Xref: utzoo comp.lang.postscript:5325 comp.sources.wanted:12278
Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wang!tegra!phillips
From: phillips@tegra.COM (Steve Phillips)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript,comp.sources.wanted
Subject: Re: Saving forms to PS printer disk
Keywords: Postscript, disk cache
Message-ID: <1083@tegra.COM>
Date: 28 Jun 90 15:18:53 GMT
References: <18099@ttidca.TTI.COM>
Reply-To: phillips@tegra.UUCP (Steve Phillips)
Organization: Tegra-Varityper, Inc. Billerica, MA
Lines: 54

In article <18099@ttidca.TTI.COM> schear@ttidca.TTI.COM (Steve Schear) writes:
>I am working on a project which requires the rapid display of filled in
>forms. We are currently using a DataProducts LZ1260i (which I believe
>does not have a provision for a disk support), but could switch to a
>LW NTX if required.
>
>My question is this.  Could PS code be sent to a PS printer, which
>supports an attached disk, which could store an imaged document
>(just prior to printing) in such a way as to be easily recalled
>from disk (in a later job) and have information "filled-in" over
>the form and printed?  Imaging time of the forms we would like
>to use is much to slow, and a faster printer does not appear to
>be an acceptable solution either.
>
>I've heard that PS2 will include such a feature, but my problem
>is immediate.  Any suggestions?

I'll take advantage of the opportunity to put in a plug for
the product I work on, the Varityper 5000.  Our PostScript
interpreter provides PostScript commands to save page bitmaps
to disk and to call these pre-imaged pages out from other jobs
Our customers use it for applications like forms generation
or for adding logos or other commonly used symbols to their
documents.

Now that I've gotten my plug out of the way... :^)

On a low-resolution printer which uses a frame buffer (e.g. most
300-DPI printers) you might be able to use the copypage operator
to accomplish what you're trying to do.  Draw your basic form,
add the text, and do copypage to show the first page.  For each
successive page, erase the text you've previously drawn by
overwriting it in white, draw the new text, and do another
copypage.  This should run fairly quickly, since the form will
have been imaged only for the first page.  For the pages after it,
only the erasing and the new text need to be drawn.

Unfortunately, this trick only works for low-resolution printers.
Higher-resolution devices can't afford the memory for a full page
bitmap, so they store all of the page elements in a display list.
The entire display list is reimaged for every page, so you wouldn't
get any benefit out of the copypage operator.  In fact, each page
would actually slow down, since all of the layers of text and erase
boxes would have to be reimaged for every page.

So play around with copypage - it might solve your problem.

- Steve

-- 
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Steve Phillips                                         Tegra-Varityper, Inc.
tegra!phillips@uunet.com                               Billerica, MA
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