Laser-Lovers-Request@WASHINGTON.ARPA (Moderator) (02/09/86)
Info-Postscript for Laser Lovers Digest Saturday, February 8, 1986 6:17PM
Volume 1, Issue 8
Today's Topics:
Re: Error handler and timeout
Advanced LW info
Postscript font question.
Re: Postscript font question.
vgrind
Re: Advanced LW info
TranScript on a PDP11?
interactive Postscript interpreters...
Postscript Printer
LaserWriter font metrics
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Date: Sun, 26 Jan 86 15:47:09 est
From: Eric Gisin <egisin%waterloo.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA>
Subject: Re: Error handler and timeout
On a vms queue setup with
$ init/queue /sep=(reset=eof)/lib=apple
does write an EOF, but follows it with a FF.
The LaserWriter times out because it thinks a new job has started.
One way to fix it would be to write a printer symbiont (which should also
collect any output from job and mail it back to the submitter).
A kludgey fix might be something like this for the EOF sequence:
^D{currentfile read {pop} if quit} exec
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 28 Jan 86 12:31 EST
From: Hess@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA
Subject: Advanced LW info
Hope this isn't the N'th time you've seen this:
1) New LaserWriters have Postscript 25.0 in them, supposedly. 25.0
features a new data type, a packed array, which they appear to use in
the new font cacheing algorithm, which has a new partially-compressed
font state, as well as the original bitmap-generated state.
2) How to get a list of fonts out of the printer:
/foo 100 string def % scratch string
FontDirectory {pop ==} forall flush % simple font names in ROM
systemdict /filenameforall known % complex, font names in file system
{ (fonts/*) {dup length 5 sub 5 exch
getinterval =} foo filenameforall flush}
if
3) Just received the first issue of "Colophon" from Adobe Systems.
Looks real nice, although the information is a little straightforward
for true hackers. I suppose designers should look at it to learn what
Postscript hacking is all about, and hackers should look at it to see
how somebody designs a decent-looking newsletter.
Brian
All the information above is provided courtesy of some mailings which
Adobe Systems is doing to developers. Thanks, fellas!
------------------------------
From: Ken Serack <kens%tekecs.tektronix.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA>
Date: Tue, 28 Jan 86 08:28:45 PST
Subject: Postscript font question.
Problem: The Times-Roman font family on the Laser-Writer is smaller
than the other font families. This is not normally a problem
unless you need to mix families. When you mix Helvetica and
Times-Italic, the Times characters are about 1 point smaller.
In other words, How do I make one font print larger automatically?
I NEED to find a postscript fix for this problem. Would it be
possible to put some code in psdit.pro that would scale the
font up a certain amount? I would appreciate hearing from
anyone about this.
Ken Serack
Tektronix, Inc.
Wilsonville, OR.
tektronix!tekecs!kens
(503)685-2989
------------------------------
Date: 29 Jan 1986 1023-PST (Wednesday)
From: Brian Reid <reid@glacier>
Subject: Re: Postscript font question.
The usual solution adopted by graphic-arts professionals is to avoid
mixing Times and Helvetica in the same line; they are not in general
considered to be visually compatible.
The "size" of a font is only dimly related to the size of the
letterforms. The size of a font is the size, as measured by vernier
calipers, of the metal slug on which the letters were carved. A
10-point font has metal slugs that are 10 points high. In a font like
Baskerville, the 10-point lowercase letters are about 60% of the size
of the 10-point lowercase letters in, say, Optima.
One of the joys of PostScript printers is that they let you do anything
you want, even if you shouldn't. If you must put Times on the rack and
stretch it to be bigger than its natural size, you can use the
"makefont" operator to give it a Y-axis scaling that is larger than
its X-axis scaling. You could try this redefinition of "F", which
increases the vertical size by a factor of 1.1 while leaving the
horizontal size alone.
/TimesStretch [1 0 0 1.1 0 0] def
/F{fontheight 0 le {/fontheight fontsize def}if
fonts fontnum get fontsize point 0 0 fontheight point neg 0 0 m1 astore
fontslant 0 ne{1 0 fontslant tan 1 0 0 m2 astore m3 concatmatrix}if
fontnum ???? eq {TimesStretch m4 concatmatrix} if
makefont setfont .04 fontsize point mul 0 dround pop setlinewidth}def
Replace the ???? with the ditroff font number of Times Roman.
I really should ask you for some ID to make sure you are over 21 before
telling you how to do this. I think it's illegal in 13 states.
Brian
------------------------------
Subject: vgrind
Date: 29 Jan 86 23:03:06 JST (Wed)
From: Danny Braniss <danny%hugo%israel.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA>
We have a LaseWriter now for almost two months, and thoroughly enjoying it.
Does anyone out there have a program that does what vgrind tries to do, but
generate straight postscript?
Since we have 4.2Bsd, but are running a local version of a spooler, I had
to re-write most of the spooler stuff.
So far I have two problems:
1- It seems that when the LW is warming up, it sets DTR, but ignores data
sent to it (ie, does not send an XOFF), so that the first print out of the
morning goest into limbo. If this is correct, it seems that the fix will
to poll the LW till the 'idle' message is received.
2- i get random timeout messages, sometimes, with no apparent reason, and
i don't think i can blame it on the xon/xoff.
danny
------------------------------
Date: Monday, 3 February 1986 16:18:16
Subject: Re: Advanced LW info
From: "Cambridge Phoenix - CAM.PHX@CAM.ENG-ICF" <CET1%phoenix.cambridge.ac.uk@cs.ucl.ac.uk>
> 1) New LaserWriters have Postscript 25.0 in them, supposedly. 25.0
> features a new data type, a packed array, which they appear to use in
> the new font cacheing algorithm, which has a new partially-compressed
> font state, as well as the original bitmap-generated state.
Can anyone tell us more about this "packed array" business? Are we
to expect other changes to PostScript? Will we have to trade in our
PostScript Language Reference Manuals and buy new ones?
Chris Thompson
CET1%PHX.CAM.AC.UK@UCL-CS.ARPA
------------------------------
From: adobe!shore@glacier (Andrew Shore)
Date: 4 Feb 1986 1443-PST (Tuesday)
Subject: TranScript on a PDP11?
Anyone out there ported TranScript (all or part)
to a PDP11 (running 2.9BSD)?
If so, would you be willing to share your experiences
with another interested party? A potential customer
wants to know.
Thanks in advance,
--Andy Shore
Adobe Systems
------------------------------
Date: Tue 4 Feb 86 15:39:57-PST
From: William "Chops" Westfield <BILLW@SU-SCORE.ARPA>
Subject: interactive Postscript interpreters...
Are there any postscript interpreters than run on interactive
or semi-interactive devices like sun workstations or tecktronix
graphics emulators?
Thanks
Bill W
------------------------------
Date: Wed Feb 5 12:20:27 GMT+1:00 1986
From: mcvax!lasso!ralph@seismo.CSS.GOV (Ralph Sobek)
Subject: Postscript Printer
I've already sent the following message to the crowd at Info-1100@sumex-aim
so please excuse me if you get this twice. It seems that a reasonable
number of people are interested in the question.
Does there exist software on the Xerox 11xx to interface to a Postcript
laser printer? How well is it interfaced to Xerox's normal Impress/Scribe
software? If it exists, is it Public Domain? Who has it?
Thanks.
Ralph P. Sobek
UUCP: mcvax!inria!lasso!ralph
------------------------------
From: decwrl!allegra!utzoo!aesat!jalsop@glacier
Date: Thu, 6 Feb 86 23:07:29 pst
Subject: LaserWriter font metrics
I have the LaserWriter font metrics information on a Mac disk as included as
part of Inside LaserWriter. I would like to get the information onto my Unix
system for further processing; however I don't want to spend a whole evening
swapping disks on a single drive Mac in order to transfer them via MacTerminal.
Is there anyone out there (preferably close by), who has the info already on
a Unix system, and could mail it to me?
Please mail me, and I will get in touch with the closest respondent.
Thanks,
John Alsop @ AES Data Inc.
{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!aesat!jalsop
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