Sstrhsrtj

I want to fill a page with a single word or phrase repeated over and over and over again. I will then print out this page. For example,

documentclass[12pt]{article}



usepackage[margin=0.5in]{geometry}

usepackage{pgffor}



begin{document}

thispagestyle{empty}

pagestyle{empty}

setlength{parindent}{0cm}

defPhrase{Phrase to repeat }

defrepititions{400}%The issue is with the number 400.



foreach n in {0,...,repititions}{Phrase}

end{document}

However, I came up with the number 400 by trial and error. This is not really an issue, as I will print out the page so can just set the number repetition to be arbitrarily large. Rather, it is an annoyance.

So, my question is:

Is there a way to halt the loop at the end of a page, rather than coming up with the value 400 using trial and error?

The page builder is asynchronous and TeX doesn't have any clue where a page ends when typesetting a paragraph. Only when a paragraph has ended page breaking decisions are made.

My strategy is to build the gigantic paragraph in a box that's then compared to the desired text height. If it's still below it, a new box is prepared with more repetitions. When we have sufficient material (the page height plus three lines just to be sure), the box is split at the desired height and put on the current page.

documentclass[12pt]{article}



usepackage[

  margin=0.5in,

  heightrounded, % whole number of lines on the page

  showframe,     % just for the example

]{geometry}

usepackage{expl3}



ExplSyntaxOn

% faster than pgffor

cs_set_eq:NN repeatphrase prg_replicate:nn

ExplSyntaxOff



pagestyle{empty}

setlength{parindent}{0cm}



begin{document}



defPhrase{Phrase to repeat }

count255=200 % or anything that seems fit

loop

  typeout{Trying thecount255spacespace repetitions}

  setbox0=vbox{repeatphrase{count255}{Phrase}}

  ifdimht0<dimexprtextheight+3baselineskiprelax

  advancecount255 by 20

repeat



setbox0=vbox to textheight{

  vbadness=10000 % remove a spurious message

  vsplit0 to textheight

}

unvbox0



end{document}

The messages on the terminal and log file are

Trying 200 repetitions

Trying 220 repetitions

Trying 240 repetitions

Trying 260 repetitions

Trying 280 repetitions

Trying 300 repetitions

Trying 320 repetitions

The starting point is at 200, a rough estimate of what's needed (one could start from 1, but it doesn't seem meaningful).

Note that LaTeX has no public interface to vsplit, so we have to resort to lower level programming.

Here is a full expl3 version that's essentially the same. I just added a small flexibility to the interline skip for better filling the page.

documentclass[12pt]{article}



usepackage[

  margin=0.5in,

  heightrounded, % whole number of lines on the page

  showframe,     % just for the example

]{geometry}

usepackage{xparse}



ExplSyntaxOn

NewDocumentCommand{fillpage}{O{200}m}

 {

  clearpage

  egreg_fillpage:nn { #1 } { #2 }

  clearpage

 }



int_new:N l__egreg_fillpage_copies_int

box_new:N l__egreg_fillpage_box



cs_new_protected:Npn egreg_fillpage:nn #1 #2

 {

  int_set:Nn l__egreg_fillpage_copies_int { #1 }

  bool_do_until:nn

   {

    dim_compare_p:nNn { box_ht:N l__egreg_fillpage_box } > { textheight + 3baselineskip }

   }

   {

    typeout{Trying~int_eval:n { l__egreg_fillpage_copies_int }~repetitions}

    vbox_set:Nn l__egreg_fillpage_box

     {

      skip_set:Nn baselineskip { 1baselineskip plus 0.1pt }

      prg_replicate:nn { l__egreg_fillpage_copies_int } { #2 }

     }

    int_add:Nn l__egreg_fillpage_copies_int { 20 }

   }

  vbox_set_split_to_ht:NNn l__egreg_fillpage_box l__egreg_fillpage_box { textheight }

  box_use_drop:N l__egreg_fillpage_box

 }

ExplSyntaxOff



pagestyle{empty}

setlength{parindent}{0cm}



begin{document}



fillpage{Phrase to repeat }



end{document}

The command fillpage has an optional argument for setting the initial number of repetitions (default 200), so

fillpage[300]{Phrase to repeat }

would start from 300.

My solution does only one printing of repeated text in temporary box0. Then this box0 is vsplit to the current page.

The macro toendpage{repeated text} is provided. This macro fills the current page from current point (it is irrelevant if this is at the start of the page or in the middle of the page) to the end of the page.

The macro toendpage needs to do a calculation how much repetitions of the text we need. This number must be sufficiently great, so it is calculated as

(1.3 * hsize / width_of_the_text + 1) * lines_in_the_pagegoal

The macro follows:

newcounttmpnum

deftoendpage#1{par bgroup

   setbox0=hbox{#1}

   null nobreak vskip-baselineskip % we need to set pagegoal and set zero prevdepth

   dimen0=pagegoal

   dividedimen0 bybaselineskip

   tmpnum=dimen0                % tmpnum= number of lines in pagegoal

   dimen0=1.3hsize   

   dividedimen0 bywd0          % dimen0= number of text in 1.3hsize     

   advancedimen0 by1sp          % increased by one

   multiplydimen0 bytmpnum     % dimen0= number of repeats of the text

   tmpnum=0

   setbox0=vbox{null loop #1advancetmpnum by1 ifnumtmpnum<dimen0 repeat}

   vbadness=10000

   dimen0=pagegoal advancedimen0 by-pagetotal

   setbox0=vsplit0 todimen0    % vsplit to the end of the current page

   unvbox0

   vfilbreak egroup

}



Usage:        

toendpage{This is repeated text. }