[comp.sys.sgi] Screen dump

swenson@NUSC-WPN.ARPA (05/03/89)

Greetings,

	I would like to perform a screen dump from a 4D-60T to a file in
PostScript format to be sent to an Apple (alias Sun) LaserWriter printer.
I would like at least 16 (probably dithered) grey levels and the option to
select seperate windows or the entire screen to be dumped.  Am I in the
land of fantasy?  I would appreciate any suggestions on this subject.
Thanks.

				Steve Swenson
				SWENSON@NUSC-WPN.ARPA
------

glennrp@BRL.MIL (Glenn Randers-Pehrson, WMB) (05/04/89)

 > From: swenson@NUSC-WPN.ARPA
 > Subject: Screen Dump.
 > 
 > 	I would like to perform a screen dump from a 4D-60T to a file in
 > PostScript format to be sent to an Apple (alias Sun) LaserWriter printer.
 > I would like at least 16 (probably dithered) grey levels and the option to
 > select seperate windows or the entire screen to be dumped.  Am I in the
 > land of fantasy?  I would appreciate any suggestions on this subject.
 > Thanks.
 > 
	I've done it on a 2500T and 3130, in FORTRAN, 2 levels.  It uses
a run-length encoding of scan-lines  to save space.  I will
soon be porting the code to a 4D/220GTX.  If this is what you want, you
may have the source.  I have also done a QMS-QUIC screen dump, which
usually takes about 1/5 the disc space of the PostScript file.

Glenn Randers-Pehrson, US Army Ballistic Research Lab <glennrp@brl.mil>

DMLAUR@pucc.Princeton.EDU (David M. Laur) (05/05/89)

In article <8905030950.aa10952@SMOKE.BRL.MIL>, swenson@NUSC-WPN.ARPA writes:

>        I would like to perform a screen dump from a 4D-60T to a file in
>PostScript format to be sent to an Apple (alias Sun) LaserWriter printer.
>I would like at least 16 (probably dithered) grey levels and the option to
>select seperate windows or the entire screen to be dumped.  Am I in the
>land of fantasy?  I would appreciate any suggestions on this subject.
>Thanks.
>                                Steve Swenson
>                                SWENSON@NUSC-WPN.ARPA


If you get the  "Laser Printer Software Option" and the Transcript
package (from AT&T via SGI), then you can print IRIS/4D screendumps
directly to a PostScript printer using "lp".

Use the program "/usr/sbin/scrsave" to capture some or all of the
current screen into an SGI-format image file, the simply "lp"
the file.  The print spooling software converts the image to
PostScript commands and sends them to the printer.  If you want to
capture the intermediate PS code, you can run the converter manually,
it's called "/usr/lib/print/pprint".

The Laser Printer Option + Transcript is a very useful collection
of tools to have around anyway, for converting Troff source to PS etc.

Be prepared, however, to wait a while for full screen dumps to print.
The PostScript code generated by "pprint" uses the native PS operator
"image" which converts grey level values in the range 0-255 into
dithered/scaled/translated bitmaps (0/1) **in the printer**.  This
compute intensive operation combined with the data transfer time
for a 1280x1024 image can result in print times of 20-50 minutes!
(on an Apple LaserWriter Plus).


+---------------+   David Laur
| "a bizarre    |   Princeton University
|  underwater   |   Interactive Computer Graphics Lab
|  scenerio..." |   Internet: dmlaur@magritte.princeton.edu
+---------------+   Bitnet: dmlaur@pucc

merritt@iris613.gsfc.nasa.gov (John H Merritt) (05/06/89)

In article <8209@pucc.Princeton.EDU> DMLAUR@pucc.Princeton.EDU writes:
>In article <8905030950.aa10952@SMOKE.BRL.MIL>, swenson@NUSC-WPN.ARPA writes:
>
>>        I would like to perform a screen dump from a 4D-60T to a file in
>>PostScript format to be sent to an Apple (alias Sun) LaserWriter printer.
>>I would like at least 16 (probably dithered) grey levels and the option to
>
>
>If you get the  "Laser Printer Software Option" and the Transcript
>package (from AT&T via SGI), then you can print IRIS/4D screendumps
>directly to a PostScript printer using "lp".

If you want something for FREE you can anonymous ftp something called
'topost' from my machine (iris613.gsfc.nasa.gov). It converts b/w images
to postscript which you can send directly to the printer. Usage:
     scrsave rgb x1 x2 y1 y2      -- user command
     tobw rgb bw                  -- user command
     topost bw bw.ps              -- code I wrote (16 shades)

>Be prepared, however, to wait a while for full screen dumps to print.
>The PostScript code generated by "pprint" uses the native PS operator
>"image" which converts grey level values in the range 0-255 into
>dithered/scaled/translated bitmaps (0/1) **in the printer**.  This
>compute intensive operation combined with the data transfer time
>for a 1280x1024 image can result in print times of 20-50 minutes!
>(on an Apple LaserWriter Plus).

I have not had times this slow (maybe 5 to 20 minutes!)

+----------------------------------+-----------------------------+
|John H. Merritt                   |  Yesterday I knew nothing,  |
|Applied Research Corporation      |  Today I know that.         |
|merritt@iris613.gsfc.nasa.gov     |                             |
+----------------------------------+-----------------------------+

msc@ramoth.SGI.COM (Mark Callow) (05/06/89)

In article <8905030950.aa10952@SMOKE.BRL.MIL>, swenson@NUSC-WPN.ARPA writes:
> 	I would like to perform a screen dump from a 4D-60T to a file in
> PostScript format to be sent to an Apple (alias Sun) LaserWriter printer.
> I would like at least 16 (probably dithered) grey levels and the option to
> select seperate windows or the entire screen to be dumped.  Am I in the
> land of fantasy?  I would appreciate any suggestions on this subject.
> Thanks.
> 
Look in 4Dgifts.  Use icut to make your screen dumps in sgi image format.
Then use tops to convert it to PostScript.  tops preserves 1, 2, 4, or 8
colors in the PostScript output leaving it up to the PostScript device to
convert those colors into b/w.  It also gives you control over the half-tone
screens.

--
	-Mark

msc@ramoth.SGI.COM (Mark Callow) (05/06/89)

In article <202@dftsrv.gsfc.nasa.gov>, merritt@iris613.gsfc.nasa.gov (John H Merritt) writes:
> If you want something for FREE you can anonymous ftp something called
> 'topost' from my machine (iris613.gsfc.nasa.gov). It converts b/w images
> to postscript which you can send directly to the printer. Usage:
>      scrsave rgb x1 x2 y1 y2      -- user command
>      tobw rgb bw                  -- user command
>      topost bw bw.ps              -- code I wrote (16 shades)
> 
> >Be prepared, however, to wait a while for full screen dumps to print.
> >The PostScript code generated by "pprint" uses the native PS operator
> >"image" which converts grey level values in the range 0-255 into
> >dithered/scaled/translated bitmaps (0/1) **in the printer**.  This
> >compute intensive operation combined with the data transfer time
> >for a 1280x1024 image can result in print times of 20-50 minutes!
> >(on an Apple LaserWriter Plus).
> 
> I have not had times this slow (maybe 5 to 20 minutes!)

That's because you are converting the image to monochrome before you
send it to the printer.  The overriding factor in printing PostScript
images is the time taken to transmit it to the server at 9600 baud.

tops (from 4Dgifts) has an option, "-b 1", to convert to black and white.
Look at 4Dgifts; there is a lot of good stuff there.
--
	-Mark

malagoli@MHD.UCHICAGO.EDU (Andrea Malagoli) (05/08/89)

I looked in my 4Dghifts, but I was unable to find tops. 
I also not quite sure on how to use icut to select the portion
of the screen I want to save. When I call icut, a small window
appears, then.........????

Andrea Malagoli.
University of Chicago.

malagoli@mhd.uchicago.edu

msc@ramoth.SGI.COM (Mark Callow) (05/09/89)

In article <8905071937.AA04290@mhd.uchicago.edu>, malagoli@MHD.UCHICAGO.EDU (Andrea Malagoli) writes:
> I looked in my 4Dghifts, but I was unable to find tops. 
> I also not quite sure on how to use icut to select the portion
> of the screen I want to save. When I call icut, a small window
> appears, then.........????
> 

The README file in the source directory where you found icut describes how
to use it.

 icut - usage: icut outimage
    Cut an image from the screen:  once attached to the icut window, move the
    mouse to one of the four corners of the section of the screen you wish to
    cut,  press LEFTMOUSE,  keep holding it down while moving to the opposite
    corner,  and let go at the point that marks the rectangular area you wish
    to write out to outimage.


I don't know why you can't find tops.  The file in our source tree is date
October 13th 1988 so it should be in all 4Dgifts releases.  It should be in
the same directory where you found icut.

	-Mark
--
	-Mark

rmr@inferno.SGI.COM (Robert Reimann) (05/18/89)

msc@ramoth.SGI.COM (Mark Callow) writes:
> malagoli@MHD.UCHICAGO.EDU (Andrea Malagoli) writes:

> > I also not quite sure on how to use icut to select the portion
> > of the screen I want to save. When I call icut, a small window
> > appears, then.........????
> > 
> 
> The README file in the source directory where you found icut describes how
> to use it.
> 
>  icut - usage: icut outimage
>     Cut an image from the screen:  once attached to the icut window, move the
>     mouse to one of the four corners of the section of the screen you wish to
>     cut,  press LEFTMOUSE,  keep holding it down while moving to the opposite
>     corner,  and let go at the point that marks the rectangular area you wish
>     to write out to outimage.


To elaborate on "attaching" to the icut window:

1. move the mouse cursor into the icut window

2. hold down a key on the keyboard (ALT is a good choice)

3. move the mouse back out of the window while still
   holding down the key on the keyboard.  As long as
   you keep the key held down, you are attached to 
   the window (or, more precisely, input is directed
   there).

Several other tools such as mag and cedit work on the same principle;
this "sticky" follow focus mode is a feature of the 4Sight window
manager.  


		Robert Reimann
		rmr@sgi.com

wood@acf4.NYU.EDU (David Wood) (05/19/89)

		Well before we had all this talk about icut, I went
	ahead and modified it.  I don't know if my version is actually
	better or not since I haven't bothered with the old version.
	Mine seems to be restricted to cutting either rgb or color mapped
	portions of the screen.  I don't know if the original had this
	problem.  With this new version you stretch the window around
	whatever it is you want to cut, then with the mouse you select
	the rectangle (rubberized) that you want to cut.  You can also
	make more than 1 cut per run if that is important to you.
	The source, Makefile and man page can be retrieved in a tar
	file (icut.tar) via anonymous/ident ftp on cmcl2.nyu.edu.
	You will find it in pub/iris.   Have fun and enjoy.


						-david

	David Wood
	New York University
	212-998-3029	
	wood@acf2.nyu.edu

louis@aerospace.aero.org (Louis M. McDonald) (08/26/89)

sometime ago, someone sent me a program that did a screen dump.
Somewhere along the way I deleted it. I would like to get it
again...

The problem we are have is that a screen saver (dump) program
we have does not always work correctly. Sometimes the output
that is printed is correct, other times it is not.

Is anyone having similar problems, or if not, what did you
do.


Louis McDonald

-- 
Louis McDonald
The Aerospace Corporation
louis@aerospace.aero.org

blbates@AERO4.LARC.NASA.GOV ("Brent L. Bates AAD/TAB MS294 x42854") (08/29/89)

   You could try the programs I put on info-iris.  I did send
some people individual copies of what I had, but I don't remember who.
It has been a while.
--

	Brent L. Bates
	NASA-Langley Research Center
	M.S. 294
	Hampton, Virginia  23665-5225
	(804) 864-2854
	E-mail: blbates@aero4.larc.nasa.gov or blbates@aero2.larc.nasa.gov

blbates@AERO4.LARC.NASA.GOV ("Brent L. Bates AAD/TAB MS361 x42854") (10/10/90)

  Thanks to Gary Sarff, I got a relayed reply.  Apparently Dave@sgi.com had
responded to my mail message and it either got lost in the ether or he only
posted it to comp.sys.sgi.  Thanks for trying.
  Dave said he had tried and is trying to get a supported/documented version
of gl_readscreen into the next release of the gl libraries.  Good luck.
  In the mean time I think I will use it util a replacement comes along.
So, SGI DON'T delete it.  However, it will be ok to replace it with a
documented version, which will hopefully be soon.
--

	Brent L. Bates
	NASA-Langley Research Center
	M.S. 361
	Hampton, Virginia  23665-5225
	(804) 864-2854
	E-mail: blbates@aero4.larc.nasa.gov or blbates@aero2.larc.nasa.gov