almquist@cis.udel.edu (Squish) (02/25/91)
I recently posted a request to the net and these are the following replies I got - that is if anyone is interested: |From: pdbourke@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz |Subject: Re: Looking for a gif to hpgl converter | |Regarding GIF to HPGL, you do realise that GIF is a bitmap format |and HPGL is a plotter language, ie: something that likes to draw lines |primarily. There are no primitives in HPGL for bitmaps! | |That is not to say that such a converter does not exist. I have written |such a thing that takes Macintosh PICT bitmaps and created plot files. |This is done by drawing each pixel in the bitmap as a rectangle in |HPGL and then fill in the rectangle in some way for the black parts. |The result is very large files and not very good results on a plotter. |From: Andy Sun Anu-guest <sun@me.utoronto.ca> |Subject: Re: Looking for a gif to hpgl converter | |I am not sure if this beast exists at all. GIF is a raster representation |and HPGL is a point-to-point graphics language. You are asking for something |to convert raster image to vector form, which is unlikely to exist. PostScript |is a different story because PostScript itself supports raster images. So basically, it don't look good. BUMMER. Why is it that HP has to make such a pain-in-da-a** standard? What I wanted to do was make fractal wallpaper. I've got access to a HPGL electrostatic plotter that can produce 15' prints. It would've been fun to dump gif to hpgl to plotter. The plotter doesn't like DOS HPGL format and I can't find a proper unix filter for it. Oh well, I'll keep looking. Thanks anyways. - Mike Almquist (almquist@cis.udel.edu)
gt4512c@prism.gatech.EDU (BRADBERRY,JOHN L) (02/25/91)
In article <45687@nigel.ee.udel.edu> almquist@cis.udel.edu (Squish) writes: >I recently posted a request to the net and these are the following replies I >got - that is if anyone is interested: > >So basically, it don't look good. BUMMER. Why is it that HP has to make such >a pain-in-da-a** standard? What I wanted to do was make fractal wallpaper. I think it's a bit unfair to flame HP here because of a basic conflict in the graphic image 'standards'. You must understand that HPGL was in existance in a 'vector plotting from' while Postscript was still a 'wet dream'. Just as sophisticated GUI interfaces have eclipsed older and more bland operator interfaces, vector based graphics (at least hard copy capability) is an older form and serves other purposes. There are still many appliactions where 'pen drawing' is the best method of graphical reproduction. HPGL was not designed to reproduce a 300X200X256 color image! -- John L. Bradberry |Georgia Tech Research Inst|001100110011001100110011 Scientific Concepts Inc. |Microwaves and Antenna Lab|Int : gt4512c@prism 2359 Windy Hill Rd. 201-J|404 528-5325 (GTRI) |GTRI:jbrad@msd.gatech. Marietta, Ga. 30067 |404 438-4181 (SCI) |'...is this thing on..?'