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!steverynes@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 Cleveland, Ohio 44106 | could have drawn while attempting ...!decvax!cwruecmp!rynes | a graveyard at night!" rynes@case.csnet (216) 368-6471 | Roger Waters ______________________________________________________________________________
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. -- --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tony Williams |Informatics Division UK JANET: asw@uk.ac.rl.vd |Rutherford Appleton Lab Usenet: {... | mcvax}!ukc!rlvd!asw |Chilton, Didcot ARPAnet: asw%rl.vd@ucl-cs.arpa |Oxon OX11 0QX, UK
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 -- Spoken: Mark Weiser ARPA: mark@maryland Phone: +1-301-454-7817 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 UUCP: ...!ucbvax!ucsfcgl!cca.ucsf!dick (415) 476-4529 (12-7) BITNET: dick@ucsfcca Compuserve: 70215,1277 Telemail: RKarpinski USPS: U-76 UCSF, San Francisco, CA 94143
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.