[reportlab-users] Y-axis pointing down?

[Tim Roberts]

Justin Fagnani-Bell wrote:

> Is there an easy way to get the Y axis to point down? (I want to  

> build my doc from the top down so it easily fits more than one paper  

> size).

>

> If I use a negative scaling factor then my string will draw upside down.

>

> I could always subclass canvas, but I was wondering if there was a  

> built-in way.

>   


There is a "bottomup" attribute in the canvas class constructor that
enables this.  Basically, it applies an extra [1 -1 0 0 0 0] transform
to every font you instantiate, so you can use a negative scale and still
see positive text.

However, if I may pontificate for a moment, you can still draw your
document from the top down without using this.  You just have to start
the Y coordinate at pagesize-margin and subtract instead of starting at
0+margin and counting up.  Starting at 0 doesn't relieve you of the
responsibility of worrying about page size; you still have to know where
the page ends, both horizontally and vertically.

-- 
Tim Roberts, timr at probo.com
Providenza & Boekelheide, Inc.