[net.sources] nroff to Post Script

steve@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU (Steven Sekiguchi) (03/06/86)

Does anyone out there in net land have a 4.2BSD lpr filter to convert
nroff/troff/ditroff to postscript? We are looking to buy a number of
Apple Laserwriters and are hopping to take advantage of their postscript
engines.
	Thanks,
	Steven Sekiguchi
	U.C. Berkeley ERL
	Berkeley, CA 94720 USA
	(415) 642-9157

	{ihnp4,hplabs}!ucbvax!steve

rynes@cwruecmp.UUCP (Edward M. Rynes Esq.) (03/07/86)

>
>Does anyone out there in net land have a 4.2BSD lpr filter to convert
>nroff/troff/ditroff to postscript? We are looking to buy a number of
>Apple Laserwriters and are hopping to take advantage of their postscript
>engines.
>

ditto

-- 

______________________________________________________________________________

Edward Rynes				|	    "Fixed on the front of her
Dept. of Computer Eng. and Science	|    Fassbinder face was the kind of a
Case Western Reserve University		|  smile that only a rather dull child
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______________________________________________________________________________

tsp@hadron.UUCP (T. Scott Pyne) (03/07/86)

[]
In article <12195@ucbvax> steve@ucbvax.UUCP writes:
> Does anyone out there in net land have a 4.2BSD lpr filter to convert
> nroff/troff/ditroff to postscript? We are looking to buy a number of
> Apple Laserwriters and are hopping to take advantage of their postscript
> engines.

There is a troff-to-PostScript postprocessor on the market, from a company
called Adobe Systems.  The product is named Transcript (tm) and appears to
be what you are looking for.  I have some propaganda from the company which
claims to be troff output via a Laserwriter and it looks good.  Since Post-
script is also an Adobe trademark I think it is a safe bet that they know
what they are doing.  DISCLAIMER:  I have *not* used this software, merely
seen the blurb, dated 1/85.  Anyway, the company's address:

	Adobe Systems Inc.
	1870 Embarcadero Road, Suite 100
	Palo Alto, CA  94303
	(415) 852-0271

The propaganda I have gives a list price of $495 (binary) or $1795 (source)
per CPU, or $2950 (source) for a site license.  Transcript  is claimed to
run under 4.2BSD.

A question:  has anyone on the net actually *used* this product?  We are
also considering the Laserwriter-with-Transcript as a reasonably-priced
high-quality output device, and would appreciate any firsthand knowledge.
Thanks in advance.

						Scott Pyne
						...!seismo!hadron!tsp

keith@cecil.UUCP (keith gorlen) (03/09/86)

>A question:  has anyone on the net actually *used* this product?  We are
>also considering the Laserwriter-with-Transcript as a reasonably-priced
>high-quality output device, and would appreciate any firsthand knowledge.

I have been using TranScript on a Masscomp running a UNIX System III
derivative for a couple of months and consider the site-wide source
license for $3000 a great bargain.  It works very nicely on ASCII files
and nroff output, but fouls up when using the Helvetica font family with
old troff.  The Times Roman family with old troff works fine however, so
that's what I use.  TranScript also runs under 4.2 and System V.

-- 
---
	Keith Gorlen
	Computer Systems Laboratory
	Division of Computer Research and Technology
	National Institutes of Health
	Bethesda, MD 20892
	phone:	(301) 496-5363
	uucp:	{decvax!}seismo!elsie!cecil!keith

asw@rlvd.UUCP (Antony Williams) (03/10/86)

In article <285@hadron.UUCP> tsp@hadron.UUCP (T. Scott Pyne) writes:
>
>There is a troff-to-PostScript postprocessor on the market, from a company
>called Adobe Systems.  The product is named Transcript (tm) and appears to
>be what you are looking for.  I have some propaganda from the company which
>claims to be troff output via a Laserwriter and it looks good.  Since Post-
>script is also an Adobe trademark I think it is a safe bet that they know
>what they are doing.  DISCLAIMER:  I have *not* used this software, merely

Adobe Systems defined the PostScript language, and wrote the interpreter
which resides in the laserwriter.

>
>A question:  has anyone on the net actually *used* this product?  We are
>also considering the Laserwriter-with-Transcript as a reasonably-priced
>high-quality output device, and would appreciate any firsthand knowledge.
>Thanks in advance.
>
We have been using TranScript with Laserwriters for about two months.
So far, it is excellent.  Quality is good, and the software works
fine.  There are of course a few minor bugs, but I have been able
to produce documents using DITroff, Pic, Tbl, Eqn etc
without getting bitten.


-- 
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jans@tekecs.UUCP (Jan Steinman) (03/10/86)

In article <285@hadron.UUCP> tsp@hadron.UUCP (T. Scott Pyne) writes:
>In article <12195@ucbvax> steve@ucbvax.UUCP writes:
>> Does anyone out there in net land have a 4.2BSD lpr filter to convert
>> nroff/troff/ditroff to postscript?
>
>There is a troff-to-PostScript postprocessor on the market, from a company
>called Adobe Systems... has anyone on the net actually *used* this product?

We have it running on a number of VAXen, under both 4.2 and UTek (Tektronix's
enhanced 4.2).  We also have it running on a large number of 6130s (Our 32016
Unix box) and 6210s (an internal use 32032 box).  It appears to work as
advertised.  The only drawback would be for high-volume shops: it is much
slower than, for instance, troff and an Imagen, but it's also a third of the
price!

mark@umcp-cs.UUCP (Mark Weiser) (03/11/86)

In article <285@hadron.UUCP> tsp@hadron.UUCP (T. Scott Pyne) writes:
>...
>A question:  has anyone on the net actually *used* this product?  We are
>also considering the Laserwriter-with-Transcript as a reasonably-priced
>high-quality output device, and would appreciate any firsthand knowledge.
>Thanks in advance.
>
>						Scott Pyne
>						...!seismo!hadron!tsp


I've used it, in the form it comes packaged with Sun's Laserwriter (which
is the same as Apple's).  Works fine on all the things I have tried it on,
including slides, weird tables, refer output, and ordinary large papers.
I've handed it only small eqn cases so far, which it did fine.

The sun version comes with other useful utilities which interface it
to the 4.2 lpr, print screen dumps, emulate a plotter, etc.  Don't know
if these are standard transcript.

The big problem is not transcipt's but the LaserWriter's: very slow
printing speed if there is anything complex happening.  As a personal
printer I am not at all annoyed at this.  I would not want this as a 
printer I had to share with many people, or under much use.
-mark
-- 
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CSNet:	mark@umcp-cs 	UUCP:	{seismo,allegra}!umcp-cs!mark
USPS: Computer Science Dept., University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742

dick@ucsfcca.UUCP (Dick Karpinski) (03/11/86)

In article <285@hadron.UUCP> tsp@hadron.UUCP (T. Scott Pyne) writes:
>
>A question:  has anyone on the net actually *used* this product?  We are

We have used TranScript to generate LaserWriter input from both the
4.2 BSD troff (for the C/A/T/) and for Tektronics graphics codes.
Both work pretty darn well.  The 300 dpi resolution is impressive
in light of the low cost of the entire system.  Sure beats dot matrix
printer plots and the very expensive (but high speed) 3800 laser
printer from IBM.  When you want publication quality, however, you
need higher resolution at about $30-40k in today's market.

Dick

-- 

Dick Karpinski    Manager of Unix Services, UCSF Computer Center
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jones@elrond.UUCP (03/13/86)

We use Transcript from Adobe, and are very happy with it.  The only problem
we have run into is that we must wrestle with the Mac users for the Laser
Writer. :-) 


-- 
Jan Jones

UUCP:			...decvax!savax! \
                                          elrond!jones
       	 ...{ihnp4|decvax|seismo}!terak! /

jhenry@randvax.UUCP (Jim Henry) (03/14/86)

We have used TranScript by Adobe extensively.  It is a good package and it
does everything you could reasonably expect to do with the LaserWriter
from a Unix system.