper;
customizable for paper size, design size and colours.
To allow automatic building of different variants based on saved settings, they are distributed as jinja2 templates, yaml settings files and a python3 script to generate the target postscript files.
Pregenerated PDFs for many designs are published on my website
Instructions
Dependencies
To build the postscript files from the templates and settings files you need python3, jinja2 and ruamel.yaml. Generating PDF from the PS ones requires also ps2pdf (part of ghostscript) and pdfjam. There is a Makefile (tested with GNU make) to build everything in an automated way.
Under Debian and derived distributions the following packages are needed:
apt install python3-jinja2 python3-ruamel.yaml \
ghostscript texlive-extra-utils make
Building
Simply run make with no options to build everything: postscript, PDF and n-up versions of PDF files smaller than A4, plus mirror versions of every PDF (the ones with -v in the name) that can be used to print pages front and back.
Subtargets are available to build just the postscript files (make ps) and PDF (make pdf), and can be used in case you are missing some of the dependencies needed by the further steps.
Customizing
Every design is described by a file in the designs directory; filenames should end with the paper format (currently a4, a5 or a6) followed by .yaml to support proper pdf generation from the makefile.
These files have the following fields.
- template:
- selects one of the postscript templates in the src directory.
- paper:
- selects one of the paper definitions from conf/paper.
- margins:
- selects one of the margin definitions from conf/margins.
- theme:
- selects one of the theme definitions from conf/themes.
- settings:
- selects one set of further, template specific, settings from conf/settings/<theme name>.
- override:
- this is a dict which can be used to override any value from one of the files above.
The files in conf/* define the actual variables used in the jinja2 templates; as the names suggests paper, margings and themes are common variables used in most templates, while the ones in the settings subdirectories are specific to the template of the same name.
The recommended way to customize a design or create a new one is to start by customising the values in the override dict in the design/*.yaml file(s), and not to change the files in conf/ but, if needed, create new ones.
License
Copyright (C) 2004-2024 Elena Grandi All rights reserved.
Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:
- Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
- Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
- Neither the name of the author nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.