Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!pasteur!aoki@postgres.Berkeley.EDU
From: aoki@postgres.Berkeley.EDU (Paul M. Aoki)
Newsgroups: comp.graphics
Subject: file format interchange (was: TIFF files)
Message-ID: <12036@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 6 Apr 89 02:59:10 GMT
References: <1685@ubu.warwick.UUCP> <11100004@iuvax>
Sender: news@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU
Reply-To: aoki@postgres.Berkeley.EDU (Paul M. Aoki)
Organization: Postgres Research Group, UC Berkeley
Lines: 42

In the interest of cutting the file-format conversion traffic,
here goes, the how-to-assemble-the-penultimate-conversion-package
posting ..

In article <11100004@iuvax> jwd@iuvax.cs.indiana.edu writes:
>I would also be interested in a TIFF to PostScript converter,
>or a TIFF to X Windows bitmap converter!

Sam Leffler's TIFF package has a TIFF to PS tool.  Once something 
is in a PS grayscale form it probably wouldn't be too hard to
massage it by hand into another grayscale file format, at which 
point you can use Michael Mauldin's FBM package and Jef Poskanzer's
PBM package to convert to a *whole bunch* of different formats
(i.e., tiff2ps to get PS, hand-tweak the PS, use FBM to dither and
produce a .pbm file, use PBM to turn the .pbm into a .xbm file ..)
Eventual FBM support of TIFF is rumored, which would cut out a few steps;
meanwhile, if you hack a tool to convert from TIFF PS to any other
format, why not post it.

Despite my need to wrap up my MS quickly, I've been playing a bit
with these packages.  FBM and PBM work *very* well together -- my
store of X bitmaps has increased tremendously now that I can 
convert nearly any pixmap that I have access to into a bitmap,
giving any of a zillion options to tweak the halftoning process .. 
good stuff, fun to play with.

And while you're at it, when you convert something to bitmap form,
why not submit it to Jef Poskanzer's (jef@helios.ee.lbl.gov) bitmap 
collection, which is publically available from expo (see below).
Stamp out bitmap hoarding!

So, anyway, collect all of this stuff and you're more or less set.  
(People with really obscure/uncommon formats are still sort of hosed, 
but they already knew that.)

TIFF:	ucbvax.berkeley.edu:pub/tiff.tar.Z
FBM:	nl.cs.cmu.edu:/usr/mlm/ftp/fbm.tar.Z
PBM:	expo.lcs.mit.edu:contrib/pbm.tar.Z
----------------
Paul M. Aoki
CS Division, Dept. of EECS // UCB // Berkeley, CA 94720		(415) 642-1863
aoki@postgres.Berkeley.EDU					...!ucbvax!aoki