*NIX Ripping Solutions For Plotters

haogemenr writes: "I work in an all Apple architecture firm, but we have a Linux box that primarily functions as a DSL router. The options for large format plotter drivers in the Macintosh world are few and relatively expensive. PostScript output devices are a great, but expensive solution and HP doesn't provide any Mac-friendly drivers for non-PostScript plotters. What are the *nix solutions? You can write PostScript from CAD application using a generic PostScript driver, but converting PostScript to an RTL file or HPGL2 file is necessary for lots of older plotters. I've heard of an application named makertl, but I haven't been able to find it anywhere. What do Unix folks use for large format image processing?"

Comments

Ghostscript

[Anonymous Coward]

The standard unix tool for processing postscript / pdf files is Ghostscript. It can interpret ps files and generate output in a variety of formats. According to the Ghostscript web page, the Uniprint driver can be used to generate RTL output. HTH.

http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/doc/gnu/dev510.htm

Re:Even though I'm not sure what you are asking:

[Anonymous Coward]

First off, ditch all the Macs.

It's a wonder people even bother with Ask Slashdot when they get "helpful" responses like this.

ps2hpgl

[Anonymous Coward]

I did a google search, and ps2hpgl can be downloaded from mathworks.com. I guess that was too much work.

Re:Possible solutions...

[foniksonik]

CUPS is in Jaguar.

CUPS is implemented by the driver not by PrintCenter. Jaguar provides APIs for 3rd parties to configure CUPS. From what i can tell by reading the docs CUPS won't 'just work' it has to be supported by the printer, again, via the drivers. Once the printer is supported then PrintCenter takes over for management of individual prints and the queue.

CUPS support is meant to enable a faster driver development cycle for printer manufacturers so they don't have to write specifically for the Mac... which gives Mac users a much larger selection of printers w/o added cost.

Quick blurb of revelance:

"The CUPS Imaging library provides functions for managing large images, doing colorspace conversion and color management, scaling images for printing, and managing raster page streams. It is used by the CUPS image file filters, the PostScript RIP, and all raster printers drivers. "