warner@unc.cs.unc.edu (Byron Warner) (02/10/88)
I propose to upload Geopaint files to my school's Vax. Then download them to to a Mac and have them Laserprinted Does any one know how to convert a Geopaint file to a format compatible with MacPaint or SuperPaint? ___________________________________________________________________ | Byron Warner | CSNET: warner@unc.cs.unc.edu| | UNC Computer Science Dept. | ARPA : warner!unc@mcnc | | Chapel Hill, NC 27514 | | \------------------------------------------------------------------/
prindle@NADC.ARPA (Frank Prindle) (02/11/88)
I have successfully uploaded a GeoWrite 2 file to a VAX and then sent it off
to an Apple Laser Writer (the file included graphics). This was done by
logging in to the VAX before bringing up GEOS and setting up a text capture
situation at the VAX end. Then GEOS was brought up and the GeoLaser application
was used (at 1200 baud) to translate the GeoWrite 2 file to postscript
and transmit the postscript text to the VAX via the modem. Lastly, leaving
GEOS and re-running a terminal program to close out the text capture is
required. At this point, if no noise or other communication errors occurred,
the Postscript file at the VAX end may be sent directly to an Apple Laser
Writer.
There are several problems with this scheme:
a. Sending a text stream is not a very reliable way to upload data - a protocol
such as Kermit or Xmodem would ensure that the file was not corrupted
during transmission and alleviate worries about flow control on a busy
VAX (or other host). GeoLaser was meant to talk *directly* to the printer.
b. The output from GeoLaser contains arbitrarily long text lines and an
occasional ^D control character, so one needs a somewhat intelligent
capture program on the VAX end to inhibit logoff or flow control.
c. To do the same thing with a GeoPaint file, you would first have to import
the entire paint image into a GeoWrite 2 file. GeoPaint currently doesn't
seem to let you cut more than a screen full of picture to a photo scrap,
so there is no easy way to do this.
The ideal way to do this would require another application which would directly
translate GeoPaint files to either Postscript (or, if you want to put a MAC
into the loop, to MacPaint) file. Then upload the file using Kermit etc...
There might not be substantial motivation to do this however: while a GeoWrite
file will look substantially better when printed on a Laser Writer (because of
the use of resident fonts and scaled down non-resident fonts), a GeoPaint file
is only going to look marginally better than on a dot matrix printer, since
it's resolution will not be improved (i.e. still 80 dots per inch horizontal
by 72 dots per inch vertical) even though the Laser Writer can achieve 300 dpi.
The Laser Writer does produce blacker, squarer, more uniform dots, which will
account for some improvement; and, of course, the Laser Writer can scale a
picture down to a smaller piece of paper for improved apparent resolution.
Sincerely,
Frank Prindle
Prindle@NADC.arpaBrendan@cup.portal.com (02/11/88)
I believe that there are a few public domain programs that convert from
GEOS to MACpaint & vice versa...it is in GEnie's Commodore RoundTable, the
last time I checked...if you subscribe to GEnie check it out, or ask a
friend with an account if they'd spend the 2 mins to download it for you..
Brendan Kehoebjh@mtgzz.UUCP (XMRN40000[tls]-b.j.hudson) (02/11/88)
In article <1108@thorin.cs.unc.edu>, warner@unc.cs.unc.edu (Byron Warner) writes: > I propose to upload Geopaint files to my school's Vax. > Then download them to to a Mac and have them Laserprinted The geoPaint file format is not the same as documented for photoscraps. The data compression algorithm is different and the data is by cards, not just raster scan. After figuring it out on my own, I found out that it is documented in files available from Q-Link. I upload geoPaint files to the mainframe and convert them directly to a bitmap image for the QMS laser printer. The format for the HP Laserjet or Postscript must be similar. Note that this will not work for geoWrite docs because the fonts are not part of the geoWrite data file. >> Does anyone have a Publaser printer driver that redirects printer output to a disk file. This way if you do not have a Postscript printer directly attached to your C-64, you can upload a file to a mainframe and then send it to a printer. ......BJ