Text blocks/Transformations/Scaling rotating mirroring clipping text

You can use the commands for text, but also for graphics or other “building blocks”.

Scaling

The \scale command is all-purpose, you can scale by factors or to a defined size.

As a special case, you can insert symbols at a reduced size in the text flow using \getscaledglyph.

• \getscaledglyph{.5}{Serif}{a} a \getscaledglyph{2}{Serif}{a}
  

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Mirroring

• There is a \mirror{\sl mirorred} {\sl word} in this sentence.
  

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\mirror makes a \hbox and mirrors the contents. If you want to have a longer paragraph mirrored, you have to make a \vbox manually.

• \mirror{\vbox{Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: 
  once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, \quote{and 
  what is the use of a book,} thought Alice \quote{without pictures or conversation?}}}
  

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Rotating

You can \rotate something by an arbitrary angle like

• \rotate[rotation=42]{the ultimate answer}
  

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The rotation angle and the location (which determines around which point the content is rotated) are optional and can also be set by

• \setuprotate[rotation=42,location=normal] % normal is the default
  \rotate{the ultimate answer}
  

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• \ss Next generation L\rotate{m}\rotate{m}TSP\mirror{3}Al\rotate[rotation=270,location=high]{v}?
  

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You can rotate a long paragraph as well.

Location parameter

The influence of location= at different angles:

• \dostepwiserecurse{0}{359}{45}
     {\startlinecorrection[blank]
      \hbox
        {\expanded{\setuprotate[rotation=\recurselevel]}%
         \traceboxplacementtrue
         \hbox to .2\hsize{\hss\ruledhbox{\rotate[location=depth] {\ruledhbox{\bfb  (depth)}}}}%
         \hbox to .2\hsize{\hss\ruledhbox{\rotate[location=fit]   {\ruledhbox{\bfb    (fit)}}}}%
         \hbox to .2\hsize{\hss\ruledhbox{\rotate[location=broad] {\ruledhbox{\bfb  (broad)}}}}%
         \hbox to .2\hsize{\hss\ruledhbox{\rotate[location=normal]{\ruledhbox{\bfb (normal)}}}}%
         \hbox to .2\hsize{\hss\ruledhbox{\rotate[location=high]  {\ruledhbox{\bfb   (high)}}}}}
      \stoplinecorrection}
  

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Rotating Figures

The following code shows how the location parameter influences rotation with a frame:

\setupbodyfont[sans, 30pt]
\setuppagenumbering[location=,]
\showframe

\starttext
     \topskip4cm
        \dostepwiserecurse{0}{360}{10}{
\doloopoverlist{normal,default,depth,fit,broad,high,middle}{
\ruledhbox{\rotate[rotation=\recurselevel, location=\recursestring]{%
\framed
   [width=\textheight, height=\textwidth, rulethickness=5pt,
    depth=0cm, foregroundstyle=\bfd]
  {\recursestring, \recurselevel°}
            }
        }
    }
}
\stoptext

or, even nicer:

• \useMPlibrary[dum]
  \setupexternalfigures[width=4em,height=3em,frame=on,]
  \dostepwiserecurse{0}{359}{45}{{\bf\recurselevel˚}\quad
    \doloopoverlist{normal,depth,fit,broad,high,middle}{
      \dontleavehmode\ruledhbox{%
        \rotate[rotation=\recurselevel, location=\recursestring]{%
          \externalfigure[\recursestring]
        }%
      }%
    }\par
  }
  

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In a box

Depending on the usage you will sometimes probably want to include the content of what you wish to rotate into a box. Compare the following two examples:

• \setuplayout[width=3cm]
  \setuprotate[rotation=180,location=broad]
  
  a\rotate{e}i\par
  a\rotate{\hbox{e}}i
  

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Page dependent landscape figures

Sometimes, in a double-sided portrait document, you may wish to rotate a landscape figure so that the top is towards the spine of the book – no matter whether it’s on an odd or even page. In this case the \doifoddpageelse command can help:

\rotate[rotation=\doifoddpageelse{90}{270}]{\externalfigure[cow]}

This example is by Wolfgang, from the thread starting here. The thread contains other solutions to the problem.

Clipping

You can adjust the size of an element by cropping/clipping its borders:

• \clip[nx=3,ny=3,x=1,y=1]{\externalfigure[cow]}
  

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• \definedfont[SansBold at 20mm]
  \baselineskip 0pt % switch off the space between the stripes
  \lineskip 0pt
  \def\MyLogo{\vbox{\hbox{\CONTEXT}\null}} % null is necessary for the whole bounding box
  \clip[ny=3,y=1]{\color[yellow]{\MyLogo}}
  \clip[ny=3,y=2]{\color[orange]{\MyLogo}}
  \clip[ny=3,y=3]{\color[red]{\MyLogo}}
  

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And here’s how to cut out a piece by measures (see also \setupclipping and \clip):

• \clip[width=3cm, height=1cm, hoffset=1cm, voffset=5mm]{\externalfigure[cow][width=5cm]}
  

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Further reading

Graphic transformations are implemented in grph-trf.mkiv and grph-trf.lua.