Directory macros/generic/shade

Copyright 1993, 2011 Peter Schmitt, schmitp7 at univie dot ac dot at

This shade package is released under the LaTeX Project Public License,
version 1, or (at your option) any later version.  It includes this
README, description.tex, shade.mf, shade.tex, and the derived file
description.pdf

Version 1 was released March 21, 1993.
License clarified in 2011.

A `frequently asked question' is for ways to produce shaded boxes.

Since the answers usually (just as recently) point either to PostScript
\special's, PiCTeX, PSTricks, etc. it seems that a `simpler' and easier to use version
is not readily available -- though I did not check this.

A small and simple approach to shaded boxes is the use of a special font
providing shaded rectangles, and some macros which automatically compose the
desired box from these characters.

Since, of course, the finest shading can be achieved by using single pixels
for the pattern, the best shading pattern is *device dependent*.
Furthermore, one generally defined shading pattern would imply the danger,
that - because of rounding errors - at the boundaries (between two of the
characters) `lines' would occur, and that the pattern would not look completely
uniform.  Consequently, since different fonts are to be used for different
printers, the dvi file is *device dependent* in this sense, too, though the
code - both for the macros and for the metafont description - is device
independent.