Heaven Files

This is a simple program to print envelopes using postscript.  It requires
a postscript capable printer, or one supported by ghostscript, and perl.
I have tested the program on several HP postscript printers.

I make no claims as to the usefulness of this program for any particular
purpose.  Feel free to modify it and distribute those modifications,
just give me credit for my code.  I'd appreciate any enhancements or
ideas you send my way.

This software is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
See the accompanying license.txt file for details and terms of use.


Use:

- By default, values in your ~/.gpeprc file are used to define
  envelope sizes and fonts.  The data for each envelope comes from simple
  text files and optionally from a return address file (specified in
  .gpeprc, [options], or [optionfile]).  If you run gpep without any
  arguments, standard input is treated as a regular input file.


- Each envelope text file contains up to five sets of data.   These are:

  [to]         - The mailing address.  For the first block in a definition
                 file, this is the default.  In other words, if you put the 
                 "to" address at the beginning of your file, you don't need to
                 use the [to] identifier.
  [from]       - Your return address.  Defaults to data contained in $fromfile
  [options]    - any .gpeprc options you wish to override for this envelope
  [optionfile] - same as [options] section, but contains a single
                 line with a file name.  The config options from that file are 
                 used exactly as if they were part of an [options] section.
  [dp xx]      - This is a temporary hack to enable the "Delivery Point"
                 portion of a full POSTNET Delivery Point Barcode.  Replace
                 "xx" with the Delivery Point.  More information on DPBC's can
                 be obtained from the USPS website, http://www.usps.com/  The
                 information is contained in publication 25.  Note that you do 
                 not need to do anything special to create zip or zip+4
                 barcodes.  The program automatically detects these.
 
  see the files in the /examples directory of the distribution archive for
  example address files


- Option overrides work in the following order:

                .gpeprc --> [optionfile] --> [options]
  
  so...you can set base settings in .gpeprc, change some of them in
  [optionfile], and change these again or add others with [options].
  The addresses in $fromfile vs. [from] work the same way.  Basically the
  settings in your envelope definition file always have the final say.


- By default, the fonts defined in ~/.gpeprc are used.  These can be
  overridden, however, for each envelope file.  Any single line containing
  only <fontname pointsize> will change the font for the remainder of
  the address block.  This works in the $fromfile as well.  See the
  sample files for examples on this.


- When you have a ~/.gpeprc and an address file (or group of files) to 
  print simply:
		envelope file [file...] | lpr
	or
		envelope file [file...] > somefile.txt
	etc.


- You can set your own variables and perform calculations within the
  .gpeprc file, within the [options] section of each envelope
  description file, and within your [optionfile].




Known Bugs:

- When changing fonts, the point size from the old font is used to move to the
  next line in the block.  The program does not "look ahead" to see how far
  it should be moving down to accomodate the next font.  This results in extra
  space when transitioning from a big font to a smaller font, or not enough 
  space if transitioning from a smaller font to a bigger font.  To keep things
  looking "perfect," just use the same point size throughout an address block.



Made by:

Gregory Spath
Current whereabouts unknown.