CPP = <# columns per page> {,<# cols in condensed mode>}
(Windows only, PASSTHROUGHpq must be off) The CPP (columns per page) parameter works in conjunction with the PITCH=AUTO option (see PITCHpq) to establish a suitable font width. Note that if any of the first fifteen lines of the file (not counting trailing spaces) are longer than the first parameter specified, the CPP value is automatically switched to the second parameter, or 132 (if no second parameter specified), in order to accommodate applications that use condensed print on some reports. For example, consider the following:
CPP = 80,140
If none of the first fifteen lines of the report are longer than 80 characters (not counting trailing spaces), then a font suitable for 80 characters across the page will be used. However, if any of those first fifteen lines exceeds 80 characters, then it will switch the entire report to a font suitable for 140 characters across the page.
You can also let A-Shell adjust the font size to handle whatever the longest of the first fifteen lines is (again, not counting trailing spaces), by using this syntax:
CPP = AUTO
Or, you can specify a fixed width for reports up to a certain size, and beyond that use the AUTO option:
CPP = 80,AUTO
This might make sense if you print reports with far fewer than 80 columns, which you didn’t want to come out in an extra large font (to expand all the way across the page), but for reports beyond 80 columns, you just wanted them to use whatever font size would fit across the page.
Notes
The main reason for specifying a "non-standard" second value in the CPP directive would be if for some reason your condensed (132 column) font were not quite small enough, resulting in a few columns being truncated. One typical case where this occurs is where a programmer took advantage of a 17 CPI condensed printing option to print 136 columns on an 8 inch line. By specifying a larger number of columns (e.g. 140), you will force a slightly smaller font to be used, eliminating the truncation problem. (This can also happen with printers having limited font scaling capability, although in that case, there’s no guarantee any particular size would have an effect.)
History
2009 December, A-Shell 5.1.1168: "*" (asterisk) is now treated as equivalent to "AUTO." For whatever reason, this was apparently a common mistake or misunderstanding, aggravated by the fact that anything other than "AUTO" or a number was effectively treated as 132 (making CPP=80,*) appear to work, until you tried a file with more than 132 columns. In addition to recognizing "*", essentially anything non-numeric now results in the equivalent of AUTO.
