Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!wuarchive!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!cornell!johnhlee
From: johnhlee@hermod.cs.cornell.edu (John H. Lee)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Amiga Print Quality
Keywords: Desktop Publishing, Word Processing
Message-ID: <50001@cornell.UUCP>
Date: 21 Dec 90 07:20:25 GMT
References: <47347@apple.Apple.COM> <49751@cornell.UUCP> <47459@apple.Apple.COM>
Sender: nobody@cornell.UUCP
Reply-To: johnhlee@cs.cornell.edu (John H. Lee)
Organization: Cornell Univ. CS Dept, Ithaca NY
Lines: 56
Summary:
Followup-To:

In article <47459@apple.Apple.COM> farrier@Apple.COM (Cary Farrier) writes:
[...]
>What about graphics.library?  All that Quickdraw is is just the Mac/GS version
>of the Amiga graphics.library.  In order for an application to draw into
>a bitmap, it is most likely using the graphics library routines to draw
>into an offscreen rast port structure, then sending the resulting output
>to the printer driver.  
>
>Also, the fault lies in the system software, not in the application.  Would
>you ask every developer to create their own screen rendering routines,
>rather than supply a graphics.library?  No, you wouldn't, because the
>results would be too varied and the quality would vary greatly.  This is the
>same with printer drivers.

You misunderstood me.  Of course graphics.library supplies drawing
primitives.  You are asking for an image description model like Postscript.
The fault is not in the system software because the system software was
never designed to support such capabilities.  The application has very clear
idea of what you want (print using a font at a specific point-size) and it
can print that font at the printer's resolution by using a font with larger
pixel dimensions, utilizing the system-supplied routines.

[...]
>I don't suggest the automatic scaling of fonts, I suggested that a printer
>driver would be able to hunt for larger font sizes in the system that could
>be substituted.

The printer driver has no concept of a font.

[...]
>This is a backwards approach. The application should tell the driver to
>draw all text, regardles of font and size.  This would not hinder the
>rendering of graphics on the same page, as the application can just as
>easily send a bitmap to be placed at a given location on the page.

Again, you are assuming the printer driver has more capabilities than it
does.  It does not implement a high-level output model like Postscript, nor
does it maintain a printer image buffer (too much memory.)  There is no way
to tell the driver to "print font x at size y at position z" besides the
limited ANSI character-based printer control.  The printer driver is
designed to be fast, lightweight, and simple--present an ANSI ASCII printer
and a rastport-dump interface.

However, this job is ideal for a different system driver that supports such
a model and dumps to the printer driver.  The HPGL driver posted previously
is a perfect example.

[...]
>Thanks for the opinions.

You're welcome.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The DiskDoctor threatens the crew!  Next time on AmigaDos: The Next Generation.
	John Lee		Internet: johnhlee@cs.cornell.edu
The above opinions of those of the user, and not of this machine.