milo@ndmath.UUCP (03/30/87)
Recently, I got a program which takes a data file with an 8-bit greyscale picture in it, converts it and downloads it to a laserwriter for halftone output. The program was called "halftone". I have a little problem though...the program seems a lot slower than it should be. It takes about 20 minutes to get a halftone of a 420x320 (130K) file, larger files take up to an hour. For some reason this doesn't seem right since the program only has to send some postscript "image" operator setup commands then a copy of the datafile. It seems like transfering a 130k file shouldn't take more than a few minutes at Appletalk speed (the Mac and LaserWriter are the only things on the cable). Any idea what the holdup might be? If it sounds like the problem is in the halftone program I could write my own...but if it is natural for the transfer of a 130k halftone and it's processing to take that long then I don't want to waste my time. Greg Corson 19141 Summers Drive South Bend, IN 46637 (219) 277-5306 (weekdays till 6 EST)
olson@endor.UUCP (03/30/87)
In article <203@ndmath.UUCP> milo@ndmath.UUCP (Greg Corson) writes: >Recently, I got a program which takes a data file with an 8-bit greyscale >picture in it, converts it and downloads it to a laserwriter for halftone >output. The program was called "halftone". > >I have a little problem though...the program seems a lot slower than it should >be. It takes about 20 minutes to get a halftone of a 420x320 (130K) file, >larger files take up to an hour. For some reason this doesn't seem right since >the program only has to send some postscript "image" operator setup commands >then a copy of the datafile. It seems like transfering a 130k file shouldn't >take more than a few minutes at Appletalk speed (the Mac and LaserWriter are >the only things on the cable). There's more than one way to print a greyscale. Some programs (like greypaint) actually image the greyscale into a bitmap, and download that. Look at the output of Halftone by holding F after clicking OK in the print dialog (this creates the file PostScript in the current directory). I have been printing many 4-bit 512 X 512 images on a LaserWriter Plus: they take about 1.5 minutes to image and print. I tried an 8 bit image too, and it wasn't a lot slower. I think the older Laserwriter (which has an older PostScript interpreter) is a little slower, but not as much as you have found. -Eric