[comp.sys.next] Convert facesaver format to 64x64 tiff for NeXTMail?

ron@nosc.NOSC.MIL (Ron Broersma) (06/29/91)

Does anyone have a good procedure for converting facesaver format to
a 64x64 tiff image that works with NeXTMail?  The pbmplus toolkit can
convert facesaver to eps and I've played with the icon application to scale
and cut faces to 64x64 but it is a painful process.  Does anyone have anything
better?

Too bad NeXTMail isn't directly compatible with a faceserver or with
facesaver format.  Didn't anyone at NeXT think about this existing
standard before choosing the 64x64 tiff format?

--Ron

eps@toaster.SFSU.EDU (Eric P. Scott) (06/29/91)

In article <4179@nosc.NOSC.MIL> ron@nosc.NOSC.MIL (Ron Broersma) writes:
>Does anyone have a good procedure for converting facesaver format to
>a 64x64 tiff image that works with NeXTMail?  The pbmplus toolkit can
>convert facesaver to eps and I've played with the icon application to scale
>and cut faces to 64x64 but it is a painful process.  Does anyone have anything
>better?

These have a 3:4 aspect ratio and most are 9:8 anamorphic.
Since their data is compatible with PostScript's readhexstring
and image operators, it's trivial to turn them into EPS, even by
hand.  TIFF is practical too (it wasn't in pre-2.0).

>Too bad NeXTMail isn't directly compatible with a faceserver or with
>facesaver format.  Didn't anyone at NeXT think about this existing
>standard before choosing the 64x64 tiff format?

TIFF isn't the problem.  The problem is that most FS images can't
be made to look good on-screen no matter what you do to them.
(Of course, I've seen a lot of horrible "native" 64x64 images as
well...)

I suppose a "neat hack" would be an autonfsmount-style virtual
file system that could sit on /LocalLibrary/Images/People and
provide .tiff images on the fly.  :-)

					-=EPS=-