)
and try different options
until the calendar fits nicely on a page.
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Modes and formats
FAQ
Regardless of which format you are using, having extra stuff in the calendar that you don't want isn't going to help. If you are using a web page somewhere, look for options that allow you to suppress sun and moon events or control the formatting of timestamps. If you are using XTide directly, you do this using the eventmask and timefmt settings. The following examples assume command line usage, but you can change settings in several other ways. See settings for details.
To get rid of unwanted columns for sun and moon events, use the –em command line switch to set an event mask. E.g, to suppress all sun and moon events, set the event mask to the value pSsMm. p = phase of moon, S = sunrise, s = sunset, M = moonrise, m = moonset.
To get rid of unwanted verbosity in timestamps (AM/PM and/or time zone), use the –tf command line switch to set the time format string. E.g., to reduce it to four digits of 24-hour notation, set the time format string to %H%M. To keep AM/PM but lose the time zone, set the time format string to %l:%M %p.
If the calendar that you want to print is on a web page, the next step is to set up your print scaling to make it fit on the page without a lot of ugly text wrapping. The process for doing this is slightly different depending on your browser and operating system.
Access the print scaling menu via File → Page Setup. On the Format & Options tab, unselect Shrink To Fit Page Width and specify an arbitrary shrink factor. Try various shrink factors and see how they look in File → Print Preview. Print when you find one you like.
The Format & Options tab also lets you choose between Portrait and Landscape printing, which can be helpful depending on whether your calendar is really long or really wide.
Do File → Print Preview. Use the controls at the top of the window to select Portrait or Landscape printing and to scale down the HTML until it fits nicely on a page. When ready, select Print.
Internet Explorer 6 does not support print scaling. No wonder so many Windows users had trouble printing calendars! Doh! (Smack forehead.)
Some Windows printer drivers add an option for print scaling on a buried menu, but what that does is not what you need.
The following instructions are based on Microsoft's documentation. I cannot test these instructions because IE7 installation fails on my PC.
)
and try different options
until the calendar fits nicely on a page.The problem with printing calendars from HTML is that HTML doesn't know anything about typesetting printed documents. HTML has no concept of pagination. Whether the result ends up on one page or three when you print it was never supposed to be a concern.
The right language to use in this case is LaTeX. Like HTML, LaTeX is a markup language, but it is all about typesetting printed documents.
XTide can generate calendars in LaTeX format. These can be converted to PDFs using pdflatex, and those PDFs can then be printed on any size paper using Acrobat Reader.
If you are using XTide through a web page, you just have to hunt for an option to generate a PDF and hope that there is one.
The process to generate and view a PDF from the command line is as follows:
bash-3.00$ tide -l"Location Name" -mc -fl -b"Start Time" -e"End Time" > cal.tex bash-3.00$ pdflatex cal.tex bash-3.00$ acroread cal.pdf
The default page geometry in LaTeX mode is probably not optimal for making your calendar look nice. Experiment with different values for pageheight (–ph 420) and pagewidth (–pw 297) until the calendar looks nice in PDF. Do not worry that the shape of the pages in the PDF is not what you have in your printer.
example of nicely formatted calendar
When you are happy with the look of the PDF, do the following to print it.
Use the File → Print Setup menu of Acrobat Reader to select Portrait or Landscape printing, then on the File → Print menu check off Shrink oversized pages to paper size and Expand small pages to paper size.
Issue: I have experienced disappearing lines when printing via the HP DeskJet 5550 driver of CUPS 1.1.23. This problem does not occur when printing under Windows XP, so clearly there is some print option that I am missing.
Use the File → Print Setup menu of Acrobat Reader to select Portrait or Landscape printing, then on the File → Print menu, change Page Scaling to Fit to Printer Margins.