LCAL(1)                          USER COMMANDS                         LCAL(1)



NAME
       lcal - generate PostScript lunar phase calendars

SYNOPSIS
       lcal [-d [day__font]] [-t [title__font]] [-o file] [-l | -p]
            [-s text__color[/page__bg__color[/moon__dark__color[/moon__light__color]]]]
            [-z time__zone] [-S] [-O] [-X [x1[/x2]]] [-Y [y1[/y2]]] [-W]
            [-h | -u | -v] [year]

DESCRIPTION
       Lcal generates PostScript to produce lunar phase calendars for any
       year, in either landscape or portrait orientations.  Output can be in
       any of 3 formats: 2-page (default), compressed 1-page, or odd-days-only
       (uncompressed, 1-page).

       The year argument, if provided, may be specified as either 1 or 2 dig-
       its or as the full 4 digit year; if omitted, the calendar for the cur-
       rent year will be generated.



OPTIONS
       If the environment variable LCAL_OPTS is defined, its contents are
       parsed as a command line.  Flags set via LCAL_OPTS override the program
       defaults, but are overridden by options set explicitly on the command
       line.

       Any flag which normally takes an argument may also be specified without
       an argument; this resets the corresponding option to its default.  In
       some cases, like when a parameter follows a flag without its optional
       argument, this may lead to ambiguity; the dummy flag '-' (or '--') may
       be used to separate them, e.g. "lcal -t - 2008".

       -d [font]
              Specifies the name of the font used to print the (abbreviated)
              day-of-week names near (or inside) each moon.


              The default font is `Times-Bold'.

              This option may also be set semi-permanently by altering the
              makefile (`Makefile' for most environments, 'Makefile.DOS' for
              MS-DOS).

       -t [font]
              Specifies the name of the font used to print the year, the
              abbreviated month names, and the days of the month.


              The default font is `Times-Bold'.

              This option may also be set semi-permanently by altering the
              makefile (`Makefile' for most environments, 'Makefile.DOS' for
              MS-DOS).

       -o file
              Directs lcal to write the output to file instead of to stdout.

       -l     Causes the output to be in landscape orientation (default).

       -p     Causes the output to be in portrait orientation.

       -s text__color[/page__bg__color[/moon__dark__color[/moon__light__color]]]]
              Overrides the default values for the various colors.


              It is acceptable to specify fewer than all 4 colors.  That is,
              you can specify just the text color, for example, by only sup-
              plying 1 color value.  Multiple color value specifications must
              be separated by a forward slash ('/').


              The `text' color is used to print all the text (year, month,
              day-of-month, and day-of-week).  The `page background' color
              will flood the page with the specified color.  This is useful,
              for example, to provide a light grey background (e.g. 0.9) which
              makes the white in the moons stand out better.  The `moon dark'
              and `moon light' colors specify the colors to be used for the
              moons.  Don't do something silly like specifying a dark color
              for the 'moon light color' and vice versa or you'll wind up with
              a very misleading lunar calendar!


              The default values will cause black text to appear on a white
              page background with black for the dark part of the moon and
              white for the light part of the moon.


              For monochrome output/printers, these values must be in the
              range 0.0 (black) through 1.0 (white).  For color output/print-
              ers, any or all of the colors may be specified as a set of
              red:green:blue values; red, green, and blue must in the range
              0.0 through 1.0.  At least one colon (':') must be present for
              this option to be recognized; omitted values are set to 0.0.


              A good example of a highly-colorized calendar (assuming you
              don't want to waste the ink/toner to print it!) would be:

                 lcal -O -s 0:1:1/0:0:0.7/0/1:1:0 | gv - -land

              This provides a one-page (odd-days-only) lunar calendar with
              cyan text ('0:1:1') on a midnight blue background ('0:0:0.7')
              with black/yellow ('0/1:1:0') moons.  The output is piped into
              the 'GhostView' PostScript previewer and forced to landscape
              page orientation.

              Or, if you prefer light-grey moons:

                 lcal -O -s 0:1:1/0:0:0.7/0/0.9 | gv - -land


       -z time__zone
              Specifies the local time zone, expressed as hours west of UTC.

              For example, New York residents (USA Eastern time zone) would
              use '-z 5' while on Eastern Standard Time (winter) and '-z 4'
              while on Eastern Daylight Time (summer).  People in India would
              use '-z-5.5'.  Notice that fractional values are allowed.

              This option may also be set semi-permanently by altering the
              makefile (`Makefile' for most environments, 'Makefile.DOS' for
              MS-DOS).

       -S     Compresses the output to fit a full year on a single page. Com-
              pare the '-O' option.

       -O     Display only the odd days of the month, allowing a full year to
              fit on a single page without compression. Compare the '-S'
              option.

       -X [x1[/x2]]
              Specifies the X-axis translation values (page 1 / page 2) for
              positioning the output on the page.  Should only be needed for
              calendars in landscape orientation.

              This option may also be set semi-permanently by altering the
              makefile (`Makefile' for most environments, 'Makefile.DOS' for
              MS-DOS).

       -Y [y1[/y2]]
              Similar to the -X option, but specifies the Y-axis translation
              values for positioning the output on the page.  Should only be
              needed for calendars in portrait orientation.


              By default, lcal will attempt to print 2-page calendars such
              that the last moons on the first page are immediately adjacent
              to the first moons on the second page.  However, many printers
              can't actually print to the edges of the physical page.

              The -X and -Y options allow the user to compensate for these
              printer-to-printer variations in the positioning of output.  You
              may find that the use of -X-20/20 (for landscape-oriented calen-
              dars) or -Y20/-20 (for portrait-oriented calendars) improves the
              situation.

              This option may also be set semi-permanently by altering the
              makefile (`Makefile' for most environments, 'Makefile.DOS' for
              MS-DOS).

       -W     Causes lcal to print the (abbreviated) day-of-week names in the
              center of the moon icons (instead of to the lower left, which is
              the default).


              Use of this option results in more-complex PostScript output,
              which is slower when previewing or printing.

       -h     Displays version information, a brief parameter usage message,
              and a full explanation of all options.

       -u     Displays version information and a brief parameter usage mes-
              sage.

       -v     Displays version information only.

SEE ALSO
       Website for lcal and pcal (a conventional calendar generation applica-
       tion, similar to lcal ):

          http://pcal.sourceforge.net

ACKNOWLEDGMENT
       Lcal was inspired by "Moonlight 1996", a 16" x 36" full-color (silver
       moons against a midnight blue background) lunar phase calendar marketed
       by Celestial Products, Inc., P.O. Box 801, Middleburg VA 22117 (20118,
       circa 2007).  Send for their catalog to see (and, hopefully, order)
       this as well as some even more amazing stuff - particularly "21st Cen-
       tury Luna", a 22" x 72" lunar phase calendar for every day of the
       upcoming century.  Or visit their site:

          http://www.celestialproducts.com

AUTHORS
       Lcal was written by Andrew Rogers.  It is largely based on pcal , orig-
       inally written by Patrick Wood (Copyright (c) 1987 by Patrick Wood of
       Pipeline Associates, Inc.), and authorized for modification and redis-
       tribution.  The original C version of pcal was created by Ken Keirnan;
       the moon phase routines were written by Jef Poskanzer and Craig Leres
       (copyright 1988, with permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute)
       and modified further by Mark Hanson (PostScript) and Richard Dyson (C).
       Later changes to lcal (the addition of the odd-days-only [1-page uncom-
       pressed] format, enhanced colorization options, various cleanups,
       design improvements, and bug fixes) were made by Bill Marr.



Version 2.1.0                     07 Oct 2007                          LCAL(1)
