My question probably has more to do with computer graphics and output than
with grass in particular. I'm interested in making large maps of a
professional quality -- and in using GIS-style routines like contour
shading, slope and aspect stuff, oblique viewing angles and the like -- the
kind of stuff I know many GIS's are capable of -- and am assuming grass is
also capable of (isn't it?), but my knowledge is weak at a more practical
level. Seeing as I don't have high quality plotters at my disposal, how
would someone like me go about the printing part of all this? Are there
printing companies that can accept a standard sort of data file or files
and produce large, high quality (and hopefully color) maps? I know many
printing shops can accept Macintosh data from programs like Adobe
Illustrator and especially things like Quark Express. Would I have to
transfer the map from grass into a package like this, and then go to the
printer? Are other people doing things like this? Any pointers?Thanks
Paul Fly
I've used mail-order service to produce high-quality graphics (especially
slides printed at 4 or 8K lines) of data from GRASS, imported into
Adobe Photoshop. If you write your graphics to a CELL monitor (of
appropriate dimensions for the resolution you want in your output --
e.g., 1500-2000 pixels/side seems pretty optimal for slides with 4K
lines of resolution), then uncompress D_CELL, Photoshop will happily
read the cell file as a raw file of dimensions X*Y. Save it in
whatever format your service bureau likes.
A similar thread came up not too many months ago, so I won't take more
bandwidth on this, but could supply more details off list if needed.
Neel Smith
Perseus Atlas Project
nsmith@abacus.bates.edu