Make Forms for Grtex Answers
The procedure for printing answer forms on exam covers and scanning on
the copying machines requires printing a form and having its parameters
in a data file in a specific format. These are generated by the
makeforms
program. A number of forms
are available already, but if you wish to generate your own, you can use
makeforms
yourself. You need to
decide
- The number of multiple-choice questions
-
The number of numerical answer questions
-
Whether the form will be printed along the long edge or short edge
of the cover page, which determines the “height”,
though you can specify a different height if wanted. Note
“height” refers to the edge length regardless of
orientation, and “width” is the dimension of the
part of the answer sheet perpendicular to the edge.
Also
- Whether to make a form scanable by
scanExam
only or also by
formscanner
.
- Whether to use
bcd
encoding for
the student ID and exam code (the default) or spell it out in full decimal.
- Whether the multiple-choice answers are duotrigesimal or not
(default not --- normal one of five answers).
- What base name to use for the forms. The form will be
base
.ps
and the data file
will be base.dat
.
You will need a copy of
ps.incl
in the directory.
Then run makeforms
base
[options]
where [options] are
-fs | to include formscanner |
-di | to not use bcd |
-32 | to be duotrigesimal |
-do | to say okay to design by program |
-h height | to give height as option, ie.
length of edge |
-w width | the perpendicular length taken up by the answer
form |
-mc number | to specify number of MC questions |
-nq number | to specify number of numerical questions |
The last three will be prompted for if not given as options. Say yes
when asked if you want the program to design the form --- the alternative
has not been implemented.
Example: makeforms mc21f -fs -do -h 3300 -mc 21 -nq 0
Adjusting Dimensions
The postscript form base.ps
generated
will have a line of the form
%%BoundingBox: 95 0 360 207 % xmax is fake
Subtract the second number from the fourth and divide by 72. That must be
the dimension (in inches) specified by the epsfysize command in your
cover page.
The first number in the BoundBox may need to be adjusted to make the heavy
bar centered. Lowering the number by N moves the bar left N/300 inch.
When you insert this form into your cover page, make sure the length of
the heavy bar, in inches, multiplied by 300, is the last number in the
base.dat
file.
A collection of existing forms and their data files is
here.
It is important to visually check your cover page, as described
here.
Last modified: Mon Nov 18 10:49:20 2019