(eplain.info)Margins

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Enter node , (file) or (file)node

4.15 Margins
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TeX's primitives describe the type area in terms of an offset from the
upper left corner, and the width and height of the type. Some people
prefer to think in terms of the "margins" at the top, bottom, left, and
right of the page, and most composition systems other than TeX conceive
of the page laid out in this way. Therefore, Eplain provides commands to
directly assign and increment the margins.

'\topmargin = DIMEN'
'\bottommargin = DIMEN'
'\leftmargin = DIMEN'
'\rightmargin = DIMEN'
     These commands set the specified margin to the DIMEN given. The '='
     and the spaces around it are optional. The control sequences here
     are not TeX registers, despite appearances; therefore, commands
     like '\showthe\topmargin' will not do what you expect.

'\advancetopmargin by DIMEN'
'\advancebottommargin by DIMEN'
'\advanceleftmargin by DIMEN'
'\advancerightmargin by DIMEN'
     These commands change the specified margin by the DIMEN given.

   Regardless of whether you use the assignment or the advance commands,
Eplain always changes the type area in response, not the other margins.
For example, when TeX starts, the left and right margins are both one
inch. If you then say '\leftmargin = 2in', the right margin will remain
at one inch, and the width of the lines (i.e., '\hsize') will decrease
by one inch.

   When you use any of these commands, Eplain computes the old value of
the particular margin, by how much you want to change it, and then
resets the values of TeX's primitive parameters to correspond.
Unfortunately, Eplain cannot compute the right or bottom margin without
help: you must tell it the full width and height of the final output
page. It defines two new parameters for this:

'\paperheight'
     The height of the output page; default is 11truein.

'\paperwidth'
     The width of the output page; default is 8.5truein.

   If your output page has different dimensions than this, you must
reassign to these parameters, as in

     \paperheight = 11truein
     \paperwidth = 17truein