[comp.text] Yet another dvi2lj!

nspl@olivee.olivetti.com (Riccardo Mazza) (11/22/89)

For whom it may interest:

        Yet another dvi2lj filter. I have been holding out
        on these sources for a long time because I didn't
        have time to go through all the steps to "officially"
        submit to some ".sources" group these sources. Since
        it has been more than half a year that we are using
        this filter, and I probably will never find the time,
        Here are the sources, which should work well for
        UNIX targets for a laserjet printer.

        They can be found in compressed and uncompressed
        forms using (anonymous ftp):
                129.189.192.20                (orc.olivetti.com)

                pub/tmp/laserjet.tar
                pub/tmp/laserjet.tar.Z

        A few notes:
            * First and most important. I take little credit.
              As you will see in the README's, it is based
              on the umd libraries found under the official
              TeX release of DVIware. It began as a hack of
              the "imagen" filter, and the "imagen" skeleton
              is still visible. So again, I give all credit
              to umd. Included in the "tar" is their libraries,
	      one or two things have been modified if I remember
	      correctly (but very slightly).

            * Second. Do what you like with these sources.

            * Third. Obviously no guarantee.

            * Fourth. Let me know what you think.

            * Fifth. Some Features:
                Some extra features which this has includes:
                    * landscape mode
                    * "softfont" unloading/loading (e.g. allows
                        you to have more than 16? (or is it 32) fonts
                        per document which the HP seems to limit.
                    * -J option which indicates to use "x escapement"
                       instead of tfmwidth. Useful for strange "pk"s
                       (Yes, they exist).
                    * \special{xxx}. I implemented it in a very
                      Unix-like manner. The string "xxx" will be
                      passed of the "system" and the output goes
                      into the document. With the extra feature
                      that $x and $y in the string expands to the
                      current x/y coordinates.

            * Sixth. Extra goodies.
                * pk2tfm. Ever find a ".pk" without a ".tfm". Lets
                  not ask where you got it, but this program creates
                  a "usable" ".tfm".

                * faces. Reads the "usenet" sun bitmap faces files
                  and creates hp laser-ready output. Cute inside
                  a \special.

                * hp-pcl. Another filter, fairly delicate, but
                  easy to modify, which reads hp-pcl descriptions
                  changing cursor motions to absolute motions allowing
                  one for example, to include drawings from PC tools
                  in a TeX document via \special, using the $x/$y
                  expansions telling where to relocate the design.

            * Seventh. Some examples. 


	    Good luck.
        
Jon Zaid, Ivrea, Italy (39 125 52 8565)
Please respond to uucp addresses below instead of arpa address in news
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