cd-circleprint - create a round label for a CD

cd-circleprint [option[=value..]] FILE

cd-circleprint prints two round labels for CDs. It uses up to four lines of text for each label, this is printed in arcs so the text can be much longer than if it were in straight lines. There are four additional straight text fields for each label. The output is in PostScript, this should work on most systems. You can select the font, size, and colour of the text for each field separately, and you can choose the background colour for each label. An image file in EPS format may also be used as a background. If you wish more complicated backgrounds or colour effects you can save a label and modify it in any graphic program which can read PostScript. (I suggest The Gimp)

--config

Alternative configuration file.

--debug

Enable debuggging mode, various information is printed to standard output.

--version

Print version number and exit sucessfully.

All layout is done in PostScript, this should work on most systems. The result of the layout are two cd-labels on one sheet of paper. On each label there are two convex and two concave lines of text. If you have a very long line of text, you can use only one line and make it longer. There are no limits to the length of text. However, after 360 degrees the ends of the text will overlap. There are also four text fields on each label with normal horizontal lines of text. These text fields are specified in clockwise order: above, right, below, and left of the central hole. The colours are done in the RGB-model of PostScript, you can choose them for each line and the background of the label independently. You can move the circles around the sheet to fit them on most types of label-sheets. You can also squeeze or stretch the whole thing to correct small errors of your printer.

After starting the program you see sixteen text-entry fields divided into two blocks. The upper block is for the straight text fields, the lower block is for the arcs. Each label has four text fields and four arcs. The first two lines are for the upper arcs on the label and the last two for the lower arcs. Write your text in the fields (support for cddb is on the TODO list) The Save Image menu item creates a file /tmp/cd-circleprint.ps which can be previewed with a PostScript viewer. Font attributes and colours can be changed interactively using a dialog available from the menu.

Shortcuts

 Control-l: write the label to /tmp
 Control-p: preview the label
 Control-q: quit
 Control-s: save the configuration

File Menu

New

Start a new label, all label fields are cleared and parameters are reset to default values.

Open

A file selection dialog is displayed so that the user can select a label data file which is then used to set the label values.

Save

The current label data values are saved using the current filename.

Save As

A file selection dialog is displayed and the current label data values are saved to the file specified by the user.

Load Form Data

Load Form (Paper Layout) data from a specified file.

Save Form Data

Save Form Data to a specified file.

Save Image

Save an image of the labels as a specified Postscript File.

Preview

Launch the predefined preview appplication to preview the labels.

Exit

Exit the program, all unsaved data will be lost.

Format Menu

Fonts & Colours

Change font family, font size, font-colour and the background colour interactively, all changes should take effect immediately in the text entry fields. Be carefull, perl-tk uses the nearest match for the font. The labels may look different on your printer.

Angle

Sets the angle by which the centre of the text arcs are offset.

Radii

Specify the size of the label inner circle and the radii of the text circles.

Page Deformation

Some printers do not work correctly with circles and produce an ellipse, you can squeeze or stretch the whole page to get perfect circles with your printer.

Positions

You can move the circles around the page using this menu.

Tickmarks

There are many cd-label sheets on the market, so you can move the circles around the page. To make this easier, you can print some tickmarks on the page to measure the distances. If you have the correct values, you don't need these tickmarks any more and can save some ink.

Circle Boundaries

This allows the user to turn off the printing of the circles which show the boundaries of the labels.

Graphics

You can put an image on the label. This image currently has to be in eps-format. I thought about automatic scaling, but the program would have to know the real size of the visible part of the graphic instead of just the bounding box. The scaling and shifting should be self-explanatory. The program gets the bounding box of the eps image and puts the image in the middle of the label.

Options Menu

Previewer

Select the application to use for previewing the labels.

Graphics Converter

Select the application to use for converting graphics to eps format.

Load Options

Load program options from configuration files, this is useful to reset the configuration to a known state.

Save Options

Save the current program configuration to either the user specified configuration file or to the default file if the user did not specify one.

Help Menu

Help

Display this man page.

About

Display program version, description and copyright information.

You can save your configuration in a file in your CW$HOME or ask your sysadmin to create a global configuration-file.

There is a global configuration file /etc/cd-circleprint.conf and a local configuration file CW$HOME/.cd-circleprint.conf You can specify a configuration file on the command line in which case the default configuration file settings can be overridden. For the format of the configuration files take a look at them. Comments start with a # and blank lines are ignored. The program sets its internal default values, looks for the global configuration file, then for the local configuration file and finally for a user specified file. Label data is read from a similar format file either specified on the command line or selected from a file dialog.

There are probably many bugs and much ugly code but it works. Please fix them and send me a patch. Thanks

cd-circleprint is written and maintained by Colin Tuckley <colintu@users.sourceforge.net> cd-circleprint was originally written by Matthias Kabel <matthias.kabel@tyche.de> You can find the latest version at http://cd-circle-print.sourceforge.net This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. Thanks to sourceforge.net for hosting free software