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*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?"
First off, ditch all the Macs.
It's a wonder people even bother with Ask Slashdot when they get "helpful" responses like this.
I did a google search, and ps2hpgl can be downloaded from mathworks.com. I guess that was too much work.
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. "
A fool throws a stone into a well and a thousand sages can not remove it.
Ghostscript (gs) basically converts postscript to a bitmap, then uses whatever drivers it has to convert that to the needed format.
This works reasonably well for pictures and stuff, but for a plotter this would be iffy at best. When you actually printed it out, rather than drawing the lines as designed, the pen would trace a line across the page, go down a tiny bit, trace another line, go down a tiny bit, trace another line, etc. As needed, the pen would be raised and dropped, probably drawing lots of dots. Eventually, it would probably draw the picture ok, but it could take hours, and would wear out your plotter.
This all assumes that what I know about plotters hasn't become totally obsolete. When I worked with plotters like 15 years ago, that's how they worked. Maybe they're fancier now.
To put this in video game terms -- think a Vectrex vs an Atari 2600. The Vectrex draws lines, and they look perfect (in arcade terms, think the original Star Wars game, think Asteroids, Star Castles.) The 2600 drew bitmaps -- less precise, but more flexible (think the arcade Space Invaders.)