hi@Portia.Stanford.EDU (Mustafa YILMAZ) (12/30/88)
Is there a (draw-type) program which creates a PostScript file ? I need to capture the PostScript file. mustafa YILMAZ mustafa@ararat.Stanford.EDU
gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu (12/31/88)
The nice thing is, any program that prints to the imagewriter can
produce postscript. If you need special effects, then look at Cricket
Draw, Adobe Illustrator, or Aldus Freehand.
Here is the procedure I use to print out macintosh files on the (U of
Illinois C.S.) department's imagen printers, which have recently been
upgraded to print in postscript (ultrascript). This procedure also
tells how to generate postscript files:
1. Configure your machine to generate postscript files (Do this ONCE)
Make sure you have the file "Laser Prep" in your system folder, and
also "Laserwriter". Then go to the chooser, tell it you have
appletalk hooked up, and select the laserwriter icon. This might make
your word processor (MS-Word) slightly reformat documents to reflect
the formatting peculiarities of a laserwriter. It does nothing to
MacDraw/MacPaint diagrams.
Note: Use the old (System 5.2) drivers/icons -- NT/NTX icons &
laserprep files don't seem to work.
2. Make a "postscript" file
Go into your application, select "Print", and once you've filled out
the printing sheet, clicked "OK", then QUICKLY hold down command-F to
generate a postscript file. There should be an alert box saying
something like "Generating Postscript file" displayed. After, there
should be a text file called "PostScript0" in your application folder.
You can open it with MS-Word of Macwrite if you want to look at it.
The next file generated will be called "PostScript1" and so on unless
you delete older files..
This file DOES NOT include the laserprep preamble, which teaches
non-Apple printers (like Imagen, etc) some Quickdraw macros. To
get the (28K) laserprep preamble, use command-K instead of command-F.
So if your printer IS NOT apple, use command-K instead
I have stored a copy of Laserprep on our pyramid computer, to avoid
uploading it frequently.
3. Upload the file to the departmental computers
Log in, and upload the file in image form. I use Red Ryder 9.4
kermit because I have trouble with XModem & Red Ryder 9.4. I type
"macprint" to the Pyramid, then go to RR 9.4 & select Kermit
Send, and select "Postscript0" or whatever. Here is the UNIX
4.2BSD script for my "macprint" command:
# file "macprint" -- make protection 700 (rwx) -- executeable
kermit -ki > /tmp/postscript$$
cat ~gillies/misc/laserprep /tmp/postscript$$ > /tmp/prout$$
ipr -P2 -Lultrascript /tmp/prout$$ ; sleep 10 ; ipq &
# end of macprint
If you used command-K, then it unnecessary to concatenate your
file with the "laserprep" file.
I have modified this script to (hopefully) work for everyone on the
pyramid. If you use another upload program, make sure to transmit the
file in binary mode -- Ultrascript wants to see ^M as line
terminators. If your file isn't full of these ^M's, then it probably
won't print.
4. Wait for the file to print
Postscript files take a long time to print -- about 1 minute/page for
complicated structured graphics (MacDraw). If there is an error in
your file, normally postscript detects it quickly & flushes your job.
I put in the "sleep 10; ipq &" statement to can see the job is at the
printer. It should stay in the queue for a couple of minutes --
otherwise, it's probably been flushed with an error.
It takes 5-10 minutes to upload a file, but most of the time you only
do this once or twice, since most programs have an accurate Previewer
and revisions are rarely needed. I take a coffee break (or go to
sleep) while it's uploading.
Don Gillies, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Illinois
1304 W. Springfield, Urbana, Ill 61801
ARPA: gillies@cs.uiuc.edu UUCP: {uunet,harvard}!uiucdcs!gilliessbb@esquire.UUCP (Stephen B. Baumgarten) (01/04/89)
In article <76000326@p.cs.uiuc.edu> gillies@p.cs.uiuc.edu writes: > This file DOES NOT include the laserprep preamble, which teaches > non-Apple printers (like Imagen, etc) some Quickdraw macros. To > get the (28K) laserprep preamble, use command-K instead of command-F. > > So if your printer IS NOT apple, use command-K instead A small correction: The LaserPrep file is needed for *all* PostScript printers, regardless of whether they're made by Apple. -- Steve Baumgarten | "New York... when civilization falls apart, Davis Polk & Wardwell | remember, we were way ahead of you." cmcl2!esquire!sbb | esquire!sbb@cmcl2.nyu.edu | - David Letterman