Re: crop marks?

[Gavin Smith]

Commenting out one line in texinfo.tex makes the bottom cropmarks visible:

Index: texinfo.tex
===================================================================
--- texinfo.tex (revision 8191)
+++ texinfo.tex (working copy)
@@ -418,7 +418,7 @@
       \ifcropmarks
           \egroup % end of \vbox\bgroup
         \hfil\egroup % end of (centering) \line\bgroup
-        \vskip\topandbottommargin plus1fill minus1fill
+        %\vskip\topandbottommargin plus1fill minus1fill
         \boxmaxdepth = \cornerthick
         \vbox to0pt{\vss
           \line{%

However, they probably aren't in the right place. I don't really
understand what the cropmarks are for in the first place. Doesn't it
depend on what areas of a page a printer is capable of printing on,
which depends on the printer?

I suspect the code is wrong even for the top crop marks. So that the
crop marks are above the heading line with the page numbers, the crop
marks are printed \topandbottommargin - hardcoded as .75 in - above
the start of the main part of the page, below the page numbers. The
heading line itself is hardcoded as 22.5 pt (less than .75 in) above
the start of the main part of the page. It all seems very arbitrary to
me.
On Mon, Nov 19, 2018 at 6:56 PM <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> Gavin Smith <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> > On Tue, Nov 13, 2018 at 07:56:39AM -0700, address@hidden wrote:
> > > Once upon a time there was an @cropmarks command in texinfo.tex that
> > > put cropmarks in the corners of the page.  This was particularly helpful
> > > for working with @smallbook in order to visualize what would actually
> > > come back if a book was printed and bound.
> > >
> > > The command seems to still be there but I only get the cropmarks
> > > on the top of the page.
> > >
> > > I'm fairly sure this is an undocumented feature, but if it could be
> > > restored to working order sometime soon, I'd appreciate it.
> >
> > Can you tell me when it worked properly? I tried with various versions of
> > Texinfo. As far back as Texinfo 4.5 I only got the top cropmarks. I
> > tried with Texinfo 3.12 and I do get the bottom cropmarks, but they look
> > like they are in the wrong place unless @smallbook is also given.
>
> Oh lordy. It's been *years*. And indeed they may only have worked
> correctly with @smallbook --- that sounds right. I would be happy if
> that would be restored, since I actually was trying to see what a
> particular document would look like in @smallbook.
>
> I'm starting to think about self-publishing something written in
> Texinfo, which is why I wanted to see what @smallbook looked like.
>
> Much thanks!
>
> Arnold