Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!natinst!rpp386!woody
From: woody@rpp386.cactus.org (Woodrow Baker)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: Bitmap of PostScript code..
Summary: bs
Message-ID: <17975@rpp386.cactus.org>
Date: 19 Feb 90 01:37:29 GMT
References: <1990Feb14.041704.14844@athena.mit.edu> <2761@bacchus.dec.com> <30006@sparkyfs.istc.sri.com>
Distribution: na
Organization: River Parishes Programming, Plano, TX
Lines: 40

In article <30006@sparkyfs.istc.sri.com>, zwicky@sparkyfs.istc.sri.com (Elizabeth Zwicky) writes:
> In article <2761@bacchus.dec.com> kent@wsl.dec.com (Christopher A. Kent) writes:
> >How do you get a bitmap of a PostScript file? You can't. 
> 
Go tell that to EMERALD City!
 

> Note that this is the theoretically correct answer, *regardless* of
incorrect answer

> no guarantee that there exists one single equivalent bitmap. Profit
Hmmmmm, so how does the output get put on the page in a standard laserprinter?
guess what, a bitmap is created in the printers memory, then it gets
read and shifted out serialy to control the laser, such that the laser
puts dots down on the drum, and thus an image.  Take a magnifing glass
and look carefully.

> of PostScript programs that have results that can be represented as
> static bitmaps, and there are ways to get those bitmaps, which differ
All bitmaps are static at the time they are produced, and can be snapshotted
if you have the correct code.....that is if the bitmap is held in memory like
most printers are.
t

> As an example of a PostScript program that does not translate to a
> bitmap, but does produce visible output, there is the "snowflake"
> program I wrote for the LaserWriter, which uses the random number
> generator to generate a unique snowflake every time it is printed.
> Given that a bitmap looks the same every time it is printed,
> translating this into a bitmap is not useful.
This makes no sense whatsoever.  The snowflake creates a bit-map in the
printers ram, everytime it is printed.  Now, granted, the same bit map won't
be produced by the execution of the program everytime it is run, but a bitmap
will still be produced.  If one likes  the printed bit map, and desires to
print it at a later date, one would need to either, reseed the random
number generator such that you could reproduce the given snowflake, or
grab the bitmap.....

Cheers
Woody