Printing a Circle Using PostScript

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 13, 2023)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

If you are using a PostScript printer, you can use the Print field code to print a circle anywhere on the page. This field can be added anywhere within your document, and affects the current page only. If you want it to affect every page, you can place the field code in the header or footer. To make this work, you simply need to insert a pair of field braces in your document (by pressing Ctrl+F9), and then enter this information between the braces:

Print \p page " /Lsize 1 def /Left 5 def /Top 6.5 def
/Radius 2 def /BeginX Left 72 mul def /BeginY 11 Top
sub 72 mul def Lsize setlinewidth BeginX BeginY Radius
72 mul 0 360 arc stroke showpage "

This code should be entered within the field braces as one long line, without pressing Enter. To modify the size or position of the circle there are a few variables you can adjust. These are the values assigned to Lsize, Left, Top, and Radius. Lsize represents the thickness, in points, of the actual line used to draw the circle. The values right after the variable names Left and Top represent the position of the circle's center, in inches, from the left and top edges of the paper. The value after Radius represents the radius of the circle in inches.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (398) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Jumping to a Section

One way you can navigate through a document is to jump from section to section. Here's the traditional way to quickly get ...

Discover More

Saving a Document in a Macro

If you develop a macro to process your document, you may want the macro to save the document to disk. This is easily done ...

Discover More

Typing a Schwa Character in Excel

How you add special characters to Excel can differ from how you add them in other Office programs, such as Word. This tip ...

Discover More

The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2013. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2013 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (menu)

Working with Multiple Printers

Word does not keep printer information associated with documents. You can define a macro for each printer you use and put ...

Discover More

Dealing with the X of Y Bug

Have you ever printed a document, only to see that the page numbers are incorrect on the printout? If so, it could be due ...

Discover More

Canceling Printing

Need to stop the printing of a long document? Here's how to stop Word, along with why stopping Word may not be the only ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is four less than 4?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.