tp@mccall.com (Terry Poot) (03/26/91)
OK, if you can't find what you want, you lower your sights and try again. It appears nobody has a postscript interpreter that will drive a Versatec 7444 plotter directly. OK, I can do the back end. Does anyone know of a postscript interpreter (commercial is OK, I don't think there are any free ones) that can produce a raw bitmap, or something similar that I can decode? It must have the following attributes: 1) Must be able to handle a 44" by 86" by 400dpi raster image. 2) Must do "pro" quality text (i.e. make full use of font hinting). I prefer something that runs on VAX/VMS, but will consider all other platforms. I know about ghostscript, but it doesn't do font hints and is thus not good enough. I know about CAI, and am talking to them. I also know about NeWSPrint on a Sun, and am talking to them also. I'd like to be able to evaluate other alternatives as well. Also, I'd really like to find a VAX/VMS solution, as it would save me having to deal with multiple OS's, multiple networking technologies, and all those other hassles that run up the price and make configuring it non-trivial. -- Terry Poot <tp@mccall.com> The McCall Pattern Company (uucp: ...!rutgers!ksuvax1!deimos!mccall!tp) 615 McCall Road (800)255-2762, in KS (913)776-4041 Manhattan, KS 66502, USA
tp@mccall.com (Terry Poot) (03/26/91)
In article <1991Mar25.151043@mccall.com>, I write: >[requirements for a postscript interpreter] I'm getting a few of the same questions on my requirements from several people, so I thought I'd post a bit more info. >1) Must be able to handle a 44" by 86" by 400dpi raster image. First, this is black and white only, graphics and text, fairly sparse compared to a lot of applications (if you've ever seen our patterns, there is quite a bit of white space there). Second, it is a minimum. What I'd really like is 44" by 106", which is what I do now. I could reduce it to 86" fairly easily, anything below that is difficult. >2) Must do "pro" quality text (i.e. make full use of font hinting). I have to do text as small as 6 point at arbitrary sizes and _rotations_. I've been told this is a pretty demanding requirement. Of course I don't care if hints or something else is used, but the text has to look good under those conditions (remember, that's 6 point at 400 dpi, which is about equivalent to 8 point at 300 dpi, as far as the difficulty of doing it). >I prefer something that runs on VAX/VMS, but will consider all other >platforms. My preferences are VMS, DEC unix machine, other unix machine, anything else, in that order. Don't be shy, I'll consider anything. (No flames please, I only said DEC unix because they've gone to some trouble to make it easy to use them with VMS, and the fewer hassles I have to deal with (like another vendor), the more I like it; this is only a small part of my current project, and I don't have time to make a career out of solving it). -- Terry Poot <tp@mccall.com> The McCall Pattern Company (uucp: ...!rutgers!ksuvax1!deimos!mccall!tp) 615 McCall Road (800)255-2762, in KS (913)776-4041 Manhattan, KS 66502, USA
maguire@cs.columbia.edu (Gerald Q. Maguire) (03/27/91)
You can use the ScriptWorks interpreter from: Harlequin Limited Barrington Hall Barrington Cambridge England CB2 5RG ;phone[+44 223-872522] ;net: ai@uk.co.harlqn when used with the DFI laser amp interface (from: DFI, Ltd. DFI House Folly Gate Okehampton Devon EX20 3AF ENGLAND ;phone[+44 (0837) 52055] ;fax[+44 (0837) 52462] ) the interpeter can dump bitmaps for a page - which the memory mapped laser printer prints. I have see this used for A4 and B3 sized pages with several different engines. There is no reason that the program can not generate larger bitmaps. You can also tell the interpreter to simply dump the bitmap to a file - which is very easy to output on what ever device you want [it is certainly easy to output to a Versatec]. Chip
maguire@cs.columbia.edu (Gerald Q. Maguire) (03/27/91)
I should have indicated in my earlier posting that the Harlequin interpreter runs on a number of boxes - but I have seen it running on the SUN3, SUN4, and SUN386i [it seems to take about 1 day to port the code to a new machine if there is a C compiler]. Harlequin needs to have access to the machine for porting. Chip