pr 2-columns; ff-expand

[sobi]

i)
I often print man pages on a tally matrix-printer in landscape mode.
Using 17.1 cpi and 8 lpi, 4 pages go on 1 sheet (2 on each side) if I use:
"pr -2 -t -o10 -w180".
Unfortunately pr then balances the last page if it's odd-numbered.
First I solved it by cat-ing 66 empty lines (it was definitely not a solution).
Then I recompiled with:
          if (storing_columns)
            balance_columns = FALSE;

Is it really necessary to keep balancing at -COLUMN because of consistency?
So then I would appreciate a new option which inhibits balancing
in multi-column mode.

ii)
I also often print preformatted .txt or output from ps2text, html2text ...
FF is set anywhere in the input file. In -2 mode (as above) this means:
there's really a new sheet of paper used instead of starting the next column.
(Probably only a problem if not in the last column.)

I don't know whether it's as easy to implement as i).
But I've also got another idea to solve it:
introducing a new option the complement of -t/-T doing nothing but
expanding FFs to NLs to fill PAGE_LENGTH.
This would enable what I need  with to pr runs piped.

I wonder whether the above is of interest for you
and I'm looking forward to any reply
thanks
christoph sobotka (address@hidden)