jgotobed@lpl.arizona.edu (Joe Gotobed x4549) (10/25/90)
I'm looking for a program that will convert a Postscript file to a raster file, either bitmapped, greyscale or rgb tuples. We have a Matrix QRZ film writer attached to a Sun and drive it with our own software that reads in raster files. I want to be able to send files to it from our PC applications like Micro- Grafix Designer & Apple's Mac-Draw. Postscript is a format all of these applications can write so the idea at this point is to use a package that reads Postscript files and generates a raster file for the QRZ. Naturally we'll have to scale it appropriately for the resolution of the Filmwriter and such. I was hoping I could find a display postscript program and change the part that writes to the frame buffer to write to a file in- stead. Could anyone suggest some source code to start with, or even a commercial product? I just hauled in a copy of ghostscript-2.0 is that a good start or am I way off the nut? In the long run want the sun to provide a "print queue" to the network that the PCs can send their postscript files to. This queue will then run the PS files through the filter to generate a raster file for the QRZ and call the driver to load it & expose the film. Any comments and suggestions on this approach or an alternate method would be greatly appreciated. I'll be happy to summarize to the net later. Thanks Joe ------------------------------------------------- Joe Gotobed (joe@arizona.edu) Network & Systems Manager Lunar and Planetary Laboratory University of Arizona Tucson, AZ 85721 (602) 621-4549
fgreco@dprg-330.GOVt.shearson.COM (Frank Greco) (10/25/90)
> > I'm looking for a program that will convert a Postscript file to > a raster file, either bitmapped, greyscale or rgb tuples. > > We have a Matrix QRZ film writer attached to a Sun and drive it > with our own software that reads in raster files. I want to be > able to send files to it from our PC applications like Micro- > Grafix Designer & Apple's Mac-Draw. Postscript is a format all of > these applications can write so the idea at this point is to use > a package that reads Postscript files and generates a raster file > for the QRZ. > > I was hoping I could find a display postscript program and change > the part that writes to the frame buffer to write to a file in- > stead. Could anyone suggest some source code to start with, or > even a commercial product? > Use the NeWS features of Sun's X/NeWS server to rasterize the Postscript. Piece of cake. Look up writecanvas in the NeWS docs. Some of my colleagues have used this and a public domain CCITT G3/G4 implementation to create a little FAX server. > ------------------------------------------------- > Joe Gotobed (joe@arizona.edu) > Network & Systems Manager > Lunar and Planetary Laboratory > University of Arizona > Tucson, AZ 85721 (602) 621-4549 > Kinda funny that as I got your posting, my root window is the X fullmoon bitmap, my cursor is a rocket ship and I have a NeWS canvas with the image of Saturn all on my screen... Could it be Sunspots? ;-> Frank G.