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README.pp
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README
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Postscript interpreter - README
===============================
Post V1.1 Copyright Adrian Aylward 1989, 1990
This distribution was released as the archive file "post11.lzh", 27-Mar-90
Files in this distribution:
README This file
Post.info Icon file
post User interface
post.doc Documentation file
postband Band printing driver
postband.doc Documentation file
post.library Shared library for Amiga 500/1000/2000
post.library.2620 Shared library for Amiga 2500 etc. (68020/030, 68881/2)
init.ps Standard postscript startup file
Source files, for programmers:
source/icon.ps The postscript program that built the icon
source/post.c User interface, C main program
source/postband.c Band printing driver, C main program
source/postasm.a User interface, assembler support
source/postlib.h Library interface header
source/postlib.doc Documentation file
source/makefile Make file
You will also need:
arp.library Arp library, V39+
conman ConMan, V1.3+
You should find these on "All Good BBS's/disk libraries"
You will need at least a megabyte of memory. Even with a megabyte you
will have not be able to generate a full page colour on the screen. For
high density printer output (A4 at 300 dpi.) you will need 2 megabytes!
If memory is very tight, try running from the CLI, before workbench has
been loaded.
Before using Post you will need to copy the library (post.library or
post.2620.library) into your libs: directory.
Examples
========
The examples and demo programs are now being distributed separately. Look
out for the file "psdemos1.lzh". (If you have the prerelease "post02.lzh"
there is no need to download them, as they have not changed significantly).
The startup file
================
The standard startup file "init.ps" should be run before most programs. You
should read it and the comments within it, as you may wish to customise it.
It defines useful operators to mimic a standard PostScript printer. It
also handles automatic font downloading (see below).
Fonts
=====
As there are no fonts built in to the interpreter, all fonts must be loaded
from the disk, as PostScript source. The standard startup file redefines
the findfont operator to automatically load fonts from the disk the first
time they are referenced. To use this, build a directory "PSFonts:"
containing your PostScript fonts. (NOT Amiga bitmapped fonts!). The file
names should be the same as the PostScript names, without the '/'. You can
add an extension if you wish, by editing the startup file. You can also
make it search more than one directory, for examples to load the PPage CG
fonts from "CGFonts:PS". The startup fil also defines a default font,
which will be substituted if the font your program requests cannot be found.
Since a font is loaded into the vm just like any other PostScript code, it
will be discarded when the vm is restored. This means that in a multiple
page document the fonts will likely be reloaded on every page. To save time,
it is usually much better to preload the fonts you are going to need. You
can do this using the "load font" menu command, or you can write yourself
a little PostScript program to load your favourite fonts. (Exercise for
the user: write a driver to extract the font names from a conforming
PostScript program and preload them.) If you are using several different
fonts at once you will probably need to increase the default vm size to
contain them.
There are a number of commercial source for fonts. Make sure they are
standard (type 3) fonts. The Adobe encrypted fonts (type 1) will not work
with this version of Post.
There are also various shareware and PD fonts available. Many of these were
derived from the Mac or IBM. They may still be in a foreign file format.
The file should be converted to readable ASCII, with no strange control
characters. Some of the fonts have Mac encoding vectors. You won't notice
the difference for the standard ASCII characters, as they are the
same, but you may have to convert to the standard encoding to get
more unusual characters like the trademark sign to work. (Programs
like Adobe illustrator do their own font encoding anyway.) You
will need to know some PostScript to make this change. If you
see the sequence "/Helvetica findfont /Encoding get" or
"<dictionary> /MacVec get" try replacing it with "StandardEncoding".
You are recommended to ensure all your fonts have UniqueID's.
This makes the font caching code more efficient. Often all you have
to do is uncomment them in the source. Any number will do for the
ID (up to 2**24 - 1), as long as it is different for each of your
fonts. Make it a multiple of 4, as Adobe recommend adding 1 or 2
to the ID when modifying the font.
Each font should have a FontName entry. This isn't actually
required by Adobe, but certain programs such as Adobe Illustrator
copy the font directory when recoding the font. If the name is
missing, you get a dictionary full error after the name has been
added.