As an illustrator/designer, I wrote “PropCalc” proportion calculator to serve as a replacement for the familiar graphic artist’s proportion wheel. It's geared primarily to aid in ordering halftones or color separations, but can also be used for scaling illustrations.
• Use the “Calculate” radio buttons to select whether you want to calculate the original size, scale (camera setting) or reproduction size. Calculated fields appear in a grey box and cannot be edited.
• Enter in the editable text boxes the measurements/percentages you’re starting with.
• If you’re figuring sizes for films, enter an appropriate value in the “Bleed” edit box. This measurement will be added to all four sides of the specified reproduction size. If, for example, you specify a 6-pt. bleed, the reproduction dimensions at 100% will be 12 points less than the original.
• Press the Enter or Return key to calculate.
• Use the “Measurement” radio buttons to select whether you want the measurements displayed in traditional printer’s picas/points, PostScript picas/points (usually used in desktop publishing), inches or millimeters.
• Use the “Preferences” dialog box to set the number of decimal places to calculate to. The default number of decimal places for the display is 0 for picas, 2 for inches or 1 for millimeters. Use the “Measurement Decimals” edit box to enter any additional decimal places you'd like to add. In the same way, you can add additional precision to the default scale (camera setting) display of whole percentage points. Some accuracy in measurements may be compromised during calculation because—and this is important to keep in mind—all values are converted to the output units you choose and calculated (or rounded off) to the decimal precision you specify in the “Preferences” dialog box.
• While the measurements can be displayed in any of these 4 formats, they MUST be entered with measurement unit identifiers such as:
- ["], [in] or [i] for inches
- [mm] for millimeters
- [cm] for centimeters
- [pt] or no identifiers for points
- [p], [pi] or [+] for PostScript picas (unless the “Measurement” radio button is set for printer’s picas/points)
The default unit is PostScript points (unless the “Measurement” radio button is set for printer’s picas/points), since this is the common unit from which all others are converted. Measurements may be entered as fractions. For example, 18, “1p6” and “1 1/2p” are all equivalent.
• Under “Page Specs” you can define your standard page grid. These settings affect the values automatically entered as the reproduction dimensions when you choose items from the “Reproduction Sizes” menu. The values under “Original Sizes” are pre-set to standard photograph sizes. Choose this menu to quickly enter dimensions for your original artwork.
• “Set Repro with Mouse” will display a cross-shaped cursor. You can then drag a rectangle anywhere on the screen to trace an area in a page layout program (in a 100% view) to quickly enter a reproduction size. When using MultiFinder, hold down the Option key when selecting PropCalc from the Apple menu, otherwise MultiFinder will switch applications on you when you click outside the DA’s window! Using this method, you’ll still be able to drag a rectangle only in a window of the application serving as the DA’s host.
• The “Rotate” button (with the curved arrow) or typing Command-R will swap the horizontal and vertical dimensions for switching between portrait and landscape orientation.
• The “Scale by Width” button (with horizontal arrows) will copy the scale percentage from the width field to the height field. The “Scale by Height” button (with vertical arrows) works vice versa. The “Scale By Both” button (with both vertical and horizontal arrows) allows independent height and width percentages. You'll generally want to use this mode first to determine the dominant dimension and then switch to either “Scale by Width” or “Scale by Height” for your final scaling specifications. If you have PropCalc set to calculate the scale when you press the “Scale by Height” or “Scale by Height” button, then the reproduction sizes will become the calculated values.
• “Get Record” displays a list of all defined records, identified by the text in the record’s “Name” field. “Insert Record” creates a new blank record and adds it to the end of the list. “Clear Record” simply sets the current record to the default values. “Delete Record” deletes it and removes it from the “Get Record” menu. “Delete All Records” starts over with just one blank record. Your work will be saved in a file named “PropCalc File” located in your system folder, and retrieved the next time you start the desk accessory.
• The “Save Summary” menu selection shows a list of all records with the name, original size, scale, reproduction size and note, if any. You then have the option to save the information to the clipboard or to a tab-delimited text file, which can then be placed into a word processor or spreadsheet for further analysis or printing.
• To save your reproduction dimensions to the clipboard, along with an actual-size PICT representation of it, press the clipboard button or type Command-I. This is great for pasting a placeholder into PageMaker or other page makeup program!
• Keyboard shortcuts:
- [Home]: Go to First Record
- [End]: Go to Last Record
- [Page Up]: Go to Previous Record
- [Page Down]: Go to Next Record
- Command-R: Rotate Dimensions
- Command-I: Insert Picture in Clipboard
- Command-H or Command-[Cursor Left]:
Copy Scale from Height
- Command-W or Command-[Cursor Right]:
Copy Scale from Width
- Command-A: Add Record
- Command-B: Clear (Blank) Record
- Command-K: Delete (Kill) all Records
- Command-P: Page Setup
- Command-M: Define Repro Size with Mouse
- Command-S: Summary of Records
- Command-F: Preferences
- Command-[Cursor Up]: Adjust Original Size
- Command-[Cursor Down]: Adjust Repro Size
- Hold down the option key when selecting an
original size from the menu for a portrait
orientation. The default is landscape.
- Hold down the option key when clicking the
Rotate button to swap both original and repro
dimensions, otherwise only the original will
be rotated.
- Esc will close PropCalc’s dialog boxes.
Tip—For a typical application, where an original has to be scaled to fit a given reproduction size:
• Type Command-A or Command-D to create a new record.
• Check that you’re calculating horizontal and vertical percentages independently (the second square button is selected).
• Check your stripping bleed value.
• Enter your original and repro dimensions.
• Select the Calculate Scale radio button, if necessary.
• Press Enter or Return to calculate the percentages and film size (reproduction size plus stripping bleed).
• Press Command-[Cursor Up] to adjust the original size to conform to the proportions of the repro size.
• Check the title and note fields, to ensure that they contain descriptive information.
• Press (click) the Clipboard button to place an actual-size picture of the repro box on the clipboard, then switch to your page layout program and paste in the placeholder.
• Double-check your figures before ordering 4/c separations!
=== I M P O R T A N T ===
This software is not infallible! Save your work before calling this DA, and question any bogus-looking results. I don't require payment for this DA (see below), but neither can I guarantee flawless performance.
If you find this DA useful and dependable, and it proves to be an asset to your productivity and profitability, I'd really appreciate a contribution of $10, or whatever you think is fair. If you have any suggestions for improvements to the DA or its user interface, please let me know.
Special thanks to Dick Skover (the world's coolest Mac illustrator), to Michael J. Conrad for his “DA Skeleton,” upon which this DA was built, and to Jon Wind for his guidance and encouragement. Your comments, suggestions, and—especially—bug reports are always welcome.
