Conference hydra::amiga_v1

    No .. however, if you ask the question, "Can the Amiga generate
    Postscript output files," then the answer is yes.
    
    Pagesetter for the Amiga has a utility that generates a Postscript
    file from a Pagesetter file, which you can then send to a Postscript
    printer (like an LPS40). There is also a PD utility that converts
    any IFF file to a Postscript file for printing on a Postscript printer.
    
    Paul

    re .-1: Do you have that program (possibly even on-line)?

    JON""::disk$user:[SANTIAGO.AMIGA]claz.shar
     "    "  "     "  "     "  "  "  claz_bin.shar

    There is a later version called CLAZ2.

    
    In case anyone is interested I have claz working on the VAX.  This
    works nicely with an LPS40.  I have a nice 11x14 pic of OPUS hanging
    in my office.  I find this to be very useful as IFF files are fairly
    small and can be uploaded in a short period of time.  I can finally
    get good hardcopies of charts and things for work applications too.
    Uploading postscript files is almost out of the question.  Opus.iff was
    something like 32 blocks, but opus.postscript was 942!
    
    The only difficulty with this program is getting the aspect ratio
    correct.  To get a decent 8.5x11.0 picture of opus try the following
    command:
    
    $ claz opus.iff opus.ps 20 30 600 800

    The files are in ant::bipolar:[smcafee.public]claz.*
                                                  opus.iff
    
    regards,
    
    steve mcafee

    
    Forgot to mention this uses argc and argv so it has to be defined
    as a foreign command:
    
    $ claz :== $yourdisk:[yourdir]claz
    
    - steve

       Can anyone out there, who has played with CLAZ more than I have
       (which isn't much), tell me the simplest way of appending the
       resulting postscript (PS) files into a single file, thus
       eliminating the need to queue them individually to the LPS40?   
       
       My application would be something like producing multiple IFF
       files using DPaintII representing the pages of a presentation (all
       with the same size/resolution/bitmap/palette characteristics so
       that aspect ratios and the like remain constant), transfer the
       individual files to the VAX, Claz them, append the PS files and
       queue the file to the LPS.
       
       Is it as simple as appending the PS files on the VAX using the
       copy command?  If so, is it also necessary to do some editing -
       such as removing the "header" information from all the files
       except the first one, and ensuring they are seperated by
       "showpage"?
       
       Can you append the IFF files and run the single file through CLAZ?
       
       What I am trying to eliminate is the amount of time I spend
       waiting on individual queued jobs (we have 1 printer and a large
       user base) and the accumulated amount of time it takes to "think"
       before it actually prints.
       
       Thanks - Art
       

PostScript is pretty forgiving - simply appending the files should work
okay.  Depending on how the files use memory, you may get a VMERROR when
you do this.  If so, put a "save" and "restore" around the individual
pages.

	/so save def
	  page 1
	showpage
	so restore

	/so save def
	  page 2
	showpage
	so restore

The order of "showpage" vs "restore" is always a question.  You can read
recent notes in REGENT::POSTSCRIPT to locate some information about "friendly"
.vs. "unfriendly" postscript code.

Re: .8

>       What I am trying to eliminate is the amount of time I spend
>       waiting on individual queued jobs (we have 1 printer and a large
>       user base) and the accumulated amount of time it takes to "think"
>       before it actually prints.

I don't think that you will see any speed improvement in appending the
print files together.  That "think" time that occurs at the start of
your job is not due to any overhead of the printer in starting a job;
instead is it time needed for the printer to construct the bitmap from
the huge postscript output created by CLAZ.

CLAZ converts your typical IFF picture into a 800 block postscript file.
The postscript file contains a small postscript program that reads an
ASCII-ized version of the bitmap from the IFF file.  Because of the
inefficiency in representing the bitmap in such a way, the resulting
file is huge.  (The postscript program reads the data, converts it
to binary, and scales the bitmap up to the size of the full page.)

In other words, you are printing an 800 block file.  That takes time.
Nothing is output during the 15 minutes to "print" the file because
the printer has to read and process the entire file before it can finish
producing the bitmap.

If you are in a hacking mood, you could go in and alter CLAZ to output
a black-white bitmap instead of 16 gray levels.  That would reduce the
size of the files to be printed to the 200 block range, and speed up
printing by a factor of four.  (Besides, black and white is all you
need for slides, right?)

	I am trying to print a postcript file on an LN03 ScriptWriter
	and all I get is 10 pages of numbers.   I converted what
	I believe to be an IFF file to postscript using claz.exe
	which seems to complete ok.

	Any ideas why I can't get a printout?

	Thanks, Drew

    You may be going through the ASCII-to-PostScript translator.
    When you send the file to the ScriptWriter, be sure to specify
    a queue that passes PostScript without translation.
        John Sauter

    If you are printing from a VAXmate (or PC) host, try COPYing the
    file to the printer instead of PRINTing it.

    YUou do need to tell the printer that you are sending it a postscript
    file.

Correct.  After running the IFF image through claz.exe I was successful 
printing the postfix file on an LN03R ScriptWriter with the following 
print command.

print/param=(data_type=postscript)