chap@art-sy.detroit.mi.us (j chapman flack) (05/17/91)
It seems to me that it should not be impossible to take a PostScript interpreter, like ghostscript, or Crispin Goswell's `postscript', or xps, or some other net.postscript floating around, and modify it to produce output for an inexpensive printer that can handle bitmapped graphics. From a cursory look at `postscript', it seems like this would involve changing the "viewer" process, which is supposed to create a bitmap representation of the page based on a fairly simple set of rasterop commands it receives from the interpreter end, which does all the real work. So the viewer should be able to take the final bitmap and band it into what- ever 8-pixel-per-byte or other format the printer uses and create a file with the appropriate control sequences to send it to the printer. Or the viewer could be modified to create a fairly standard bitmap-format file, like TIFF, say, and let people post-process THAT for their favorite printers. Combined with a printer like the Canon BJ-10e (360x360dpi, < $350), that would be a heck of a PostScript printer. Not fast, but at a price like that, just buy five to increase the throughput. :-) And I wouldn't be surprised if the interpreter could be automatically invoked as an "output filter" under the SysV spooling system. Has anyone worked / is anyone working on such a project? I have a BJ-10e, so that's where my main interest is, but anyone who has done the same for any printer has probably done most of the work. Would anybody like to collaborate on such a project? -- Chap Flack Their tanks will rust. Our songs will last. chap@art-sy.detroit.mi.us -MIKHS 0EODWPAKHS Nothing I say represents Appropriate Roles for Technology unless I say it does.
jos@bull.nl (Jos Vos) (05/19/91)
In article <9105171154.aa03216@art-sy.detroit.mi.us> chap@art-sy.detroit.mi.us (j chapman flack) writes: >It seems to me that it should not be impossible to take a PostScript >interpreter, like ghostscript, or Crispin Goswell's `postscript', or xps, >or some other net.postscript floating around, and modify it to produce >output for an inexpensive printer that can handle bitmapped graphics. It's very simple indeed. But GhostScript already includes a BJ10 driver. The only problem is that this is said to work only for the MS-DOS version. Last week I wrote on a rainy evening a new driver for my simple non-standard laserprinter (able to do simple bitmaps). I took the included HP Laserjet/Deskjet driver as a base. -- -- Jos Vos <jos@bull.nl> (UUCP: ...!{uunet,mcsun,hp4nl}!nlbull!jos) -- Bull Nederland NV, Product Support Unix, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
rodgers@maxwell.mmwb.ucsf.edu (R. P. C. Rodgers, M.D.) (05/19/91)
In comp.lang.postscript chap@art-sy.detroit.mi.us (j chapman flack) writes: >It seems to me that it should not be impossible to take a PostScript >interpreter, like ghostscript, or Crispin Goswell's `postscript', or xps, >or some other net.postscript floating around, and modify it to produce >output for an inexpensive printer that can handle bitmapped graphics. This is exactly what Sun has done with NeWSprint. This product is so cheaply priced that (for Sun users at least) it wouldn't seem worth the labor of repeating the effort with another PS interpreter; it would be better to direct efforts at writing the small device driver required for the cheap output device (instructions for which are included in the NeWsprint manual). Cheerio, Rick Rodgers R. P. C. Rodgers, M.D. (415)476-2957 (work) 664-0560 (home) UCSF Laurel Heights Campus UUCP: ...ucbvax.berkeley.edu!cca.ucsf.edu!rodgers 3333 California St., Suite 102 Internet: rodgers@maxwell.mmwb.ucsf.edu San Francisco CA 94118 USA BITNET: rodgers@ucsfcca
wwm@pmsmam.uucp (Bill Meahan) (05/20/91)
In article <1053@nlbull.bull.nl> jos@bull.nl (Jos Vos) writes: >In article <9105171154.aa03216@art-sy.detroit.mi.us> chap@art-sy.detroit.mi.us (j chapman flack) writes: > >>It seems to me that it should not be impossible to take a PostScript >>interpreter, like ghostscript, or Crispin Goswell's `postscript', or xps, >>or some other net.postscript floating around, and modify it to produce >>output for an inexpensive printer that can handle bitmapped graphics. > >It's very simple indeed. > >But GhostScript already includes a BJ10 driver. The only problem is that >this is said to work only for the MS-DOS version. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Well, it SAYS that, but in truth, such a statement is BULLS**T! I compiled ghostscript on my AT&T 3B1 with a very slightly hacked version of the BJ10e driver (changed it to 180x180 DPI to work with my cheap EpsonLQ clone) and it works like a champ! I also swapped a 'popen('lp -dlp2')' statement for the 'fopen' of the scratch file (with corresponding pclose for fclose) to send output directly to the print spooler. lp2 on my system is the 'raw' lp - your mileage may vary. -- Bill Meahan |Product Design & Testing Section Production Test Engineer |Starter Motor Engineering wwm@pmsmam | +1 313 484 9320