SUMMARY: Poster-size PostScript output

From: Mike Raffety (miker@sbcoc.com)
Date: Thu Aug 20 1992 - 10:23:58 CDT


I wrote:

> Anyone producing PostScript in LARGE size output? For example, E size
> (44" x 34" or so)? More specifically, I have an E-size HP/GL2 plotter,
> that I'd dearly love to print my PostScript drawings on (e.g.
> FrameMaker).

Basically, the answer is no can do. Many people misunderstood my
request, and gave me solutions for converting HPGL/2 to PostScript,
or doing tiling (multiple small pages that are then taped together).

There were a couple of possibilities, but I haven't had time to contact
them yet.

Date: Tue, 11 Aug 92 07:09:44 +0200
From: rjh97@bk.dk (Rene Jul-Hansen)
To: miker@sbcoc.com
Subject: Poster-size PostScript output

Hi Mike

>-> Anyone producing PostScript in LARGE size output?

Yes, sometimes I do. Unfortunately I use an old public domain tool
which I took from the net ages ago. My version is from August 1989.

It produces tiles which can be added to a larger image so if you can
lay a hand on the source files you may be able to convert it to fit
your printer.

Here's the output of the "syntax" and the authors name.

Usage: poster ps-file width height [row col]
        where ps-file is the file name of the PostScript page
        width and height are the size in inches
        row and col are option if only one tile is to be printed.
        default is to print all tiles.

%%%%Creator: poster - a tiling program by C.P. Lai

==========================================================================
|| Rene' Jul-Hansen || Phone : +45-42-800-500 ext 2595 ||
|| Bruel & Kjaer || FAX : +45-42-801-405 ||
|| Test Systems || ||
|| DK-2850 Naerum || E-mail : rjh97@bk.dk or ||
|| DENMARK || manager@bk.dk ||
|~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~|
| Fear not tomorrow - tomorrow will look after itself |
==========================================================================

From: kalli!fourx!corn.Japan.Sun.COM!kevins@fourx.Aus.Sun.COM (Kevin Sheehan {Consulting Poster Child})
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 1992 14:45:44 JST
To: Mike Raffety <fourx!kalli!fourx!sbcoc.com!miker@fourx.Aus.Sun.COM>
Subject: Re: Poster-size PostScript output

[ Regarding "Poster-size PostScript output", kalli!fourx!sbcoc.com!miker@fourx.Aus.Sun.COM writes on Aug 10: ]

> Anyone producing PostScript in LARGE size output? For example, E size
> (44" x 34" or so)? More specifically, I have an E-size HP/GL2 plotter,
> that I'd dearly love to print my PostScript drawings on (e.g.
> FrameMaker).
>
> Any ideas? It doesn't look like Freedom of the Press, NeWSprint, or
> PBM will help with this.

I have a client who does this, but they use the Hyphen RIP to create
the bits and then blast them out. Lots of newspaper shops and
billboard (like 8feetx12feet!!) down in OZ do it, so I suppose
giving Hyphen a ring isn't a bad idea.

                l & h,
                kev

Date: Tue, 11 Aug 92 11:28:31 +0200
From: Arie Bikker <aribi@geo.vu.nl>
To: miker@sbcoc.com
Subject: Re: Poster-size PostScript output

Hi,
First, i think it is not possible to do Postscript on a plotter. The software packages
you mention are essentially rasterizers, so they convert the Postscript instructions
to a raster of pixels that is then transferred to the printer. A plotter cannot do anything usefull with a raster. Plotting it with penup/down would take ages, and the results would not be very nice to look at because the pen thickness is greater then
the pixel size.
As for the large output, i do have a machine that does it. It is a large size inkjet
printer (48"x36") that does 250 dpi with 4096 colors per pixel. The software (based on NeWSPrint) to do this is homebrewn and/or proprietary and the system is rather costly ($150.000) but if you're interested i can give you pointers to salespeople.

                                                    Arie Bikker
                                                  ___=======-----

 ------------------------------------
-- Drs. Arie Bikker --
-- Instituut voor Aardwetenschappen --
-- Vrije Universiteit --
-- Amsterdam Netherlands --
-- aribi@geo.vu.nl --
 ------------------------------------

Date: Tue, 11 Aug 92 11:43:29 EDT
From: don@mars.dgrc.doc.ca (Donald McLachlan)
To: miker@sbcoc.com
Subject: Re: Poster-size PostScript output

Oh, so you are looking for a PostScript to HPGL convertor.

I don't know if there is such a thing in the PD. There are scads of hpgl to
ps convertors (of course since you don't need that).

I don't know how general it is, but corel draw for unix will do this.
I know it probably costs more than you want to spend for a conversion utility,
but that is the only reason we have bought it.

Good luck, don

Date: Tue, 11 Aug 92 10:56:15 MDT
From: leg@inel.gov (Lance Eric Greenwade)
To: miker@sbcoc.com
Subject: Re: Poster-size PostScript output

> From sun-managers-relay@ra.mcs.anl.gov Mon Aug 10 19:48:35 1992
> Sender: sun-managers-relay@ra.mcs.anl.gov
> Date: Mon, 10 Aug 92 14:47:12 CDT
> From: Mike Raffety <miker@sbcoc.com>
> Reply-To: Mike Raffety <miker@sbcoc.com>
> Followup-To: Mike Raffety <miker@sbcoc.com>
> X-Organization: SBC/OC Services, L.P.
> To: sun-managers@ra.mcs.anl.gov
> Subject: Poster-size PostScript output
> Content-Length: 359
>
> Anyone producing PostScript in LARGE size output? For example, E size
> (44" x 34" or so)? More specifically, I have an E-size HP/GL2 plotter,
> that I'd dearly love to print my PostScript drawings on (e.g.
> FrameMaker).
>
> Any ideas? It doesn't look like Freedom of the Press, NeWSprint, or
> PBM will help with this.
>
> Thanks, and I'll summarize back to the list.
>

Ibelieve that we are driving our Synergy E sized color plotter
from postscript by the use of Freedom of the Press and Zeh Software.
The person at our facility who is in charge is Dirk Copeland,
dir@inel.gov. The info I have on Zeh is:

                  Zeh Graphics Systems, Inc.
                  1325 South Dairy Ashford
                  Suite 300
                  Houston, TX 77077
                  (713) 589-7757

Hope this is helpful. Our system basically works, but we have had to
go back to Zeh for fixes, quite a few I believe.

-eric greenwade
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Visualization and Imaging Team UUCP: ...!uunet!inel.gov!leg
Idaho National Engineering Lab. INTERNET: leg@INEL.GOV
POB 1625 M.S. 2608 Phone: +1-208-526-1276
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From: Patricio Ortiz <ortiz@vela.astro.utoronto.ca>
Subject: Poster-size PostScript output
To: miker@sbcoc.com
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 92 15:43:53 EDT

Hi Mike,

        You have one of those beasties!!? I can tell you that the package I
wrote (called OZPS) meant to be run from C programs doesn't care if you
want a graph the size of a stamp or a mural. In the invoking call you just
specify the size of your graph and the origin and position of the
bottom-left corner of the frame.

        If you want to know more about it let me know.

Cheers,

Patricio

Date: Tue, 11 Aug 92 15:18:35 MDT
From: morrow@cns.ucalgary.ca (Bill Morrow)
To: miker@sbcoc.com
Subject: Re: Poster-size PostScript output

> >We have hpgl2ps, is there a ps2hpgl ?
>
> That's my question ... is there?
>
archie says no. There's lots of hpgl2ps, and hpgl viewers. Good luck.

Bill

From: Patricio Ortiz <ortiz@vela.astro.utoronto.ca>
Subject: Re: Poster-size PostScript output
To: miker@sbcoc.com (Mike Raffety)
Date: Tue, 11 Aug 92 17:19:25 EDT

>But does your program OZPS translate pre-existing PostScript files into
>HPGL/2??? If so, I'd like to hear more about it?!
>

No, the program is dedicated to create PostScript output only, therefore
any machine which understand PS can use it. I've even generated slides
with the existing PS ``slide-makers'' machines.

-- 
Patricio

Date: Thu, 13 Aug 92 19:22:07 CDT From: markw@utig.ig.utexas.edu (Mark Wiederspahn) To: miker@sbcoc.com Subject: large PS drawings

Well, we more or less routinely make large drawings on our versatec 24 inch color plotter with FreedomOfPress. Many are much longer than 44 inches (the longest being about 15 feet), and may are much wider than 24 inches. Yes, we've gotten good at gluing panels together!

I can't speak specifically to making big HPGL from PostScript. We have made similarly large TIFF outputs (600Mbytes) using Freedom. It seemed to work more or less as advertised.

mw



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