PostScript::MailLabels modules - create postscript for printing on mailing label stock
===========================================================

TABLE OF CONTENTS
-----------------

1. Description
2. Availability
3. Prerequisites
4. Installation
5. Running Tests
6. Demonstration scripts
7. Bugs
8. Change History
9. Copyright
10. Author Information



1. DESCRIPTION
--------------

This is a pair of modules for calibrating, testing, and printing mailing
labels on standard label stock. It may also be used for other tasks that
print standard fields onto a regular grid.

The modules are :

PostScript::MailLabels
PostScript::MailLabels::BasicData

BasicData is called by MailLabels and is not meant to be called by anyone else.

MailLabels has three main outputs, in postscript(tm).

1. A calibration sheet for measuring the print borders and centering of your
   printer
2. A test sheet showing where the edges of the labels should be. This is used 
   to make the final adjustments to the calibration
3. The address labels themselves


2. AVAILABILITY
---------------

  The newest version (which should be considered a beta version) is available
  through my home page:
    http://www.ajackson.org/software/maillabels
  Feel free to try it out.

  The current (non-beta) version of this module is available from your nearest
  CPAN site.

  The two will frequently be the same.

3. PREREQUISITES
----------------

Perl 5.005_03 is where I developed this. It may work with earlier versions,
but I haven't tried it. I'm not too sophisticated, so I'd be a little
surprised if I used anything not in 5.003 for example.

4. INSTALLATION
---------------

To install, just type
  perl Makefile.PL
  make
  make test
  make install

For help with Makefile.PL, try
perldoc ExtUtils::MakeMaker

If you wish to install in a non-standard place, use 

perl Makefile.PL LIB=~/lib PREFIX=~

5. RUNNING TESTS
----------------

Three PostScript(tm) files will be created by the tests. You should view
these with ghostview, ghostscript, or your favorite viewer. Or print them.

I can't imagine the tests failing, unless you were missing some key part
of perl, but hey, things happen. If it fails, email me. Try running
make test TEST_VERBOSE=1 and send me the results.

6. DEMONSTRATION SCRIPTS
------------------------

In the /demo directory are some scripts that show what it can do. Hope they
make the documentation clearer.

Current demos include :

demo/diskette.pl - generate labels for 3.5 inch diskettes
demo/portuguese.pl - generate mailing labels in Portuguese on A4 paper
demo/std_business.pl - use the standard USPS field designations for labels
demo/print_addrs - simple script to make labels for Christmas Cards.
demo/testlabels.pl - same as the example in the pod. Shows everything it can do.

Right now I'm using addressbook from http://home.pages.de/~clemens, which
is a reasonable ASCII database and Tcl/Tk front-end for editing the database.
Or look at these addresses...
at http://www.red.roses.de/~clemens/addressbook/ or http://addressbook.home.pages.de/

7. BUGS
-------

None that I know of - when you find one, let me know.

If you do report it, please include :
- version of perl
- version of MailLabel
- Operating System and version
- description of problem
- a *short* piece of code that demonstrates the problem

8. CHANGE HISTORY
-----------------

Revision history for Perl extension PostScript::MailLabels.

2.02 Fri Jan 12 22:07:12 CST 2001
	Added y_gap tp Avery(tm) labels
	Updated calibration plot in BasicData to arbitrary paper size
	Minor repairs to test routine


2.00  Mon Jan  1 14:50:37 CST 2001
	Major revision. Added all of the component and label definition stuff. 
	Thanks to "Andrew Smith" <asmith at wpequity.com> for suggesting
	additional fields and inspiring the generalization.
	Thanks to Nuno Faria for assisting with the "Europeanization" of
	the code - it now works for Portuguese, and hopefully for other
	alphabets as well.
	Added pagesize so that various paper sizes are actually handled correctly.
	Minor bug fixes to PostScript::MailLabels::BasicData, now at version 1.01.


1.01  Fri Dec 29 10:00:07 CST 2000
	- bug fix version. 
		- added parameter checking and also lowercase parameters to reduce errors.
		- fixed PostScript code for boxes to work with newer ghostscript interpreters
		- added new URL's for addressbook homepage.

1.00  Wed Nov 10 21:32:53 1999
	- original version; created by h2xs 1.19


9. COPYRIGHT
------------

Copyright (c) 1999 Alan Jackson. All rights reserved.
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

10. AUTHOR INFORMATION
---------------------

Alan Jackson
alanj@ajackson.org
http://www.ajackson/org/


