ThePortForum.com

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

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

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

AHB wrote: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.

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.

jdaw1 wrote: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.

jdaw1 wrote:Making Your First Placemat: Advice for Beginners

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

jdaw1 wrote:

jdaw1 wrote:Making Your First Placemat: Advice for Beginners

JacobH wrote: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.

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

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

On [url=http://dat.erobertparker.com/bboard/showthread.php?t=204202]eRobertParker.com[/url] jdaw1 wrote: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.

jdaw1 wrote: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 wrote: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.

SushiNorth wrote: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 wrote: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?

g-man wrote: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.

/Orientation /Portrait def  % /Landscape /Portrait

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

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

jdaw1 wrote:H20 Subscript

SushiNorth wrote:

jdaw1 wrote:H20 Subscript

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

jdaw1 wrote:1. I did not write that which you quoted.