Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!rutgers!apple!well!pokey From: pokey@well.UUCP (Jef Poskanzer) Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript Subject: Re: Bitmap decompression in PostScript? Message-ID: <10529@well.UUCP> Date: 30 Jan 89 08:55:36 GMT References: <432@skep2.ATT.COM> Reply-To: Jef Poskanzer Organization: Paratheo-Anametamystikhood Of Eris Esoteric, Ada Lovelace Cabal Lines: 19 In the referenced message, wcs@skep2.UUCP (Bill.Stewart) wrote: >Does anyone have a Postscript program that can be downloaded to a >Postscript printer to uncompress bitmaps? The pbmtops filter in recent versions of the PBM package does run-length encoding. However, for all but the slowest printer links, this is slightly slower than sending the raw bitmap. The decrease in transmission time is slightly more than compensated for by the increase in processing time. Perhaps the decoding routine I wrote is suboptimal; perhaps the slowness of current PostScript interpreters makes it a hard problem. As far as I know, everyone who has tried this compression trick has come up with the same slight increase in time. But if anyone wants to prove me wrong and send me a faster decoding routine, I'll be glad to use it. --- Jef Jef Poskanzer jef@helios.ee.lbl.gov ...well!pokey There is no substitute for good manners, except, perhaps, fast reflexes.