Summary for "Sun Rasterfile -> Color PostScript"

From: Drew Montag (millidc!blue!djm@uunet.uu.net)
Date: Thu Nov 08 1990 - 08:16:17 CST

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Sorry it took a while for me to post this summary, but I didn't have any way to
test the programs I obtained as a result of my query. We don't own a color
PostScript printer, but one of our customers does. I sent him the "import"
program (described below), and he says that it works just fine.

My original request:

> Does anyone out there know of a Public Domain or Shareware program that
> converts 8-bit Sun rasterfile format into color PostScript? Thanks.

I received references to 5 different packages that (allegedly) do this:

   import (SUNtoPS)
   pbmplus (Portable BitMap Plus)
   FBM (Fuzzy BitMap)
   URT (Utah Raster Toolkit)
   rle (??? - maybe the same as URT?)

The first one (import) was sent to me directly by it's author, John Cristy
(<uunet!RELAY.CS.NET!cristy%ESSUN3%ESVAX@dupont.com>). That's the one that
was sent to our customer and seems to be working fine. Note that it only
handles Sun Rasterfiles -> Color PostScript, unlike the other packages I found
out about, which handle many different formats. This isn't necessarily bad,
if that's all you need. It is certainly easier to use (1-step) than the other
packages.

I FTP'ed, unpacked, and compiled the second package (pbmplus), but I have no
way of testing it, so I can't comment much on it. It sure does seem to handle
a lot of formats! See the list, below.

I never found the third package (FBM), but I didn't look very hard either.
By the time I heard about it, our customer was already happy with "import", so
I kind of gave up.

I FTP'ed the fourth package (URT), but I had problems uncompressing it, so I
gave up.

I never found the last package (rle), but I suspect it is another name for the
URT package.

Here are some of the responses I received:

From: John Hasley<uunet!andy.bgsu.edu!hasley>

> Check out the PBMPlus toolkit. It can convert a large number of
> formats to an intermediate format, manipulate the file, and convert
> back. It handles Sun, Mac, X11, PostScript, and other formats. I
> haven't had a chance to verify the color PostScript output (I also
> haven't had a printer), but it *looks* like PostScript.
>
> It's available for ftp from expo.lcs.mit.edu as contrib/pbmplus.tar.Z
> as well as other places (it's on the X11 distribution tapes.) It was
> posted to comp.sources.misc last November (1989).
>
> You also might check FBM (Fuzzy Bitmap) and URT (the Utah Raster Toolkit).
> The one who is responsible for the latter is Spencer Thomas, who is
> presently at U of Michigan. Both of these handle numerous conversions,
> but last I heard, didn't handle the particular one you want.

From: uunet!ced.berkeley.edu!jeg (James Ganong)

> the rle package from university of utah has converters that
> go
> rast to rle
> and
> rle to color postscript

From: bice@atlantis.ees.anl.gov

> The "Fuzzy Bit Manipulator" does that (yeah, no kidding... It's really
> named that). This is the package that makes .FBM files and converts to
> and from several different formats (ppm,pbm,gif,im8,im24,rle,pcx, etc...)
>
> I forget where we FTP'd it from, but although it had a few bugs (it didn't
> handle GIF very well) it DID make nice (albeit LONG!) postscript files for
> our QMS printer...

From: uunet!Corp.Sun.COM!kevin (Kevin Sheehan {Consulting Poster Child})

> PBM (Portable Bit Map) does it - available from archives everywhere.
>
> PBM handles the following formats:
>
> Sun icon file reading writing
> Sun raster file reading writing
> X10 and X11 bitmap file reading writing
> MacPaint reading writing
> CMU window manager format reading writing
> MGR format reading writing
> Group 3 FAX reading writing
> X11 window dump file reading writing
> X10 window dump file reading
> Xerox doodle brushes reading
> GEM .img format reading
> PC paintbrush (.pcx) format reading
> PICT reading
> ASCII graphics writing
> HP LaserJet format writing
> GraphOn graphics writing
> BBN BitGraph graphics writing
> Printronix format writing
>
> PGM handles the following formats:
>
> TIFF reading
> Usenix FaceSaver file reading
> HIPS reading
> FITS reading writing
> PostScript "image" data reading
> raw grayscale bytes reading
> Encapsulated PostScript writing
>
> PPM handles the following formats:
>
> color Sun raster file reading writing
> GIF reading writing
> Amiga IFF ILBM reading writing
> color X11 window dump file reading writing
> color X10 window dump file reading
> MTV ray-tracer output reading
> QRT ray-tracer output reading
> TrueVision Targa file reading
> Img-whatnot file reading
> color Encapsulated PostScript writing

Thanks to the following people for their responses:

   John Hasley<uunet!andy.bgsu.edu!hasley>
   uunet!hub.eng.wayne.edu!rizzo (Frank F. Rizzo)
   "Randal L. Schwartz" <uunet!iWarp.intel.com!merlyn>
   uunet!isoftfr!slt (Stephane Tsacas)
   uunet!ced.berkeley.edu!jeg (James Ganong)
   uunet!ucsd.edu!bridget@millipore (Bridget Carragher)
   uunet!sunkist.West.Sun.COM!ohio!patrick (Patrick O'Shaughnessy)
   bice@atlantis.ees.anl.gov (Brent A. Bice)
   uunet!Corp.Sun.COM!kevin (Kevin Sheehan {Consulting Poster Child})
   John Cristy <uunet!RELAY.CS.NET!cristy%ESSUN3%ESVAX@dupont.com>

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