Pattern Maker

w was created in the tradition of typesetting printed pages for bound volumes. For hundreds of years, printers considered the page as a block of type surrounded by margins. As adequate margins were required for binding, practical considerations became aesthetic needs applied by strict formulas. Earlier concepts of pages, such as certain Egyptian hieroglyphs, Roman scrolls. and medieval illuminated manuscripts, considered the entire page area as a pattern. to be filled or not, depending on numerous aesthetic, practical, or economic criteria. New methods of production. such as photomechanical plates. or types of display, such as video terminals, mean that page design and formatting need not be limited by traditional conventions. Instead, pages can be considered for loose-leaf books (especially with on-demand printing). where text, graphics, and space are arranged over multi-page spreads. Or. in another instance, pages can be treated as small blocks, called up and presented in a multi-window environment on a video terminal. The limitations of the printed page are not intrinsic to w. QjX macros can be modified to present text, graphics, and space in blocks on a complete or partial page block (that can be combined or recombined). macros can also free reading order from European conventions. The same macro, for instance, can produce lettered lists using any alphabet in a cartesian coordinate system. A prototype markup language, ~ r c h i w , uses select QX macros to produce flexible, modular page patterns for a variety of output devices. The evolution of print from rock faces to liquid crystal displays can be characterized in four formats. Archaic (rock, bone) Classic (scroll, book) Modern (newspaper, magazine) Hypernian (computer, laser) Typographic presentations evolved from the process of inscription, which has been limited by tools (such as chisel, pen, laser) and media (such as stone, paper, cathode ray tube). Each format can be characterized by media, speed of transmission, and ubiquity. Each format is also part of a historical sequence as well, and its particular uniqueness is the result of the interaction of unique characteristics. After ten thousand years or more, some archaic peoples still put expressions on rock faces: even modern peoples do so on the walls of buildings in cities-it's called graffiti or art. Books have been printed on clay, wood, leather, and paper for over three thousand years. News format, in newspapers and magazines, for several hundred. Hypermedia, coordinated by computer, for two decades. All four formats exist concurrently. Traditional Page Shapes Classic. In Egypt. the pith of papyrus stalks were cut into thin strips, which were dried and then laid out in a row with edges overlapping. Another row was laid crosswise, then the two layers were moistened and pounded together. The sheet was sized, dried and glazed; it was supple and flexible-very suitable for being rolled. Sheets could then be glued together side-by-side to form long sections (possibly several hundred feet long). Ordinarily sheets were 6-7 inches high. The side Proceedings of W 9 0