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1992-06-12
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================================================================================
(C) 1992 by Atari Corporation, GEnie, and the Atari Roundtables. May
be reprinted only with this notice intact. The Atari Roundtables on GEnie
are *official* information services of Atari Corporation.
To sign up for GEnie service, call (with modem) 800-638-8369. Upon
connection type HHH (RETURN after that). Wait for the U#= prompt.
Type XJM11877,GEnie and hit RETURN. The system will prompt you for your
information.
================================================================================
************
Topic 9 Mon Oct 14, 1991
NEVIN-S at 10:46 EDT
Sub: GhostScript: a New PostScript Clone?
Discussion of GhostScript, the new PostScript clone uploaded to the file
libraries.
37 message(s) total.
************
------------
Category 5, Topic 9
Message 1 Mon Oct 14, 1991
NEVIN-S at 10:47 EDT
Has anyone downloaded GhostScript? Files 21225-21227 appear to be a public
domain PostScript clone, like UltraScript. Is that what GhostScript is? Has
anyone tried it? Does it work? Does it support Type 1 fonts, with hinting??
--Nevin
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Category 5, Topic 9
Message 2 Tue Oct 15, 1991
CBARRON at 00:34 EDT
NEVIN - That is what GhostScript is. A pd postscript emulator originally
written for unix and related operating systems. I have not monkeyed with the
files!
------------
Category 5, Topic 9
Message 3 Tue Oct 15, 1991
A.WESTON [Alan] at 19:07 EDT
Finally, Ghostscript is here for the ST. It took me most of last evening to
download this monster, and a very long lunch to get it up and running. I
tried printing out one of the sample postscript graphic files to my Deskjet.
The results were impressive. Not real fast, but the quality is there. Fonts
are a different story. I ran the font test using the Times-Roman font, and
the font quality isn't that good. At 24 point size the letters had a bad case
of the "jaggies". The documentation admits this is a weakness. Adobe type 1
fonts are supported via a conversion utility (which I can't get to work yet)
but no hinting.
-Alan
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Category 5, Topic 9
Message 4 Wed Oct 16, 1991
M.EVERHART2 [MIDIMIKE] at 00:08 EDT
OK - now for the uninitiated, what is so great about Postscript?
------------
Category 5, Topic 9
Message 5 Wed Oct 16, 1991
B.ZAWALSKI1 [Bob Z] at 02:48 EDT
Nevin -- Thanks for starting this topic. Seeing the absolute disinterest in
TeX, I declined to start a topic for GS. I find the topic lists to be long
already! :') I have been receiving some E-mail queries though, and have
answered general questions that others may have about GS.
First off, I have only about 30 hours experience with GS, and have no
additional documentation for GS than what I've uploaded. I'm not a GS guru,
and I don't know one either. I have only a 9 pin, and only use GS to allow me
to read documentation that comes in *.ps files. (How splendid it must be to
be able to presume that all readers can easily access a Postscript printer. :-
[ )
Because GS is quite large (read expensive to download), and because several
bugs/limitations are documented in the distribution, I am pasting the
README.ST file to this message to give potential downloaders a better idea of
what the GS distribution is about.
Please note that although this README.ST i included in the v2.3 distribution,
it documents v2.2. No corresponding README.ST for v2.3 was available. Please
report any 'fixes' that have been made since v2.2 (and undocumented bugs - of
course) to this topic and to Tim Gallivan timg@landau.ph.utexas.edu if you
have an access.
Please forgive the added cost of this long message: It might save some costly
downloads by people with expectations that GS does not meet.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
GS 2.2 FOR THE ATARI ST:
GHOSTSCRIPT OVERVIEW: 7/22/91 Revision 0
Ghostscript is the GNU project's postscript language interpreter. It can be
used to convert postscript files into formats suitable for non-postscript
printers, or to display postscript files on the screen.
Here is a little info about this 'zeroth' Atari ST revision of ghostscript
version 2.2. I call it the 'zeroth' revision since it is the first working GS
2.2 on the ST. I will try to number future enhancements so you can tell which
version of the code you have. It was compiled with gcc 1.39 and the
corresponding version of the gcc libraries.
There are five device drivers included in the ghostscript 2.2 executable for
the ST: the MONOCHROME screen device (thanks to Hauke Hess for this), a
DeskJet driver, 9 and 24-pin Epson drivers, and a BubbleJet bj10e driver. The
epson drivers in 2.2 are unreliable, and may or may not work on your
particular printer. I applied a posted fix, but I am not sure it I did it
correctly and have no way to test these drivers.
The screen and DeskJet drivers have been reasonably tested. The Epson and
BubbleJet drivers are completely UNTESTED. The code runs fine and produces an
output file, but the validity of this output is completely unknown to me. I
have no way of testing it. There have been many reports on the network that
the Epson driver in 2.2 does not work on all Epson compatible printers (it has
been changed considerably from the 2.1.1 Epson driver). Good luck!
The binary distribution contains the executables, a bunch of postscript
support files, some relevant docs, and the default ghostscript font. The
remaining fonts and docs can be obtained from the original GS distribution (I
got mine from uunet.uu.net).
MINIMUM CONFIGURATION:
I run ghostscript on a 4M 520ST with an 85M hard drive and a monochrome
monitor, so it is hard for me to estimate a minimum hardware configuration.
The executable is about 235K, so it seems possible that it could run on a 512K
machine. Ghostscript does, however, allocate lots of memory dynamically, so I
don't really know for sure.
GS 2.2 is supposed to print large bitmap images in bands on computers with
limited memory, but I have not tested this on the ST (I expect that it won't
work, at least not without changing some parameters in the source and
recompiling). If you are going to print to high-resolution printers, you will
almost certainly need > 1 meg of ram. The default screen driver will require
about 75K of free ram.
You can probably get by without a hard drive, if you are willing to use only
the ghostscript default font. The font files take up about 2-1/4 Meg of disk
space. For graphics, the default font is fine, but text will be ugly.
INSTALLATION:
Ghostscript searches a default path 'f:\gs,f:\gs\ps,f:\gs\fonts' for the
initialization files and the fonts. To change this, define the environment
variable GS_LIB to be a COMMA separated path for ghostscript to search. If you
specify file paths on the command line, you may use either '/' or '\' as a
path separator.
To install:
1) Copy gs22b.zoo to the desired directory (f:\gs to use the default
search path).
2) Unpack the archive with 'zoo e// gs22b.zoo'
If you want the gs directory to be somewhere besides f:\gs,
define the environment variable GS_LIB to be a comma
separated search path which contains the files in the
'ps' and 'fonts' directories.
USAGE:
To use ghostscript:
1) Type 'gs -rxxx file.ps' (or double click on gs.ttp) on the command
line. The default device is the screen at xxx dpi. If you omit
the -r option, the default resolution is 80 dpi. The -r option
applies ONLY to the screen device; it is ignored by printer
devices. You can specify as much resolution as you have
memory for, but it may take forever to construct your image.
Wait a while for the image to appear on the screen (this can be
a long while for complicated files or high resolutions). You can
use the cursor keys to scroll around the image. Press the <help>
key for more info on the screen driver. Type <Q> to return to the
GS interpreter. Then you can type PostScript commands to your
heart's content. Type 'quit' or <^D> to exit GS.
2) To get a printer device, type 'gs -sDEVICE=deskjet file.ps'
for a deskjet, 'gs -sDEVICE=epson file.ps' for a 24-pin epson,
'gs -sDEVICE=epson9 file.ps' for a 9-bin epson, or
'gs -sDEVICE=bj10e file.ps' for the bubble jet printer. I
defined an alias for the one that I use, i.e. "alias gsdj
'gs -sDEVICE=deskjet' " The printer output will be written
in a file called 'gs_pr.XXX', where XXX is a unique number.
See the docs for other ways to select a device or to see
which devices are installed.
3) Send the file 'gs_pr.XXX' to the printer. Since it is a binary
graphics file, I had trouble finding a file printer which
would print this output properly. They always try to add
carriage returns and such. So I wrote a small program to
print these files, called 'pr'. Source and an executable
are included. Usage is 'pr file1 [file2] ...'. '^c' kills
the print. Pr was intended for a DeskJet, and may not work
properly on some Epsons, although it seems to work fine on
some.
BUGS, LIMITATIONS and POSSIBLE PROBLEMS:
What works (most of the time): ------------------------------
The interpreter, DeskJet driver, and monochrome screen driver have been tested
on about 9 or 10 postscript source files, which is not very extensive. A file
called 'porsche.ps' is known to crash GS, but the cause has not yet been
determined. Screen resolutions below 40dpi cause GS to crash, so I don't
allow it. I don't know why it crashes yet. There is really no reason to use
resolutions this low anyway.
What might work: ----------------
The Epson and BubbleJet drivers have not been tested at all. Good Luck!
What probably won't work: -------------------------
GS has code in it that apparently prints bitmaps in bands if you don't have
enough memory, but I don't know if that works on the ST (I doubt it does).
What definitely won't work: ---------------------------
I tried to add a command line option '-p', which sends GS output directly to
the printer port using fopen("PRN:","wb"). The redirection works fine, except
that no matter what I do, the data is not interpreted as 'binary' and so it
gets garbled in the process. The '-p' option is available, but it doesn't
work.
Color monitor support is partially implemented, but it doesn't work either.
GS will recoginze low and medium resolutions, but it prints garbage (very
slowly) to the screen--maybe another day.
TIPS:
Here are a few miscellaneous tips.
1) Read the supplied documentation! There isn't much, but it is helpful
and it is quicker than sending me questions.
2) You can change the ghostscript prompt by editing the gs_init.ps file.
Search the file for GS or >, and then change this to whatever you
want the prompt to be.
3) There is a unix newsgroup called gnu.ghostscript.bug, which you
may want to have a look at--also comp.languages.postscript.
4) The ps directory contains some files on which to test ghostscript.
These are some of the files that where used to test the port.
Don't run escher.ps at 300 dpi unless you have lots of time to
waste.
5) GS can be used to view or print the output of dvips. The combination
of TeX, dvips, and GS can be used to preview TeX documents (or
PS output from word processors) on the screen at high resolution
(if you need this sort of thing and have the memory). I have gone
up to 300dpi, but scrolling gets a little slow at that resolution.
FOR MORE INFO:
The original source files, docs, and fonts can be obtained from many places. I
obtained the ones I used from 'uunet.uu.net'.
Send bug reports to:
After 8/25/91
Tim Gallivan Center for Relativity University of Texas Austin, TX
timg@landau.ph.utexas.edu
------------
Category 5, Topic 9
Message 6 Fri Oct 18, 1991
DANTECH [Katie / PSRT] at 15:33 EDT
MidiMike, I could answer that in page after page! VERY briefly, PostScript is
one of the most powerful computer languages ever to come down the pike. It
also just happens to be a knock-out page description language.
To describe a page, you can go two ways. One is to record each and every
pixel. Of course, if you want to go from 300 dpi to 600 dpi, or vise versa,
you'll have some probs. And a single straight line on the page is going to
take a WHOPPING big file, because each one of those *empty* points is going to
have to be described also. Ever notice how big graphics files are? And, of
course, if you want to rotate the picture, or elongate it along one axis, or
scale it, or anything else, you'll need a whole new file, just as big.
PostScript works on a different system. Using a coordinate system of
reference for points on a page, it will go to a given point and work BY
VECTORS. Go in such & so a direction from that point, for this & thus
relative distance, drawing a line that is x wide. You can draw complex (I
mean *complex!*) curves by stating a start point, and end point, and
"influence" points to pull the line into the curve. You can clip or fill,
scale, rotate, translate, wrap words around like letters on a flag in the
breeze. (We've got one file that imitates exactly that effect, btw.) I'll
state flatly: any effect you could achieve with a pen on paper, PostScript can
duplicate. You should see how well you can do signatures, for instance. <g>
This makes PostScript super-powerful. The files are WAY smaller, by an order
of magnitude. You can do it *once*, then vary parameters to scale or what-
have-you. 300 dpi, 600 dpi, 1200 dpi -- SAME file works, just with better
resolution at each level. Best of all, it's machine independent. ANY
computer can run a PostScript printer, and PostScript *itself* works the same
on all platforms. The various drawing programs are machine dependent for the
SCREEN display, but NOT for what comes out of the printer. Don, my boss sysop
on PSRT, uses mainly a IIe and also has a Mac. (He prefers the IIe.) I'm on
an IBM. We pass files back and forth ALL the time.
The PSRT is devoted to the PostScript Language. Our sysop, Don Lancaster, is
the Guru from Computer Shopper, and an expert on PostScript who's been around
since being one of the beta testers on the very FIRST Apple LaserWriter. He's
got an article in our library, titled WHY I LIKE POSTSCRIPT. It's file #339.
You really should read that, and I hope I've whetted you interest enough that
you'll do so.
The PSRT is on p835, and just like the Atari RT, it's a GEnie Value service.
Katie / PSRT
------------
Category 5, Topic 9
Message 7 Sat Nov 02, 1991
S.SCHAPER [Meneldil] at 17:52 EST
How compatible is GhostScript with Post Script? Are the font formats the same
or different. Etc.
------------
Category 5, Topic 9
Message 8 Mon Nov 04, 1991
G.BENNETT10 at 23:58 EST
It is TYPE 1 compatible! Seems that there are no easy ways to convert Adobe
fonts, though. However, it CAN print Mac/PC docs with Type 1 fonts. such as
EPS files. So, in that sense it's better than UltraScript. It works quite
well, as long as you don't mind the weird UNIX-style interface (if you can
call it that).
------------
Category 5, Topic 9
Message 9 Tue Nov 05, 1991
CHERRY.FONTS at 07:18 EST
Umm.. That was a rather confusing message, Graeme. You said it *is* Type-1
compatible but there's no easy way to convert Adobe fonts. Adobe fonts *are*
type-1. What am I missing?
Then you said "However, it CAN print MAC/PC docs with Type-1 fonts. such as
EPS files." That's a confusing statement to say the least!
This leaves me wondering if you made a typo in there somewhere that caused
some of the contradiction.
..Todd (tiring minds want to know!)
------------
Category 5, Topic 9
Message 10 Thu Nov 07, 1991
A.WESTON [Alan] at 08:27 EST
The ghostscript docs list a command to convert adobe type 1 fonts to
Ghostscript format. I can't remember the name of the command, but I did try
it and it didn't work. Has anyone gotten this to work? If so, how?
For those asking about Adobe type 1 compatability, Ghostscript will not work
directly with Adobe type 1 fonts. You must convert them first. And hinting
is not supported. If I can make the conversion work properly I will post what
the results are like. From what I hae seen so far, graphics output to my
DeskJet are quite good. I have only tested several of the included fonts so
far, and the text output isn't so hot.
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Category 5, Topic 9
Message 11 Mon Nov 11, 1991
J.FURUKAWA [SHMOGI] at 03:50 EST
You think anybody out there would be nice and write a GEM front end for
GhostScript?
End of line.
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Category 5, Topic 9
Message 12 Mon Nov 11, 1991
TOWNS [John@Atari] at 20:01 EST
I doubt it. If are serious about PostScript Output, buy something that does it
like UltraScript ST or wait for someone to import the new CompoScript
Interpreter.
-- John
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Category 5, Topic 9
Message 13 Mon Nov 11, 1991
A.WESTON [Alan] at 23:29 EST
Ghostscript emulates Postscript, which is an interpreted language. A GEM
front end is not really possible. It would be like having a GEM front end for
BASIC.
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Category 5, Topic 9
Message 14 Tue Nov 12, 1991
TOWNS [John@Atari] at 01:49 EST
I think he mean't something like UltraScript ST where is allows you to feed
files to UltraScript using a GEM interface..
-- John
------------
Category 5, Topic 9
Message 15 Tue Nov 12, 1991
CHERRY.FONTS at 02:10 EST
Alan, a GEM frontend is plausable and a good idea. In effect, a GEM frontend
would do the same job as something like ArcShell. Or even the Gem Desktop for
that matter. Being an interpreted language doesn't mean it can't use GEM. Take
a look at Ultrascript, it uses a built-in GEM front end.
If one wanted the GEM shell to handle "executive mode", it would certainly be
trickier but not impossible by any means.
..Todd
------------
Category 5, Topic 9
Message 16 Tue Nov 12, 1991
W.PARKS3 [Dr. Bob] at 19:45 EST
When I read that message, the first idea that came into my head was to
bring up Charles's name and suggest that he simply rework Arcshell to
do it. ...but I wanted to try to be a little less flippant, so I didn't.
(there. it's your fault I'm being flippant today;-)
Actually, I have Hisoft's Basic. And it is a "gem" program (at least from
what I understand people mean when they say "gem program")
It's editor makes excellent use of the menu bar and the text is stored in
a window with scroll bars and all that 'gem' like stuff.
So.... "like putting a GEM frontend onto Basic" doesn't really sound like
to bad an idea to me... it sounds like a rather good idea, no?
Bye: Dr. Bob
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Category 5, Topic 9
Message 17 Tue Nov 12, 1991
C.F.JOHNSON [CodeHead] at 20:49 EST
Is this program worth the time to download and mess around trying to get it
to work?
Is the output comparable to Postscript? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I had
the impression it wasn't...
- Charles
------------
Category 5, Topic 9
Message 18 Wed Nov 13, 1991
TOWNS [John@Atari] at 00:32 EST
In a previous message, C.F.JOHNSON [CodeHead] writes:
| Is the output comparable to Postscript? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I
had
|the impression it wasn't...
|
|- Charles
The only thing I know is that it doesn't support hinting.. I thought that
hinting was fairly important in printed output. But, then again.. DTP expert I
am not! ;-)
-- John Townsend, Atari Corp.
------------
Category 5, Topic 9
Message 19 Wed Nov 13, 1991
D.BECKEMEYER [David @ BDT] at 00:49 EST
Charles,
Ghostscript is a postscript interpreter, so it IS postscript. I haven't tried
the Atari port (yet), but I've used the Sun version (and I'd expect that it
would be about the same in terms of output quality). The quality is as good
as any other postscript interpreter for most things, EXCEPT FONTS. I don't
understand all the reasons why, but Ghostscript rendering of fonts doesn't
look very good (to me). I think it has to do with the "hinting" in the Adobe
Postscript fonts, which Ghostscript doesn't support.
------------
Category 5, Topic 9
Message 20 Wed Nov 13, 1991
CHERRY.FONTS at 09:21 EST
Now we're talking about what REALLY separates HE-MAN Postscript language
interpreters from the 97 pound weaklings. Ultrascript handles hinting but only
in its own proprietary font format, not Type-1 format and its dozen or so
varieties of hinting, which is the standard. If you want to use commonly
available fonts in Ultrascript, you have to use Type-3 and there you are
without hinting again.
At least Ghostscript makes a feable attempt at supporting type-1 fonts by
supplying a "converter". Albeit one that clobbers the hints.
Neither method is acceptable in MHO.
..Todd
------------
Category 5, Topic 9
Message 22 Fri Nov 15, 1991
R.SNYDER6 [RSNYDER] at 03:27 EST
I could use a hand.
I've been fooling around with GhostScript, and it work on some files,
(files that I guess are only graphics) but on other files I get an FONTMAP not
found message. The programs' correct, there is no FONTMAP file. Would someone
tell me which of the original compressed files FONTMAP is in? These files take
long enough to download without having to download them all again. Thanks.
--Roger
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Category 5, Topic 9
Message 23 Fri Nov 15, 1991
TOWNS [John@Atari] at 21:27 EST
*WARNING*: John is going into 'guess' mode.. So, don't believe what
I say..
I would imagine that the FONTMAP is probably referring to the fact that
whatever font your PostScript file is referring to isn't available in
GhostScript and it isn't mapped to a GhostScript font.
I could be wrong, but that would be my guess.
BTW.. Interesting info: You can't copyright a font, but you can copyright the
name of the font. This is the reason that you see the same font under
different names from different people.
-- John
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Category 5, Topic 9
Message 24 Fri Nov 15, 1991
FB [ST Librarian] at 22:03 EST
R.Snyder,
I had the same trouble when I was checking the file. Make sure you check your
archive for files without an extention by extracting with just * instead of
*.*. I did a straight -extract filename.zoo on the command line of ZOO and it
got all the files correctly. I had used *.* after the filename.zoo and I
didn't all the files!
Fred Beckman
ST File Librarian
------------
Category 5, Topic 9
Message 25 Sat Nov 16, 1991
R.SENNEMA [Rudy] at 00:20 EST
R.SNYDER6 I referred to a listing of the contents of the GS package that I
downloaded some time ago and it said FONTNAME is in the GS23B.ZOO file as
fonts/fontmap and is 10,697 bytes uncompressed. Is that what you were after?
------------
Category 5, Topic 9
Message 26 Sat Nov 16, 1991
CHERRY.FONTS at 03:57 EST
John, to nitpick: you don't COPYRIGHT a font name, they are simply TRADEMARKS.
A slightly different form of protection. But like you said, that's the reason
AGFA/CompuGraphic call their version of Helvetica(tm) Triumvirate(tm). This
way they don't have to pay royalties to Linotype Corp. The font DESIGN itself
is not protected, just the name.
Font DESIGNS are copyrightable in Germany and France but nowhere else are they
recognised as "original works of authorship". Sad but true.
..Todd
------------
Category 5, Topic 9
Message 27 Sat Nov 16, 1991
M.JONES52 [Jonesy] at 08:16 EST
Todd,
Not just sad, bass-ackwards, seems to me.
------------
Category 5, Topic 9
Message 28 Sun Nov 17, 1991
J.FURUKAWA [SHMOGI] at 06:45 EST
Uh... exactly what Todd said. I was trying to use GS and though to myself,
"Where have I seen THIS before?", meaning the ARC.TTP's.
End of line.
------------
Category 5, Topic 9
Message 29 Mon Nov 18, 1991
R.SNYDER6 [RSNYDER] at 02:08 EST
Thanks everybody for the help. I guess I didn't get all of the files out
of the archive that I was supposed to. Unfortunately, because the GS worked
on the first files I tried, and the archives were taking up room I needed
quickely, I deleted the archives before checking out the program more
completely. When I want to fool around with GS some more I'll have to download
the file again. (Must be time to buy another SyQuest cart.) --Roger
------------
Category 5, Topic 9
Message 30 Tue Nov 19, 1991
DANTECH [Katie / PSRT] at 16:47 EST
We have the IBM version of GhostScript in the PSRT libraries, but we think
it's best used as a PostScript "previewer", since Display PostScript is not
yet standard. (Except on the NeXT.) For the best results, there's still no
equal to the genuine PostScript, imho.
I don't stop by this RT that often, as I don't have an Atari. <gasp!> <g>
But to work with raw PostScript, all you need is a word processor and a
PostScript laser printer. Stop by the PSRT (p835) sometime and check some of
our files.
Katie / PSRT
------------