Hello list I've been working on a little project of mine. I give calligraphy workshops and I have been using a nice tool created by Josselin Cuette, available at http://ductus.josselincuette.com/ to generate practice templates for interested people. However, I would prefer to have an offline solution. This adventure started with the usual insidious idea: "I could do this in ConTeXt! And this is a great opportunity to learn metafun!" A couple weeks later, I have an almost ready product! It compiles fine, but I have the following issue: The template creates a Line, composed of Sections. And uses variables to assign a measurement for the nib-width, and an amount of ascender, x-height and descender Sections (nib-widths), to compose a Line. But also, I would like to, if needed, display nib-width marks on the left side. My code so far generates marks, but only for the first Line. I think they are generated but maybe they are placed on top of each other, maybe? I'm not sure why my logic is not working. Also, if I change the amount for ascenders, descenders of x-height, the marks are not drawn correctly. My current path for a mark is a custom path emulating two unit squares, nib-width size, on top of each other, with the top one shifted a nib-width to the right. A little bit like a chess board, or a scale ruler on a map. But this would only work in Lines that have an even amount of Sections. I'm not sure how to proceed with that... I tried using unit squares, but that made things very complex, and after fumbling around I managed to get this far. If you can take a look, or have some advice, it would be greatly appreciated. I hope it is understandable. My code: %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% \setuppapersize[letter,landscape][letter,landscape] \setuplayout[backspace=15mm,width=250mm,header=0mm,footer=0mm] \startreusableMPgraphic{pauta} % Global variables: % Show nib-width marks boolean marks ; marks := true ; % Path for nib-width path mark ; mark := (0,0) -- (1,0) -- (1,2) -- (2,2) -- (2,1) -- (0,1) -- cycle ; % Line width numeric line ; line := \the\textwidth ; % Type box numeric box ; box := \the\textheight ; % Nib width (distance between lines) numeric nib ; nib := 3mm ; % Ascenders for writing line numeric asc ; asc := 3 ; % x-height for writing line numeric med ; med := 4 ; % Descenders for writing line numeric dsc ; dsc := 3 ; % Total height of a writing line in mm (including asc, med, and dsc) numeric lineHeight ; lineHeight = (asc + med + dsc) * nib ; % Available lines on a page numeric availableLines ; availableLines = round(box / lineHeight) - 1 ; % Starting position numeric start ; start := 0 ; % Macros % Draw a section of a line (ascender, x-height or descender) vardef Section(expr lines, initial) = draw (0, initial) -- (line, initial) withpen pencircle scaled 0.2mm ; for i=0 step 1 until lines : save final ; final = i*nib ; pair a; a = (0, final + initial) ; pair b; b = (line, final + initial) ; draw a -- b withpen pencircle scaled 0.1mm ; % If marks=true show nib-width marks if marks = true: fill mark scaled nib yshifted (final*2) ; fi ; endfor ; draw (0, final + initial) -- (line, final + initial) withpen pencircle scaled 0.2mm ; final + initial enddef ; % Draw a line with the three secions (asc, med, dsc) vardef Line(expr descender, ascender, xheight, initial) = numeric dd, oo, aa ; % Líneas dd = Section(descender, initial) ; oo = Section(xheight, dd) ; aa = Section(ascender, oo) ; % Devolver posicion final con espacio para siguiente renglon aa + nib*2 enddef ; % Llenar la página con renglones for i=1 upto availableLines : start := Line(dsc, asc, med, start) ; endfor ; \stopreusableMPgraphic \startdocument \startstandardmakeup \reuseMPgraphic{pauta} \stopstandardmakeup \stopdocument %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% -- Andrés Conrado Montoya Andi Kú andresconrado@gmail.com http://sesentaycuatro.com http://messier87.com http://chiquitico.org ---------------------------------------- Los fines no justifican los medios, porque la medida verdadera de nuestro carácter está dada por los medios que estamos dispuestos a utilizar, no por los fines que proclamamos. ---------------------------------------- “You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.’” — Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell