zlraa@marlin.jcu.edu.au (Ross Alford) (03/02/91)
In article <1991Feb27.113843.23157@marlin.jcu.edu.au> zlraa@marlin.jcu.edu.au (Ross Alford) writes: >In article <84380002@hpfcmdd.hp.com> edm@hpfcmdd.hp.com (Ed Moore) writes: >>This may meet your needs. I haven't tried it. >> >>PRINTGL DESCRIPTION >> >>PrintGL is a shareware pen plotter emulator for IBM/DOS systems. >> >>PrintGL prints an HP-GL (HP Graphics Language - HP 7475, 7440/17440 subsets) >>plotfile on a matrix printer. HP-GL is widely supported by graphics programs >>including AutoCAD, Generic CADD, MathCAD, SAS, Schema, and many more. PrintGL >>has drivers for Epson, IBM, and NEC compatible 9 and 24 pin dot matrix >>printers, HP Laserjet, Deskjet, PaintJet, QuietJet, and plotters, IBM ExecJet, >>Quietwriter 2/3, and LaserPrinter, Canon LBP and BJ printers, Kodak Color 4, >>and PostScript printers. It will also display plots with a CGA, EGA, VGA, EVGA, >>or HGC, and output a .PCX or .IMG file. > >It sounds *very* good. Does anyone out there know of a source for this >available via FTP? ... As it turned out, nobody knew of an FTP source, but it is available by sending a mail message to NETSERV@EMBL on Bitnet, with the line GET DOS_SOFTWARE:PRNTGL.UAA ^(no, it really *is* UAA, but is uuencoded) It is also, at least temporarily, now available via anonymous FTP to marlin.jcu.edu.au, in the uploads directory. It really does everything claimed above, and more. Output on a Deskjet 500 actually looks better than output done on a plotter using fibre-tip pens. You have a choice of 8 pen widths, and can assign them individually to each of 6 pens on an emulated HP7475 plotter. You can also assign a coarse or fine dot pattern to each pen, meaning for example that you can tell SAS to fill all the bars on a chart in different solid colours, then have PRINTGL do the plot with bars in different shades of gray. This is considerably better than the only similar software I've seen, which was fully commercial and cost over $200. Ross -- Ross A. Alford zlraa@marlin.jcu.edu.au Department of Zoology +61 77 81 4732 James Cook University Townsville, Queensland 4811 Australia