[432] in Public-Access_Computer_Systems_Forum
Postscript Files
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Public-Access Computer Systems For)
Fri Jun 5 10:56:52 1992
Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1992 09:40:50 CDT
Reply-To: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU>
From: Public-Access Computer Systems Forum <LIBPACS%UHUPVM1.BITNET@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU>
To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L%UHUPVM1.BITNET@RICEVM1.RICE.EDU>
3 Messages, 107 Lines
*-----
From: tdowling@lib.washington.edu (Thomas Dowling)
Subject: Re: Postscript Files
I maintain the University of Washington's Internet notebook, which is
intended primarily for library staff, but which is starting to see some
use in other departments. It is distributed only in hardcopy and PostScript
flavors because we have put a fair bit of effort into formatting it for
legibility and comprehensibility. I have no intention of making an ASCII
version, partly because I do not want to give up these typographical
niceties (and partly because I don't really see a need for yet another
widely distributed guide).
> Regardless of what is becoming a network standard, not all of us have
> access to a postscript printer, to a macintosh, etc. I don't know anyone
> who uses postscript. None of the MACS in our office are hooked to a modem.
> Files with pre-existing pages, even in Word Perfect which I use, never
> match my style of printing.
Have you asked around? I'd be amazed if Portland State didn't have a
PostScript printer somewhere that you could get at. If not, call a local
Kinko's.
> I've been waiting for months for Zen and the Art of the Internet to be
> available in ASCII. I would love to read it and see if I can use it to
> teach the Internet. But, without an ASCII version, I can't do it. (I did
> try to download the postscript version once, and couldn't even do that,
> even with all of the correct (I think) binary codes.)
Zen is also available in TeX format. I'd be extra amazed if you campus
computing facilities don't have some way of printing TeX documents.
> So please, if at all possible, please make all those wonderful guides
> available in ASCII, as well as other formats. Those of us with outdated
> systems, who lack the "right" printers, and/or who can't handle those
> immense binary files will thank you.
(As has been pointed out elsewhere, PostScript--and TeX for that matter--
are text formats.)
Thomas Dowling
University of Washington Engineering Library
*-----
From: "Pendergast, Stephen" <0000440@MSGATE.EMIS.hac.com>
Subject: RE: Postscript files
My experience with postscript files is based on printing to a postscript file
on a macintosh, and on postscript files I have obtained from archival sites on
the net which tend to be huge.
For example, I just took an 8 page straight ascii text document which was
20,759 bytes, which compressed using MacCompress3.2 to 11,403 bytes. I printed
it to a postscript file occupying 72,056 bytes using MsWord 4.0 formatted with
Courier 12 pt font only on a Macintosh with the Laserwriter 7.1 driver, which
compressed to a 35,793 byte file. The prologue of the uncompressed ps file was
35,500, and the document text tookup 36,500 bytes. This 3:1 compressed file
size scale seems to be fairly consistent, regardless of source of the
postscript.
It gets worse if multiple and proportional fonts and graphics are used, and
although the prologue overhead fraction might go down as the size of the
document goes up, larger documents seem to need more fonts and formatting, and
tend to have embedded graphics. The text in the postscript file is of course
almost impossible to read or edit with a standard text editor, and cannot be
incorporated for searching or indexing into any sort of on-line database
currently available.
IMHO Postscript is great for printing, but these problems, in addition to its
Proprietary nature, make it suboptimal for on line document exchange.
*-----
From: Andy Boze <ABOZE@VMA.CC.ND.EDU>
Subject: Re: Postscript Files
In a recent message to PACS-L, Terry Chadwick called for documents like
_Zen and the Art of the Internet_ to be made available in ASCII as well
as PostScript and other formats because many people do not have access
to PostScript printers, thus have no way to print PS files.
In fact there is a way to print PS files on non-PS printers. I don't
believe I've seen anyone mention a program called GhostScript, which is
a PS interpreter. GhostScript supports several popular printers. I
printed _Zen..._ on my Epson LQ500 with very acceptable results. You'll
need a hard disk to run GS; it requires about 4.5MB of disk space. Most
of that is for all of the font files. Best of all, GS is free! No
registration fee or anything.
GS can be gotten by anonymous FTP from WUARCHIVE.WUSTL.EDU. It can be
found in directory /mirrors/msdos/postscript. You'll need the files
GS241PS.ZIP and either GS241286.ZIP or GS241386.ZIP depending upon
whether your machine is 8088/80286 or 80386/80486. There are also
13 or 14 font collections that you'll find listed there, too. Notice that
the files are archived in ZIP format so you'll need an unzip program to
unarchive the files. If you need an unzip program, you'll find several
in directory /mirrors/msdos/zip. One you might try is PKZ110EU.EXE.
If anyone has questions or problems with any of this, you may contact
me directly.
Andy Boze Internet: AWCXCH@IRISHMVS.CC.ND.EDU
PC/LAN Coordinator or ABOZE@VMA.CC.ND.EDU
University Libraries of Notre Dame BITNet: AWCXCH@IRISHMVS
221 Hesburgh Library
Notre Dame, IN 46556 Phone: (219) 239-8708
