[OS X TeX] Q: getting a layout optimized for screen reading?

[Michael McCracken]

On Apr 20, 2005, at 7:18 AM, Morten Høgholm wrote:

> On Tue, 19 Apr 2005 18:52:18 -0700, Michael McCracken 
> <michael_mccracken at mac.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi, can anyone give me advice on generating a screen-optimized PDF of 
>> an article?
>>
>> I would like to be able to produce versions of articles that are 
>> easier to read on screen.
>>
>> pdfscreen seems like it is almost what I want, but it has a lot of 
>> features I don't want - I'm not interested in a control panel, 
>> background colors, or any other presentation features.
>>
>> I want to be able to use the article source without modifying it, and 
>> get a PDF that won't require scrolling vertically on a wide-screen 
>> laptop.
>>
>> Ideally, it'd display 3 columns for each page, and have each page be 
>> in portrait orientation with an aspect ratio that'll fit nicely on a 
>> screen:
>> a 4:3 aspect ratio is probably best, although if I could get that and 
>> 13:9 also, that'd be great.
>
> Try fiddling with the settings of this example.
>
> \documentclass[12pt,a4paper]{article}
> % This part if you want the alternate format
> \usepackage{multicol,geometry}
> \geometry{
>   landscape,
>   papersize={9cm,13cm},
>   textwidth=12cm,
>   textheight=8cm
> }
> \AtBeginDocument{\begin{multicols}{3}}
> \AtEndDocument{\end{multicols}}
> % end of tweaks.
> \begin{document}
>   \input{tufte}
>   \input{tufte}\par
>   \input{tufte}
>   \input{tufte}
>
> \end{document}

Morten, this worked perfectly for me - thanks!

If anyone's interested, after fiddling, I found that the following 
settings viewed at 140% looked best on my 15" Powerbook screen.

\usepackage{multicol,geometry}
\geometry{
   landscape,
   papersize={18cm,26cm},
   textheight=16cm,
   textwidth=24cm
}
\AtBeginDocument{\begin{multicols}{3}}
\AtEndDocument{\end{multicols}}

-mike

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