Paper Size Presets

Something I hate doing is googling for common sizes and converting to/from various units, so I think it could be handy to have a simple way of starting from a ‘preset’.

const canvasSketch = require('canvas-sketch');

const settings = {
  ...canvasSketch.preset('A4')
};

Which leads to { units: 'cm', dimensions: [ 21, 29.7 ] }.

Could support:

• A1-8, B, C, D…
• letter
• legal
• tabloid
• postcard (4x6")
• business-card
• poster (18x24" according to Photoshop and this random site)

The object can be merged in with your settings using ... or Object.assign({}), and/or the function could also accept other values and merge them into the result:

const settings = canvasSketch.preset('a4', {
  animate: true, // a looping print
  units: 'in', // if you want to work in inches
});

If you pass in units it will do the conversion for you, so you can work in your preferred unit.

Could also support some web defaults like:

• 1080p, 720p, 480p, 320p, 240p

Which returns { units: 'px', dimensions: [ x, y ] }.

Questions:

• Is this too much scope creep? I don’t think so since the tool is aiming to be an all-around convenience for generative art and this seems like a common task.
• Is the above syntax clean/easy or is there another way the function should be imported and used?

[mattdesl]

I decided to go with { dimensions: 'A4' } since it’s simple for the end user. Also relevant now is orientation –

const settings = {
  dimensions: 'A4',
  units: 'in'
  orientation: 'landscape'
};

Added to docs:

Developing with Physical Units — Paper Size Presets

[fturcheti]

If I understand correctly, yes, that makes sense!