B&W Postscript Printers...

Chris_Skelly1 · June 24, 1992, 2:35am

Hi All,

Every now and then the subject of printing comes up.

I was wondering if anyone is collecting the questions adn
answers? Just to add to the questions (which may have
already been touched upon some months ago...):

1. Here at Macquarie we are not too badly set up in the graphics
   department, we run NCAR graphics and GF (both from the Nat.
   Centre for Atmospheric research). These programs were designed
   for general circulation model ouput (basically black and white
   until the latest version), so we can and do all sorts of 1,2,3-D
   graphics...all of it very successfully on a black and white
   Apple Lazer writer. And virtually all printing is done through
   our networked Sun stations.

   My question is: how can I make use of what is a very easy to
   use system where your software (any programs you write or GF)
   creates and encapsulated postscrit file and then you just send
   it down the line to print?

   The function d.savescreen (only available on MASSCOMP?) woulds
   seem to be ideal...is anyone working on this or something
   similar that would capture graphs, lines, text, raster and
   create a colour and/or black and white postscript file?

o.k. so I only had one long winded question...more later

Darrell_McCauley1 · June 23, 1992, 7:45pm

   The function d.savescreen (only available on MASSCOMP?) woulds
   seem to be ideal...is anyone working on this or something
   similar that would capture graphs, lines, text, raster and

^^^^^^^

create a colour and/or black and white postscript file?

"Capturing" images produces very poor quality.
there's xwd(1) and/or screendump(1), but here's another idea:

library level changes (DISPLAYLIB) that record a history of
what goes to the monitor (e.g., $LOCATION/.dhistory). This
would get wiped out everytime a frame is deleted or the screen
is erased. Then, write some sort of function that plays back
this history, writing to a postscript file instead of making
DISPLAYLIB calls.

Of course, rumor has it that someone is writing a postscript
paint driver.