tcl.block-print

produces a 'banner' by converting characters to a large block format, made up of rows and columns of the character itself.

If the text contains too many characters, the text string is wrapped at a word boundary, if possible; otherwise, the text is wrapped after nine characters.

Text enclosed within quotes attempts to print on the same line without breaking on the space(s) between the words.

The characters in the text string are defined in the 'dm,block-convert,' file.

A character definition must consist of exactly nine attributes: (example of definition for 'H' character:)

id H

001 7 ;* # horizontal cells: 1234567
002 C2,3,2 ;* raster line 1: HH HH
003 C2,3,2 ;* raster line 2: HH HH
004 C2,3,2 ;* raster line 3: HH HH
005 C7 ;* raster line 4: HHHHHHH
006 C2,3,2 ;* raster line 5: HH HH
007 C2,3,2 ;* raster line 6: HH HH
008 C2,3,2 ;* raster line 7: HH HH
009 B7 ;* raster line 8:

where:
'raster' is either:
Cnn {,nn {,nn...}}, or
Bnn {,nn {,nn...}}

such that:
Cnn indicates the id 'character' to be printed nn times.
Bnn indicates a blank to be printed nn times.
, indicates a switch from 'character' to 'blank', or vice-versa.

New items may be edited into the 'block-convert' file to create new languages, or even typefaces (such as script or italics). However, the height must remain at 9 characters (attributes).

Each word or passage is centered on the output line according to the width of the device to which it is being output. The device width is determined by the most recently executed 'term' command.