[comp.sys.amiga] Vector & Jaggies

wizard@sosaria.UUCP (Chris Brand) (02/10/90)

In message-ID: <131511@sun.Eng.Sun.COM> fiddler@concertina.Sun.COM (Steve Hix)
writes:

>You still can't get away from the jaggies (unless you've got true vector
>output devices).  PostScript or not, the output from a laserprinter still
>has jaggies...albeit at 300 dpi.  Even a 2400bpi PostScript laser setter
>has jaggies.  You might need a microscope to see them.  But they're still
>there.
>
>Implies that at a certain level, the imperfection is good enough.
>

You're right. But even if you have true vector output devices (like a
Montage FR1 slide writer) you are still limited - the best film resolution is
about 3000x3000 points (Kodak Ektachrome). But who cares if you're limited
to THAT resolution? :-)

>Trouble comes when you try to set the lower bound of acceptability.  (The
>Amiga's best graphics modes haven't reached that lower limit yet, imo.
>But the cost of devices that currently do...)

Sure, not everybody can buy a Montage. But in the ms-dos world it's the
same, and yet there are lots of programs who can export vector graphics.
I hope ProDraw 2.0 will be usable....unlike v1.0.

What I'll try is to export a good business chart in The Advantage (as soon
as I get it) in Aegis Draw Plus format, convert it there into HPGL and
either take that into Harvard Graphics as a Lotus 123 graphics import or
send it directly to the slidewriter, who does HPGL files. We'll see if it
works.

>------------
>"...Then anyone who leaves behind him a written manual, and likewise
>anyone who receives it, in the belief that such writing will be clear
>and certain, must be exceedingly simple-minded..."   Plato, _Phaedrus_
                                                      ^^^^^
Good philosophical taste!



--
------------------------------------
Chris Brand - wizard@sosaria.imp.com
"Justice is the possession and doing 
of what one is entitled to" - Platon
------------------------------------

fiddler@concertina.Sun.COM (Steve Hix) (02/13/90)

In article <02254.AA02254@sosaria>, wizard@sosaria.UUCP (Chris Brand) writes:
> 
> You're right. But even if you have true vector output devices (like a
> Montage FR1 slide writer) you are still limited - the best film resolution is
> about 3000x3000 points (Kodak Ektachrome). But who cares if you're limited
> to THAT resolution? :-)

I assume that you're talking about 1" x 1" piece of Ektachrome...(we'll ignore
the fact that film resolution is more typically measured in terms of line pairs
resolved per millimeter, measured at something like 50% (or 70% or 80%...)
contrast.)

Get a bigger negative, and you need more points.  (Which is why I'm looking for
a view camera again.  35mm *used* to be good enough.)

There are several films that can beat the daylights out of Ektachrome (not to
mention having better color characteristics.  Most of them being non-Kodak
products. Ahem. ), such as Kodachrome 25, or any number of astrophotographic
or microfilm emulsions.  Two or three or more times the resolution.

On the other hand, Ektachrome does the job just fine for a lot of people.

Just how low an image resolution is effectively indistinguishable from
"perfect".  (Sit back and watch the flames burn brightly. :} )

And remember that what *used* to be better than adequate will become unacceptable
as people's expectations increase.

------------
"...Then anyone who leaves behind him a written manual, and likewise
anyone who receives it, in the belief that such writing will be clear
and certain, must be exceedingly simple-minded..."   Plato, _Phaedrus_