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- HP-GL to POSTSCRIPT TRANSLATOR
- ______________________________
-
- QUME Laser Printer Setting
- __________________________
-
- Before use of the Qume Laser printer ensure that the
- switch on the back of the Laser printer is set on 7,
- which is serial connection at 9600 baud.
-
- About the Program
- _________________
-
- The HP-GL to postscript translator translates any HP-GL command file which has
- the supported commands into POSTRSCRIPT. The supported commands currently are
- PD, PU, PA, PR, AR and AA, and commands such as VS, IP, and SP are recognised
- but are not used by POSTSCRIPT as yet.
-
- Options on PROGRAM
- __________________
-
- The program hptopost has various options that will allow certain parameters
- to be set before a plotfile is read in. These options MUST follow the file name
- of the HP-GL plot file name otherwise an 'Illegal Option' error will be shown
- by the program. The options current available are as follows:
- -q This indicates that a QikDraw generated plotfile is to be
- read in. No further options are required, if using this option.
-
- -c n This indicates the number of copies required to be printed.
- The n indicates the number of copies required to be printed.
- NOTE : this can be changed at a later date by the user by editing
- the postscript output file using a GOOD word processor or editor
- and by replacing the line /#copies 1 def by the /#copies n def
- where n is the number of copies.
-
- -s sc The scale factor to scale UP or scale DOWN the drawing on the
- page. Scaling UP will mean only a part of the drawing will appear
- on the page, while scaling down will reduce the size of the
- drawing. DEFAULT value is one (1). The variable sc can have
- a value greater then one.
-
- -l Rotates the plot file by 90 Degrees to display the drawing in
- landscape mode.
-
- -o paper The output paper size that the drawing is being printed on.
- For most users this is A4 which is the default value and does
- not need to be changed, however for users having the ability
- to print on various paper sizes, then the following options
- are allowed.
- A3 A4 A5 B4 B5 LETTER LEGAL STATEMENT 11X17
-
- -p n The Paper size that the plot file was scaled to. Only paper
- sizes from A0 (n=0) to A4 (n=4) are supported. This is used
- to scale the drawing from the paper size written in the plot
- file to an A4 sheet on the laser printer.
-
- -xoff x The drawing is offset by a specified amount in the X direction.
- The parameter x is in mm and based on the offset that a user
- requires on the paper that is currently being printed on.
-
- -yoff y The drawing is offset by a specified amount in the Y direction.
- The parameter x is in mm and based on the offset that a user
- requires on the paper that is currently being printed on.
-
- Creating a POSTSCRIPT FILE from QikDraw
- _______________________________________
-
- To generate a POSTSCRIPT file from QikDraw a PLOT File needs to be created by
- the user. This plot cannot have any offset commands in it otherwise the plot
- will be also offset on the laser printer output. The sequence of events to
- generate the POSTSCRIPT file to send to the laser printer is as follows:
-
- 1) With a DRAWING on the screen, SELECT
- SET *PLOTR
-
- 2) Select the HP747x type plotter.
-
- 3) Type in 'f' to generate a HP-GL plot file.
-
- 4) Type in the plot file name.
-
- 5) Answer all the other plot parameters with the default
- parameters, ensuring that the x offset and y offset are
- both zero (0).
-
- 5) SELECT either
- DRAW PLOT DRAWG for a displayed drawing or
- DRAW PLOT ALL for a displayed sub-drawing
-
- NOTE: With a sub-drawing the plot file will only contain what
- is displayed on the screen and also the scaling will be
- incorrect on the output page. It is recommended that
- drawings be used to display drawings 'nicely'
-
- 6) QUIT QikDraw and return to the MS-DOS operating system.
-
- 7) To generate the POSTSCRIPT file the program hptopost needs to be
- run, with the -q option indicating that the plot file is a QikDraw
- generated plot file. Output from this program needs to be redirected
- to a file to allow print of it. This can be done by using the
- standard redirecting command in MS-DOS to a file as shown below.
- The form of the command is as follows:
-
- hptopost plotfilename -q >postscriptfilename
-
- 8) When the program has finished the MS-DOS PRINT command can be used
- to print the postscript file to the print ensuring that it is sent
- to the correct output device (COM1 or COM2 if serial, LPT1 if
- parallel).
-
-
- --o00o--