[comp.windows.open-look] Using OpenLook for Postscript Output

ONM29@DMSWWU1A.BITNET (Frank Wuebbeling) (01/24/91)

Organisation: Westfaelische Wilhelms-Universitaet, Muenster, Germany
Date: Thursday, 24 Jan 1991 09:30:03 MEZ
From: Frank Wuebbeling <ONM29@DMSWWU1A.BITNET>
Message-ID: <91024.093003ONM29@DMSWWU1A.BITNET>
Newsgroups: comp.windows.open-look
Subject: Using OpenLook for Postscript-output

We need a tool for Postscript Draft output on a dot-matrix printer.
Using PD programs like GHOSTSCRIPT produced no satisfying results.
So we would like to create a postscript image using NEWS, and then
dump it to a file in some known format (like writecanvas does it).
However, the screen size seems to be a limit on the size of a canvas,
so we never succeeded in writing files much larger that the screen.

Nevertheless, PAGEVIEW obviously CAN create images that are much larger
than the screen (using the 300DPI option, for example). Is it possible
to dump that very image to a file, overriding the limits imposed by
window- or screen-borders? Or is there a demo for creating large,
pseudo-canvases that never actually get displayed, but dumped to a file?

sources or hints welcome.

Thanks,

Frank Wuebbeling
Institut fuer numerische und angewandte Mathematik
Einsteinstrasse 62
D-4400 Muenster
Deutschland

openlook-request@openlook (01/25/91)

I'd suggest contacting your friendly Sun rep and asking
about NeWSprint which will do exactly what you want.
I believe it costs $495.

Frank G.

rberlin@birdlandEng.Sun.COM (Rich Berlin) (01/26/91)

In article <91024.094107ONM29@DMSWWU1A.BITNET>, ONM29@DMSWWU1A.BITNET (Frank Wuebbeling) writes:
|> Organisation: Westfaelische Wilhelms-Universitaet, Muenster, Germany
|> Date: Thursday, 24 Jan 1991 09:30:03 MEZ
|> From: Frank Wuebbeling <ONM29@DMSWWU1A.BITNET>
|> Message-ID: <91024.093003ONM29@DMSWWU1A.BITNET>
|> Newsgroups: comp.windows.open-look
|> Subject: Using OpenLook for Postscript-output
|> 
|> We need a tool for Postscript Draft output on a dot-matrix printer.
|> Using PD programs like GHOSTSCRIPT produced no satisfying results.
|> So we would like to create a postscript image using NEWS, and then
|> dump it to a file in some known format (like writecanvas does it).
|> However, the screen size seems to be a limit on the size of a canvas,
|> so we never succeeded in writing files much larger that the screen.
|> 
|> Nevertheless, PAGEVIEW obviously CAN create images that are much larger
|> than the screen (using the 300DPI option, for example). Is it possible
|> to dump that very image to a file, overriding the limits imposed by
|> window- or screen-borders? Or is there a demo for creating large,
|> pseudo-canvases that never actually get displayed, but dumped to a file?
|> 
|> sources or hints welcome.
|> 
|> Thanks,
|> 
|> Frank Wuebbeling
|> Institut fuer numerische und angewandte Mathematik
|> Einsteinstrasse 62
|> D-4400 Muenster
|> Deutschland

In my experience, the screen size doesn't limit the canvas size.  I
wonder what's going wrong when you do it?  I tried

    framebuffer newcanvas dup 0 0 2000 1000 rectpath reshapecanvas

and what was left on the stack was a 2000x1000 canvas.  (The
framebuffer was only 1152x900.)


However, I *don't* recommend using this method for printing; it's
inefficient, and there are many technical reasons why you aren't
likely to be happy with the results.  I found there's also a legal
reason not to do it; it violates the OpenWindows Right-To-Use
agreement.  This is from the product marketing manager for the
scalable font technology OpenWindows uses:

    Sun licenses trademark fonts from major suppliers in order to
    include F3 fonts in OpenWindows.  These fonts are in OpenWindows
    expressly for screen display, according to the terms of the
    OpenWindows RTU.  Causing these F3 fonts to generate hardcopy, in
    any fashion, means that a royalty obligation is incurred to the
    font suppliers.  So, printing is prohibited in OpenWindows.

As someone mentioned on the newsgroup, NeWSprint was designed to do
what you're asking for.  It can drive most dot-matrix printers.  The
implementation is *much* more efficient than what you can do with
writecanvas, it solves a lot of the problems you'd run into, it
includes some very nice tools to support printing, and the NeWSprint
RTU takes care of the royalties for the 57 fonts that ship with
OpenWindows.

-- Rich