| Re: Alternative (user-defined) device drivers??? [message #850] |
Wed, 28 April 1993 07:59 |
bowman
Messages: 121
Registered: September 1991
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Senior Member |
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In article <1993Apr27.181034.5822@ll.mit.edu>, ryba@ll.mit.edu (Marty Ryba)
wrote:
>
> In our laboratory, the use of IDL and PV-Wave is increasing, and we have
> come across one bottleneck: our Publications department. The graphic arts
> people use (I believe) Abobe Illustrator on MacIntosh's. They are loath
> to incorporate user-supplied graphics in Encapsulated PostScript or such,
> since it is impossible to edit, and I'm not sure if Illustrator supports
> CGM files. Besides, CGM doesn't support some of the niceties of PostScript
> (e.g., Helvetica-Bold at correct point size). Illustrator does have a
> device-independent Interchange Format, and someone at the lab has written
> a plotting program (at least for XY plots) that can output EPS or this
> interchange format. What I'd like to do is build a device driver for this
> format inside IDL so I can utilize the full power of IDL in graphics for
> submission. Currently, Pubs just scans and hand-edits the graphics--a
> real waste of time. Would this be possible to implement? Or should I beat
> on Pubs to accept EPSI and/or CGM?
Canvas will import CGM files, so one method I use is to create CGM files
and use Canvas to edit them. I can adjust line widths and replace stroke
fonts with Postscript fonts. It is not ideal, but it is better than
editing a scanned document, since it preserves the 'objects' in the
graphic.
When possible, I try to tweak the Postscript plotting so that I don't have
to edit it at all. This does make the IDL programs longer and more
complicated. I can generally get acceptable final graphics except when I
have things like 3-D wiremesh plots, since standard Postscript won't do 3-D
transformations of fonts. You do have to put up with some minor quirks,
like incorrectly aligned labels on the y-axis in graphs. If these are a
serious problem, you can use method 1 (CGM files).
------------------------------------------------------------ ---------------
Dr. Kenneth P. Bowman 409-862-4060
Climate System Research Program 409-862-4132 fax
Department of Meteorology bowman@csrp.tamu.edu
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX 77843-3150
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