PunchedCard

Creating IBM 80-column Punched Cards using Laser Printer and Laser Cutter.

The idea came when somebody at the 'Vintage Computer Festival Zurich' showed me the Virtual Keypunch (by mass:werk) to visualize young Java-Programmers how much data for a SOAP-Request/-Response is sent.

Here is a sample Punched Card:

mass:werk is offering some other Punched Card Services:

• Virtual Card Read-Punch
• Punch Card Sampler
• Font Editor for IBM 026 or IBM 029 and 129

And a nice documetation about Punched Card Typography — IBM 026, 029, 129.

Script

In order to create your own punched cards you need to have access to:

• (Laser-)Printer
• Laser Cutter or an Scan and Cut Machine (like the Borther ScanNCut)

If you are a Linux or MacOSX user you may use this script without additional software. Depending on your laser cutter software or printer you may require a postscript converter such as Ghostscript on Linux, Preview on MacOSX or any other Vector Graphics Editor. Windows user may use an virtual machine running Linux or use something like Cygwin.

Script Usage

The Shell-Script in this repository generates postcript file(s) form a text input file.

host:user$ ./punchcard.sh -h
usage: ./punchcard.sh [options]

options are:
 -i <file>      # input file name containing text
 -I <file>      # input file name containing image
 -c <code>      # card coding (default: IBM029)
 -C <corners>   # card corners (default: Left)
 -S             # change from round to square corners
 -t <type>      # card type (default: IBM5081)
 -p <pagesize>  # set output pagesize (default: A4)
 -o <outfile>   # output base file name (default: punchcard)
 -s             # split output
 -D             # output is for documentation
 -a <type>      # align type between printer and lasercutter (none, cross or lshape default: none)
 -h             # this help text

host:user$

See the currently implemented card types, card corners, card codes and image input format. You may use 'A4', 'Letter' or 'Legal' as page size.

Examples

Here are some examples:

• Text Single Output
• Text Split Output
• Image Heart

Sample Workflow

Here are two examples of an workflow.

Single output

This might be an workflow for a single output:

1. create input text file and process it with the script
2. Print the multi page single file (if required: convert it first)
3. Scan and cut it using a machine like the Brother ScanNCut

Split output

This might be an workflow for a split output:

1. create input text file and process it with the script using the '-s' option to create a split output.
2. Print the multi page single printer-file (if required: convert it first)
3. Import the single page single cutter-file into your laser-cutter software (if required: convert it first) and cut the corresponding printed page.

Details, Hints, Tips and Tricks

• Align Printer and Cutter Coordinates
• Card Dimensions

More information about Punched Cards

There is more information about puched cards here: ReadMore.md