HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: mek@hydrox.enet.dec.com (Mark Klamerus)
Subject: Absolutely sized fonts
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 92 07:02:39 PDT
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	Is there a way to absolutely specify the height and width of
	a fixed font (like courier).  I need to create letters of a
	sized which completely fits within a box and which fills the
	box.  I need to know that given an x,y position I can draw
	a box which is 300 x 500 (width by height) and draw a character
	in it.  I essentially need the info from the FontBBox.

	thanks,

	Mark
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
From: grover@mighty-joe.isri.unlv.edu (Kevin Grover)
Subject: Re: Help requested from postscript *Gurus* 
Reply-To: grover@isri.unlv.edu
Organization: Information Science Research Institute (UNLV-ISRI)
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 92 18:03:05 GMT

In article <1992Aug25.222652.2046@bnr.ca>, arorav@bnr.ca (Vikas Arora) writes:
) I have a postscript file which contains information
) about various graphical objects. The whole printout of this
) file goes into many pages <something like a poster>. Is 
) there a way to *scale* it down to a single page printout without really
) worrying about the visibility of the objects.
) 

There is, but it assumes you know a little about the file.  First, you
must know have many 'pieces' there are (i.e. how many pages when
printed normaly).  Second, you must be able to figure out a proper
scale so that each piece will fit correctly onto 1 sheet of paper.

The trick is to redefine the showpage command

% -----

/Tdict 5 dict def			% Place to store stuff

Tdict begin
/oldshowpage /showpage load def		% saves old showpage (in Tdict)
/pgcount 0 def				% Keep track of number of pages
end

/showpage {
  Tdict begin
  /pgcount pgcount 1 add def		% Bump page count by 1
  pgcount LASTPG ge {
	oldshowpage
  } if
  end

  % NEED CODE HERE TO POSSITION NEXT PAGE
}

% ---------


Insert the above code infornt of the PS file, and add a scale command
to will allow all of the pages to fit on a single page.

i.e.

.5 .5 scale	% will allow 4 pages per physical page.


In the code above LASTPG should be replaced by the number of 'pieces'
in the poster.  And the comment "% NEED CODE HERE..." needs to be 
modified to set a new origin based on the order of the pieces are
printed in.  You will need to "gsave/grestore" combo in this code
somewhere to make it all work.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Kevin O. Grover      | UNLV Computer Science and Electrical Engineering
 grover@isri.unlv.edu | ISRI - Information Science Research Institute
 CServe: [73627,1677] | 4505 S. Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas NV 89154-1017
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
From: CADS_COLE@GALLUA.BITNET (Kevin Cole; Washington DC)
Subject: Old FORTRAN reports to PostScript?
Organization: Gallaudet Research Institute
Date: Thu, 3 Sep 1992 18:37:15 GMT

Greetings once again,

My recent entry into the world of PostScript is brought about by trying to 
redesign 2 old reports so that more information will fit on a page.  Right now, 
a FORTRAN program generates one report portrait while System 1032 (a database
package) generates the other landscape.  These reports can get quite large and
they are printed on a public printer connected to the VAX (normally, a Kodak
1492). 

My questions are: 
1) Since these reports deal with fixed-width fonts, and have right justified
   numbers (and/or text) in columns, is there a reasonable approach to convert-
   ing these to PostScript without quadrupling the size of the resulting files?
   Keep in mind I'm a real novice here. 
2) Are there any commonly available fixed-width fonts other than Courier?  The
   normal font that the Kodak gives (with non-PostScript files) is pretty good
   but the Courier stuff looks kind of lame to me.
3) Is there a procedure I can use to ask the Kodak printer to dump the names 
   and characteristics of all of it's fonts?

Thanx again.
-- 
 ========== U.S. Mail =============================== E-Mail =================
 Kevin Cole      <Flatline>           |  Bitnet: CADS_COLE@GALLUA.BITNET
 Gallaudet Research Institute  (GRI)  |  Internet: KJCOLE@GALLUX.GALLAUDET.EDU
 Washington, D.C.  20002-3625         |  UUCP: ...!psuvax!gallua.bitnet!kjcole
 (202) 651-5575  x4592                |  The WELL:   kjcole
From: bradshaw@ccvax.ucd.ie
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Using non-postscript HP Ljet on a SPARCStation
Date: 23 Aug 92 17:35:06 GMT
Organization: University College Dublin

I have recently setup our Sun SPARCStation IPC as a print server
to our PC's via PC-NFS v3.5b with a HP LaserJet IIIP. However,
the printer is not postscript compatible and only recognises
HP-PCL/HPGL formatted print files. I was wondering if anyone
knows of any (freely available) Sun based software which will
act as a driver for the printer such that incoming print jobs
will be formatted in PCL or HPGL. I am aware of Sun's NeWSPrint
software which performs a similar job...I guess I'm looking for
a freely available equivalent. All replies appreciated. Thanks in
advance..... My E-Mail addresses are below.

CBRADH89@IRLEARN.UCD.IE
BRADSHAW@CCVAX.UCD.IE
From: jos@bull.nl (Jos Vos)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: Making downloaded fonts permanent -- how?
Date: 2 Sep 92 19:49:21 GMT
Organization: Bull, P.O. Box 22859, NL-1100 DJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands

In article <1992Sep1.175050.8814@thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu> bruno@thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu (Bruno Hall) writes:

>I've read the faq, which describes methods for getting rid of "sticky"
>fonts.  I'm having the opposite problem; when the PFA file is sent to
>the printer, the first ^D that comes along nukes the downloaded font.

Put the following line in front of the PFA file:

	0 serverdict begin exitserver

I never looked up whether this is the "official" method, but it works...

-- 
--    Jos Vos <jos@bull.nl>   (UUCP: ...!{uunet,mcsun,sun4nl}!nlbull!jos)
--    Bull Nederland NV, Product Support Unix, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
From: peters@oasys.dt.navy.mil (Brooks Peters)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Where's the PS Level 2 LaserWriter Driver?
Date: 26 Aug 92 03:19:14 GMT
Reply-To: peters@oasys.dt.navy.mil (Brooks Peters)
Organization: Carderock Division, NSWC, Bethesda, MD

About eighteen months ago Adobe sponsored several "Technology Conferences"
in which they announced the new PS Level 2 capabilities and compatible
products. Sounded great!  I even bought several new Level 2 compatible
printers.  However the printers are still being fed Level 1 "code" from
the Apple/Adobe LaserWriter drivers provided in System 7 (incl. Tune-Up).

Does anyone have a clue to the situation with updated drivers? Or was
I asleep as the train passed through the station?

Brooks Peters
David Taylor Model Basin, CDNSWC
peters@oasys.dt.navy.mil
From: brecher@husc8.harvard.edu (Jonathan Brecher)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: Where's the PS Level 2 LaserWriter Driver?
Date: 29 Aug 92 07:41:33 GMT
Article-I.D.: husc8.BRECHER.92Aug29004133
Organization: Harvard Arts and Sciences Computer Services, Cambridge, MA
In-reply-to: delahunt@adobe.com's message of 29 Aug 92 03:10:36 GMT

In article <1992Aug29.031036.18944@adobe.com> delahunt@adobe.com (Jim DeLaHunt) writes:

>Adobe is nearing completion of its Printer Driver for the Macintosh.  I've 
>been using a pre-release copy, and it works wonderfully!  It functions
>as a replacement for Apple's LaserWriter driver.  Look for it in
>third quarter of 1992.

Do you mean fourth quarter, or are we going to see this driver in the next
month?

			jonathan brecher
			brecher@husc.harvard.edu
From: larry@cs.com (Larry Spence)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: Big polygons
Date: 25 Aug 92 04:37:33 GMT
Organization: Computer Support Corporation,  Dallas,Texas

In article <1992Aug21.090522.10455@adobe.com> delahunt@adobe.com (Jim DeLaHunt) writes:
>The solutions to this problem are unfortunately application-specific.  
>If the application knows its polygon doesn't self-intersect and has no holes
>in it, it might get away with simply issuing 'fill' operators every 1500
>vertices or so.  This will print correctly on most PostScript interpreter
>implementations. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This works for non-trivial (i.e., concave) polygons??  BTW, what is implemen-
tation-dependent about it?

Is there some philosophical reason why PS doesn't decompose polygons that
are too complex?  In an application, the poor developer is stuck with 
decomposing curved-edge polygons into simpler pieces, which is slow and
prone to numeric errors.  In the interpreter, this could be done after the 
path is flattened, so that only line segments need be dealt with.  Sure 
seems like something that the interpreter should deal with, not the app, 
IMHO.

-- 
Larry Spence
larry@cs.com
uunet!csccat!larry or sun!texsun!csccat!larry
From: zoetrope@cup.portal.com (Devan DzM MacFarlane)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Mac -> UNIX PS
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 92 15:19:40 PDT
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Distribution: world

I have a PostScript file generated on the Macintosh that I need to send vie
e-mail (and upon receipt downloaded to a printer). However, having done this
a couple years ago I know that there are problems associated with transfering
the text straight from the mac to the unix system (something to do with (if
I remember this right) the mac being 8-bit and unix being 7-bit).

Can anyone give me any sage advice on how to go about making the file useful
to both platforms?

Thanks;

DzM
From: wrp@pslsrv1.gvl.unisys.com (Bill Pringle)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: printing even and odd pages
Date: 28 Aug 92 18:16:34 GMT
Organization: Paramax Systems, Ivyland, PA

In article <1992Aug28.024035.19283@gvl.unisys.com> wrp@pslsrv1.gvl.unisys.com (Bill Pringle) writes:
>I posted a C program called pspages a week or so ago.  It allows you to
>specify particular pages as well as even or odd (logical or physical)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
You can ftp this program from gvl.unisys.com.
It is ~/pub/albums/pspages.zoo
============================================================================
Bill Pringle                      Software Tools
Paramax Corporation               Voice: (215)443-7500 X4023
Internet: wrp@ivy.unisys.com      UUCP: ...!uunet!mimsy!widener!gvls1!wrp%ivy
From: mcduff@newton.physics.uq.oz.au (Rodney Mcduff)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Preview Bitmaps for PS and EPS files?
Date: 30 Aug 92 05:12:40 GMT
Organization: Physics Dept. The University of Queensland

It occurs to me that it would a 'good thing' to be able
to insert/append a preview bitmap into a arbitary postscript file.
With this facility one could for example import a postscript file
as a eps object into Xfig and see the bitmap displayed. (Thus one
can modify (or add to) a drawing or graph etc etc.)

So the question is "Is there some software out there that can achieve this?".


Now with the ghostscript package there exist a PS program (ps2image.ps) that 
is atleast heading in the right direction. It converts a PS file
into a hex bitmap which it then reads and display. ie. 

#! 
# start of converted PS file
/readimage {gsave matrix setmatrix 1 matrix 3 index 7 add 8 idiv string currentfile exch 
{2 copy 1 index token pop 2 index token pop getinterval readhexstring pop pop dup}
 3 1 roll 7 2 roll image pop pop grestore showpage} bind def
568 736 readimage
0 71 fffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff
.
. 
lots of hex stuff
.
.
# end  of converted PS file

However what we want is something like this

%!PS-Adobe-2.0 EPSF-2.0
%%BoundingBox: 0 18 335 345
%%Title: logo.eps ( this is an example EPS file with a preview bitmap that comes with Xfig)
%%Creator: boyter
%%CreationDate: Wed Mar 27 09:22:54 1991

%%BeginPreview: 391 391 1 391
% 000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000003ffe00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
% 000000000000000000000000000000000000000000003ffffffffe00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
.
.
lots of hex stuff
.
.
% 000000000000000000000000000000000000000000ffffffffffffff000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
% 000000000000000000000000000000000000000000007fffffffff00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
%%EndPreview
.
.
Rest of original PS file
.
.

So it should be feasible that with ghostscript and an appropriate PS program one
can include/append a preview bitmap into an arbitary PS file. 

-- 

  +-------------------------+------------------------------------------+
  |        _   ^   _        | Rodney McDuff                            |
  |       |\  /|\  /|       | Physics Department                       |
  |         \  |  /         | The University of Queensland             | 
  |          \ | /          | St. Lucia, Brisbane                      |
  |           \|/           | Queensland, Australia. 4072.             |
  |   <--------+-------->   |                                          |
  |           /|\           | TELEPHONE: +61 7 365 3424                |
  |          / | \          | INTERNET:mcduff@newton.physics.uq.oz.au  |  
  |         /  |  \         | FACSIMILE: +61 7 365 1242                |
  |       |/  \|/  \|       |                                          |
  |        -   v   -        |                                          |
  +-------------------------+------------------------------------------+    
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
From: delahunt@adobe.com (Jim DeLaHunt)
Subject: Re: Compiling PostScript code
Followup-To: comp.lang.postscript
Summary: Use C compiler preprocessor
Organization: Adobe Systems Incorporated
Distribution: comp.lang.postscript
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 03:21:06 GMT

In article <1992Aug24.023510.25470@cs.brown.edu> jgm@cs.brown.edu (Jonathan Monsarrat) writes:
>Is there a "PostScript Compiler" that generates compressed PS from
>big ol' whitespace-filled long-named PS?

Do you have a C compiler available?  Use its preprocessor to macro-
substitute short names for long ones.  To use your example:

/d /def load def
#define def d

#define MyFunctionMapper  A
#define elvis 		  e
/* etc.... */ 

% This function does some cool stuff
/MyFunctionMapper
{
  /elvis 2 def 	% etc....
  /jackson elvis manilow add berry add def
  jackson
} bind def

After C pre-processing you'd have:

/d /def load def
% This function does some cool stuff
/A
{
  /e 2 d 	% etc....
  /j e m add b add d
  j
} bind d

PackPS could then get rid of the comments and whitespace for you.
I've used this technique on a major PostScript language project and it has 
worked great!

	--Jim DeLaHunt, Developer Support, Adobe Systems Incorporated	
delahunt@adobe.com	...!{apple,decwrl}!adobe!delahunt      +1-415-962-3790
From: bcockburn@acorn.co.uk (Bruce Cockburn)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: PostScript coding style question
Date: 26 Aug 92 11:27:56 GMT
Organization: Acorn Computers Ltd, Cambridge, England


  How about this one from the Acorn graphics prologue.

  Cheers, Bruce.


  /WS 4096 string def                           % a pre-allocated string to hold 64
                                                % rows of up to 64 bytes of sprite
                                                % data. Also used in text printing.
                                                % Pre-allocated to avoid VM wastage.

  /RC {
    WS 0 3 I put dup 1 gt {
      WS 1 3 I put dup 2 gt {
        WS 2 3 I put WS 3 3 I put dup 4 gt {
          WS 4 WS 0 4 getinterval putinterval dup 8 gt {
            WS 8 WS 0 8 getinterval putinterval dup 16 gt {
              WS 16 WS 0 16 getinterval putinterval dup 32 gt {
                WS 32 WS 0 32 getinterval putinterval dup 64 gt {
                  WS 64 WS 0 64 getinterval putinterval dup 128 gt {
                    WS 128 WS 0 128 getinterval putinterval dup 256 gt {
                      WS 256 WS 0 256 getinterval putinterval dup 512 gt {
                        WS 512 WS 0 512 getinterval putinterval dup 1024 gt {
                          WS 1024 WS 0 1024 getinterval putinterval dup 2048 gt {
                            WS 2048 WS 0 2048 getinterval putinterval
                          } if
                        } if
                      } if
                    } if
                  } if
                } if
              } if
            } if
          } if
        } if
      } if
    } if pop pop
  } bind def 

Any views expressed are my own and are not necessarily those     _--_|\ 
of Acorn. Any factual information is given in good faith and    /      \
neither I, nor Acorn can accept liability for loss or damage    \_.--._/
resulting from its use.                                               v 
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript,comp.text.tex
From: dalton@cord.Geop.UBC.CA (David Dalton)
Subject: Re: How do I convert .pfb/.pfm files to .tfm files?
Organization: Dept. of Geophysics & Astronomy, UBC, Vancouver, Canada
Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1992 23:01:32 GMT

You might be able to use a comination of pfbtogs  and  pstopk
which come with Ghostscript, but I'm not sure if pstopk generates
a tfm as well as a pk font file.

David <Dalton@Geop.UBC.CA>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
From: jaffe@hoss.unl.edu (David Jaffe)
Subject: gray area with white hole in it (fails)
Organization: University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 14:34:36 GMT

I want a disk, shaded gray, with a small white hole in the center.
The following code should work, but for some reason produces a ragged
hole in the center.  Why?  Is there a general way to overwrite gray with white?
[This is code for a 300 dpi printer - TI Microlaser Plus.]

300 400 translate

50 0 moveto 0 0 50 0 360 arc
gsave currentscreen 3 1 roll pop pop 75 0 3 2 roll setscreen 0.95 setgray
fill grestore stroke

0.2 setflat 0 0 newpath 2.5 0 360 arc 1 setgray fill 0 setgray 1 setflat

showpage

David Jaffe (jaffe@hoss.unl.edu)
University of Nebraska - Lincoln
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
From: talley@mcc.com (Jim Talley)
Subject: Re: Raw MS-Windows GDI to Postscript Converter
Organization: MCC, Austin, TX
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1992 22:56:37 GMT


In article <87290@netnews.upenn.edu> burgess@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Richard Burgess) writes:

> I have a need to convert GDI calls (text and graphics directed at 
> the printer) to a saveable file format.  While I did not previously 
> need to store an electronic copy of this form, a need has arisen.  
>     If anyone knows of a converter that inputs standard windows 
> calls and outputs any type of standard file that can be saved,
> displayed on a screen, etc - I would be totally psyched.
>     As it is, I probably am going to have to write a GDI to 
> postscript converter from scratch and use Ghostscript or some
> such to display the file on the screen(althought the main
> need is for archiving).
>     Should I use some format other than postscript, does such 
> a converter already exist, any ideas at all? - Inquiring minds
> want to know.

Yes, such a converter does exist... the Postscript printer driver.
What you describe is exactly what a driver does -- i.e., it converts
Windows meta-file data (a series of GDI commands) into the equivalent
commands for rendering on the target device, in your case Postcript.
Just direct the output to a file.  You might also want to send it as
an EPS file by checking the box in the Postcript printer setup dialog.

An alternative format that is somewhat easier to get other programs to
digest (i.e., doesn't require that the consumer of your output contain
a full Postcript interpreter) would be as an HPGL (plotter) file.
This can be produced in the same way as with Postscript, except, of
course, using the HP Plotter driver.  It has the advantage over some
other possibilities of keeping your graphics in vector rather than
bitmap format.

If you require some other format (e.g., TIFF), I don't believe the
printer driver route offers a solution, but there is no shortage of
graphics utilities which can import a .WMF (Windows Meta-File) and
save to a variety of formats -- many are freeware/shareware and
available on the net.

So, save your programming skills for something without a readily
available solution.  Hell... take a vacation in lieu of spending the
1000 hours that you would have spent "quickly" hacking up that little
converter!  :-)

				-- Jim
				   talley@mcc.com

-- 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
                           Jim Talley
----------------------------------------------------------------------
MCC -- Carnot Proj.             |       Linguistics Dept.
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
From: haroldt@orion.yorku.ca
Subject: news
Organization: York University
Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1992 18:38:27 GMT


It's probably in the FAQ, but, I have a copy of an error
handler from fred@nada.kth.se.  It's about 10k and, as it
was posted here on 90/04/04, I don't know if I should post
it.  I'll email it to everyone who mails directly to me. (I
don't always read this group.

Fred did an excellant job with this and it even dumps the
section of the file that is in error as well as the
contents of the stack at the time.

Thanks Fred for an awesome debugging tool. 

Haroldt.

(Header follows)
------------------------
%!
% From irisa!inria!mcsun!sunic!kth.se!draken!fred Thu Apr  5 10:41:51 MET DST 1990
% Article 3867 of comp.lang.postscript:
....
% Subject: more detailed errorhandler
....
% Lines: 218
%
...
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
From: walton@stat.fsu.edu (Bill Walton)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: How can I set up Newsprint to print DVI files?
Date: 24 Aug 92 13:16:00 GMT
Organization: Dept. of Statistics, Florida State University

Has anyone all ready figured out what needs to be done to have
Newsprint auto-recognize and print a DVI file?

I've added the following to /usr/Newsprint/pl.sun4/.pl_alias:
dvi     DVI file

and the following to /usr/Newsprint/pl.sun4/.pl_magic.dvi:
16      string  TeX output      DVI file

This seems to take care of the auto-recognition, however the
next phase would be setting up dvips as a filter to convert 
the file and print it.  If someone has all ready done all of 
this it would sure save me a lot of time if you could tell 
me how you set things up.

Thanks

Bill
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Walton                                        walton@stat.fsu.edu
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
From: Chris_Chase@spacemail.jhuapl.edu (Christopher J. Chase)
Subject: HPGL to postscript translator?
Followup-To: comp.lang.postscript
Organization: The Applied Physics Lab
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 92 14:23:01 GMT

I need a HPGL to postscript translator. Could someone give me a pointer or
hint to where I could obtain such a beast? (preferably for UNIX, but DOS or
Macintosh OS would be fine.)

Thanks,
Chris Chase