Software that makes placemats

[jdaw1]

Custom placemats

As some users of this BB already know, at jdawiseman.com/papers/placemat/placemat.html is some free software, open-source as well, that makes elegant placemats for use in a port tasting (or the like). Clearly labelled placemats really do help avoid confusion later in the evening.

The code is in PostScript, so, though reasonably well documented, isn’t really suitable for those with no computer abilities. If you fall into that category, but still want, just post in a thread, listing what you’re drinking and who will be drinking it. PM me a link to that thread. When I’m next home it will take only a few minutes to make a useful PDF.

Example output follows, albeit at reduced size.



Examples
Some examples prepared for actual tastings are at www.jdawiseman.com/papers/placemat/placemats_list.html. (This ‘list’ edited April 2015.)

[KillerB]

Has nobody said "thank you" yet? Good grief, how rude.

Thanks jdaw, having used these I can confirm that they are extremely useful.

[DRT]

I have thanked jdaw1 for these a few times elsewhere but will repeat it here - thanks, jdaw1

But could we have a smaller picture, please?

Derek

[jdaw1]

Smaller picture done.

Thanks jdaw, having used these I can confirm that they are extremely useful.

Does that mean that you are using these at home, operated all by yourself? If so you are one of the few.

[KillerB]

Not quite that geeky but I suspect Al-B does. No - used them at off-lines provided by Al-B and Derek.

[Alex Bridgeman]

On those occasions when I am drinking at home on my own and open 5 or 6 bottles of port I do find that Julian's tasting mats are extremely helpful.

For some reason, I otherwise find that I start to lose track of which glass holds which wine towards the end of these evenings....



Al-B

[Conky]

You open 5 or 6 Bottles on your own???

Due respect. Thats a new one on me. Do you have different hats and different voices, or do you just drink like a fish?

Alan

[Alex Bridgeman]

None of the above - I'm just slightly more flippant and significantly less serious before I have anything to drink.

Like when I wrote that previous post.

As Derek and Al-K can testify, I cannot drink a great deal and start to be the worse for wear after a few sniffs of port, let alone glasses.

Gotta go, off to meet a couple of folks from the other place for a mini-offline.

Have fun.

Al-B (aka. Cruz Ruby, currently refusing the upgrade bribe from the Creator as there must be a catch)

[KillerB]

I'm just slightly more flippant and signifantly less serious before I have anything to drink.

We told you he was weird, didn't we?

[jdaw1]

… when I … open 5 or 6 bottles of port I do find that Julian's tasting mats are

Does this mean that you have operated the PostScript yourself?

[DRT]

As Derek and Al-K can testify, I cannot drink a great deal and start to be the worse for wear after a few sniffs of port, let alone glasses.

********!!!

[jdaw1]

Well, my attempt to family-friendly this BB by asking DT to edit, did indeed cause him to edit. The “o†s became “*†s. Such is progress.

[Conky]

Jdaw1

You are dealing with the Scottish Race! Firey Celts and all that. Small Steps, Small Steps.

Alan

[DRT]

Good enough now?

[Conky]

As if we all dont know what seven stars means!

Alan

[DRT]

Sorry, forgot the space between 4 and 5

[jdaw1]

Thank you.

[KillerB]

try typing it again to see what you get.

[DRT]

jdaw1 - we need placemats sometime soon - wines t.b.c.

Derek

...and get looking for cheap flights to blighty

[jdaw1]

Underway. Currently a moderate hack is required to make placemats with multiple glass pages but a single combined page of tasting notes. Within the next few weeks this will become a standard feature. Advance requests welcomed.

Edit: partway through the “moderate hack” it has become clear that it isn’t “moderate”. Feature requests welcomed nonetheless. 

Edit edit: the new version is now at the usual place, jdawiseman.com/papers/placemat/placemat.html, and comment would be welcome as well as surprising.

[jdaw1]

Recently implemented features

Lines within the titles and subtitles:


Stars and flowers within the titles and subtitles:

[DRT]

Excellent. Are you now working on Stars + Stripes for US Off-lines?

[jdaw1]

Congratulations to DRT for making the placemats for the Odd or Great tasting on 11th July 2008. So, if I’m away, and placemats are wanted, send a PM to DRT and he can cope. Your PM, as well as listing what is to be drunk, by whom, when and where, should also request that he not enable every single flamboyant feature.

[Axel P]

Julian,

I think your support and genius on the placemats is really worth mentioning more than once.

You were so kind and helped me out at the Grahams vertical, which I did really appreciate.

Again: muito obrigado and looking forward to share the next bottle (most probably Cockburn) with you.

Cheers
Axel

[jdaw1]

Edit: this posted has been superseded by the relevant section of the manual.

Making Your First Placemat: Advice for Beginners

If making your first placemat, various steps will be helpful.

1. A good text editor is a boon, and it should be one that understands PostScript. On a Mac I have used Alpha X, and am now testing Aquamacs Emacs. For a PC perhaps use NotePad++, the specification of which looks encouraging, though the program has not been tested by me.
2. Bookmark the manual, and download to your machine a copy of the PostScript code. Store it in a directory called ‟placemats” or ‟postscript” or the like. As a test convert the unedited unchanged PostScript to PDF, perhaps by using PS2PDF.com.
3. Make a copy of the original PostScript. Give it a name that will make sense in aeons to come: perhaps YYYYMMDD.ps, or YYYYMMDD_TastingName.ps. Edit this copy of the PostScript to change, to values appropriate for your tasting, the
   • page size (for this purpose my favourite of the US paper sizes being /USLegal = 14″×8½″),
   • ports,
   • people,
   • page header.
   Do these one at a time, converting to PDF between each.
4. If it is a tasting, add a logo by changing the ThePortForumIconPlacements parameter.
5. Now test some of the more flamboyant features. Play and experiment. Convert to PDF after each significant change, and admire the results.
6. Choose a small subset of the decorative features to go in the final placemats. Do not choose them all, as that looks childish and horrible (this comment being aimed particularly at DRT).
7. Feel free to send to me the final .ps and .pdf for comment. (Email address on jdawiseman.com/author.html.) Improvements are usually possible.
8. If the tasting is being arranged via or or even , upload the PDF to the web, and post in an appropriate thread a link entitled something like ‟First draft of the placemats”. People will be impressed.
9. Allow some time for comments and corrections and changes. The day before the tasting print the mats using a toner printer (not ink, as a drop of liquid causes ink to smudge).
10. Enjoy the tasting.

Good luck.

[JacobH]

A good text editor is a boon, and it should be one that understands PostScript. On a Mac I have used Alpha X, and am now testing Aquamacs Emacs. For a PC perhaps use NotePad++, the specification of which looks encouraging, though the program has not been tested by me.

There are, of course, versions of improved emacs available for Windows and other operating systems .

[jdaw1]

Making Your First Placemat: Advice for Beginners

There are, of course, versions of improved emacs available for Windows and other operating systems .

Emacs is an editor for heavy-weight geeks, and hence unsuitable for a goodly proportion of ‟Beginners”.

Proceed with caution.

[JacobH]

Making Your First Placemat: Advice for Beginners

There are, of course, versions of improved emacs available for Windows and other operating systems .

Emacs is an editor for heavy-weight geeks, and hence unsuitable for a goodly proportion of ‟Beginners”.

Proceed with caution.

Indeed!I was hoping you would follow the links, so as to complete a rather silly joke about text editors (c.f. Wikipedia ‟Editor Wars”).

[jdaw1]

Sorry, I missed that ‘joke’.

The beginner’s stuff was so popular (i.e., I though it was a good idea) that I’ve added it to the main manual page.

[jdaw1]

There’s an updated version of the code. Most recent changes:

• ShowDecanterLabels renamed to MakeDecanterLabels.
• FixNumRows replaced with NumRowsMin and NumRowsMax.
• Bug fixes relating to the /Gaia layout.

Share and enjoy.

[jdaw1]

Again, a new version of PostScript placemat code is available from the www.jdawiseman.com/papers/placemat/placemat.html.

One change:

• Slight strengthening of the meaning of the /SameTitleLength element of SameSizeTitlesIfAllOf, such that when activated longer titles cannot be larger.

[jdaw1]

An extra page has been added to the manual, Glasses placemat: choosing a page size.

[jdaw1]

As some readers of this fine bulletin board might perhaps already know, I am a regular arranger of and attendee at port tastings. At such events it helps, it really helps, to have a clearly-labelled spot for every glass. Without same, as the evening progresses, confusion comes closer. of course, such placemats should be thoroughly functional, elegant, and occasionally touched with a little playfulness.

I have written a piece of software that makes such placemats. The software is available from my website: www.jdawiseman.com/papers/placemat/placemat.html for the manual, which links to the PostScript code. Cost: free, that being £0 = $0 = €0 = Â¥0. It’s not even freemium: the premium version is the free version. It’s just that, having gone to the trouble of writing the code, I feel it should be used more and more widely. Please help yourself.

Some examples of output:

• 2009.06.11, an ornate placemat, perhaps overly ornate, for a blind tasting.
• 2009.04.18, some great vintages of Taylor, Fonseca, Warre.
• 2009.03.20, an ‘emergency’ tasting of some younger bottles.
• 2009.02.13, a Graham vertical.
• 2009.01.30, a giant horizontal of 1970 ports. There are ten pages per person three for glasses, two for tasting notes, for each of two sessions.
• 2009.01.15 a playful rather than elegant design for an informal gathering of people, each of whom was to bring a bottle or two.
• 2009.01.03 and 2009.01.04, a two-round emergency consisting mostly of port from 1985.

And if you do good things with it, post here to show off. And if you get stuck, then, time permitting, I might help post here or contact me via email.

I rather liked the ‟thoroughly functional, elegant, and occasionally touched with a little playfulness”. It is the objective.

There is also a new version, fixing bugs far more obscure than would bother most users.

[jdaw1]

The software has been improved again, adding a new feature that makes place-name pages, as suggested by Alex B.


For a more realistic example, see the last twelve pages of www.jdawiseman.com/port/20091002_warre.pdf, prepared for the forthcoming Warre vertical.

[jdaw1]

Help wanted. I’m not totally confident about the new feature.

The question is, one fold or three. As-is they’re designed for one fold, but that might mean that the corners curl (please test with your printer paper). Should it be a three-fold model? And if so, how far up is the first fold? Folds at one-sixth, one-half and five-sixths of the height? Help please.

[jdaw1]

Added a parameter PlaceNamesFirstAndThirdFoldsFromEdge. If this is 0 then it’s one-fold; otherwise it determines the distance of the extra folds from the top and bottom edges.

[Glenn E.]

Help wanted. I’m not totally confident about the new feature.

The question is, one fold or three. As-is they’re designed for one fold, but that might mean that the corners curl (please test with your printer paper). Should it be a three-fold model? And if so, how far up is the first fold? Folds at one-sixth, one-half and five-sixths of the height? Help please.

I use fairly sturdy paper in my little ink-jet printer, so the one fold version seems fine. However I suspect that the three fold version would be better using standard copier paper, especially in more humid climates.

[SushiNorth]

Added a parameter PlaceNamesFirstAndThirdFoldsFromEdge. If this is 0 then it’s one-fold; otherwise it determines the distance of the extra folds from the top and bottom edges.

This is a good way to do it. Rarely does one desire one-fold (too tall anyway -- unless names need to be so large that drunk people can read them), instead two or even three folds are better. Three, you ask? Well the third fold is usually only an inch wide and used as a tab for taping to a primary side.

[jdaw1]

Rarely does one desire one-fold (too tall anyway -- unless names need to be so large that drunk people can read them), instead two or even three folds are better. Three, you ask? Well the third fold is usually only an inch wide and used as a tab for taping to a primary side.

My three-fold layout is slightly different. Always there is a fold in the middle. Also folds the same distance in (PlaceNamesFirstAndThirdFoldsFromEdge) from the top and bottom edges. If you want to tape, make this distance ≥72pt = 1 inch. But there oughtn’t to be a need to tape.

[Andy Velebil]

3 fold works best as you can add a little tape to keep it from opening up and falling flat. These name tags were great when we used them recently. Thanks julian!!

[jdaw1]

OK, a rethink. Help needed. Currently my design is symmetrical around the middle of the paper. That means that taping must happen at the bottom, underneath. But an asymmetrical layout (say, relative heights of 1:5:5:5) would allow the taping to happen on the inside of a visible face. That might give greater stability of posture.

Thoughts?

[jdaw1]

Bug fix: the problem sometimes being difficult to see; sometimes being more serious. Please use latest version of software.

[Alex Bridgeman]

OK, a rethink. Help needed. Currently my design is symmetrical around the middle of the paper. That means that taping must happen at the bottom, underneath. But an asymmetrical layout (say, relative heights of 1:5:5:5) would allow the taping to happen on the inside of a visible face. That might give greater stability of posture.

Thoughts?

My preference would be for the symmetrical version. I will rarely tape the place names and would rely on the weight (little as it is) of the place name to hold the folds in place. If I did happen to have tape, I simply fold the paper so as to create space for a bit of tape on the underneath.

[g-man]

A suggestion for improvement for the software that makes placemats.

An addition of Wiseman's Rule #1 should be placed in the bottom corner next to the water check marks.

[SushiNorth]

A suggestion for improvement for the software that makes placemats.

An addition of Wiseman's Rule #1 should be placed in the bottom corner next to the water check marks.

Heh, beat me to it. I just tried adding it to the placemats from last night.

Two suggested innovations:

1) Portrait mode for the glasses, it makes it easier to place food and reach the water.

Code: Select all

/Orientation /Portrait def  % /Landscape /Portrait

2) Add water as a circle in the top left corner.

Code: Select all

Title: (H2O)
Subtitle: (Water)
Circle Array: [ (Drink at 4% = 5 pints per bottle) ]
FillText: (Hydrate thy self)

Question to the author of rule #1 -- what shall the circle say?

[jdaw1]

Title: either

Code: Select all

[(H) {SubscriptOn} (2) {SubscriptOff} (O)]

or

Code: Select all

[(H) {0 CurrentFontSize -0.5 mul rmoveto} /twosuperior {0 CurrentFontSize  0.5 mul rmoveto} (O)]

(in which the ‟0.5” might need some adjustment, depending on your choice of font).

[jdaw1]

An addition of Wiseman's Rule #1 should be placed in the bottom corner next to the water check marks.

I don’t understand what you want. Do you mean an ‟edition” of Wiseman’s Second Rule i.e., its text; or did you really mean an ‟addition”?

[SushiNorth]

H20 Subscript

worried it'll be mistaken for Hoopers 1920? was such a thing even made?

[jdaw1]

H20 Subscript

worried it'll be mistaken for Hoopers 1920? was such a thing even made?

1. I did not write that which you quoted.
2. All TPFers can surely see the difference between a ‘0’ and a ‘O’.
3. H = Hutcheson, which might be worse than Hooper.

[SushiNorth]

1. I did not write that which you quoted.

Indeed, I should have said "Re Jdaw1: H20 with subscripting" to avoid confusion.