bh11+@andrew.cmu.edu (Braddock John Hathaway) (12/10/90)
I was just wondering ... if it was possible to get any kind of grayscale output on a DeskWriter. The manual (page 4-8, paragraph 3) makes reference to using grayscale on a sample document "The use of grayscale draws attention to the bullet items and the headings ..." From what I've been experiencing in terms of output, I imagine that this is a mistake and that the two different grays they show are based on closer and wider dot patterns (as is used to give darker and lighter grays in 'patterns' on monochrome macintoshes). Does it matter if the video that you're using is monochrome (1-bit)? I don't think that it does ... the image is the image, the software is the software, and the printer (and driver) is the printer ... why should it matter what the monitor shows? What I'm trying to do is get the best possible printout of a color snapshot that I made on a color machine. I've been trying to print it out from my machine (mac II with a 1-bit 19in display) to a DeskWriter. One of the snapshots that I sent to a LaserWriter IINT using LW driver 6.0 dealt very nicely with converting the color to gray ... but it took 20 minutes to print the page!!! (I suspect a lack of memory in the LW itself is the cause of the unreasonable delay) If I'm wrong about any of the above points, please correct me. If I'm right about any of the points that I'm guessing at, tell me that too! Anyway, I'll appreciate any help I can get on this. Thanks, Brad -------------- potentially long .sig file ahead ------------- Hear about the computer scientist who died while washing his hair? The instructions on the shampoo bottle read: Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Brad Hathaway work phone: (412) 268-8454 email:bh11@andrew.cmu.edu -------------------------------------------------------------
news@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU (Six o'clock News) (12/11/90)
> >if it was possible to get any kind of grayscale output on a DeskWriter. >The manual (page 4-8, paragraph 3) makes reference to using grayscale > ......... >grays they show are based on closer and wider dot patterns (as is used >to give darker and lighter grays in 'patterns' on monochrome macintoshes). > > ... >Thanks, > >Brad > From: akiyama@cory.Berkeley.EDU (SKYWALK ) Path: cory.Berkeley.EDU!akiyama Well, I'm an user of the DeskWriter w/ Mac, and experimented a cople programs and method to print color pictures. I found that the Adobe's PhotoShop does very nice job. This program can convert a color picture (72DPI) to a halftone-processed picture (288DPI or 300DPI or whatever). This method is very good for photograph-type pictures. If it's a regular drawing, probabaly the results (that is, comparing to using LaserWriter dirver), will be (maybe) similar. Hiroshi
wwtaroli@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Bill Taroli) (12/11/90)
In article <MbMrL=O00WBNI0k0Vy@andrew.cmu.edu> bh11+@andrew.cmu.edu (Braddock John Hathaway) writes: >if it was possible to get any kind of grayscale output on a DeskWriter. >The manual (page 4-8, paragraph 3) makes reference to using grayscale >on a sample document "The use of grayscale draws attention to the bullet >items and the headings ..." From what I've been experiencing in terms >of output, I imagine that this is a mistake and that the two different >grays they show are based on closer and wider dot patterns (as is used >to give darker and lighter grays in 'patterns' on monochrome macintoshes). I believe that the problem you're encountering (and I've already knocked my head into) is that many programs (ala PageMaker, Quark XPress, etc, etc) are written to use with 1-bit Quickdraw or Postscript for print imaging. The DeskWriter driver, however, is not strictly QuickDraw. It has, to my understadning, extensions from the Agfa imaging model that allow for such niceties as greyscaling. But if the drivers for Postscript are specially coded for some programs and these programs don't support all functions for QuickDraw (read non-Postscript) printers then the DeskWriter is really a high-resolution ImageWriter. (This is not true of text, but that's a different story.) I don't know what programs like Freedom of the Press do, but as manufacturers notice that QuickDraw (read non-Postscript) printers with greater ability and power are purchased in higher numbers, perhaps they'll open the gates for those of us who want inexpensive printers with good output. If you still aren't convinced that the DeskWriter will do greyscaling (at least of a sort compared to Postscript), try printing the standard grey patterns from MacDraw (or even FreeHand, I believe). You'll notice something funny about the lighter ones (10%?)... they don't appear as single dots simply farther apart.. in fact, you'll notice they look a bit better than what a IINT spits out, IMHO. Well, I'm satisfied with my DeskWriter. For now, if I need to do heavy duty greyscale (or Postscript) work, I can find a LaserWriter. Oh, BTW... I believe that the Agfa imager used on the DeskWriter also supports rotated text (although that may only be in 90 deg. incs... not sure). Regards -- ******************************************************************************* * Bill Taroli (WWTAROLI@RODAN.acs.syr.edu) | "You can and must understand * * Syracuse University, Syracuse NY | computers NOW!" -- Ted Nelson * *******************************************************************************
jeffe@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (George Jefferson ) (12/12/90)
>If you still aren't convinced that the DeskWriter will do greyscaling (at least >of a sort compared to Postscript), try printing the standard grey patterns from >MacDraw (or even FreeHand, I believe). The deskwriter driver has a 'pallete' of about a dozen standard fill patterns for which it substitutes a fill pattern which gets printed at 300dpi. These substitute fill patterns are designed to approximate the level of grey 'intended' by the standard fill pattern. It turns out they are _not_ the same 1-bit pixel pattern simply scaled by 25% both sets of patterns can be easily modified with res-edit, although I was unable to improve on the defaults (no suprise) the interesting implication is that if you request a 'standard' 50% grey checkerboard pattern you get a very grey looking high resolution fill, but if your fill pattern is 'almost' a checkerboard - say one pixel out of place, you get a faithful 72 (or 75 ?) dpi fill. This also means that you cant create a 72dpi checkerboard even if you want one. (without res-edit or other tricks) All of this only apply's if you are prining a filled region, or shaded line. If you send a bit map I don't beleive any 'modification' takes place. -- -george @sol1.lrsm.upenn.edu
knoll@well.sf.ca.us (John Knoll) (12/12/90)
The LaserWriter 6.0 driver is EXTREMELY inefficient in converting color to grayscale. It is running an interpreted PostScript program for every pixel in the image. Yecch!