Re: Printing MAC bitmaps on GS

[lstrand@clyde.ics.uci.edu (Leif Strand)]

In article <3gupl8$aei@triode.apana.org.au>,
Andrew Roughan <posty@triode.apana.org.au> wrote:
>
>A friend is distressed because he is unable to mimic the printed output from
>a Macintosh on his Apple IIgs. Pointless allows fonts of comparable quality
>but there seems to be nothing that can be done with a bitmap which he
>converted from the Macintosh using SuperConvert. When printed from the Mac,
>the lines are very smooth, but when printed on the IIgs the lines are very
>jagged. No amount of doctoring with a magnification tool seems to help. Is
>there anything that can be done?

The GS's print resolution only equals that of the Mac when "Condensed" is
selected in the "Page Setup" dialog -- or, in the case of 320 mode graphics,
"50% reduction".

I assume the real SuperConvert is like the demo version I have, in which case
you only have two options when converting a MacPaint bitmap:  320 mode B&W and
640 mode greyscale.  The problem with a 320 mode conversion is that it will be
severely cropped:  you will lose everything of the original full-page image
except the top left corner -- but what's left will look good printed at 50%
reduction.  The other option, 640 mode greyscale, tweaks the image to
compensate for the 5:12 aspect ratio of 640 mode pixels, so that it won't
be "stretched" vertically.  The result is that the conversion looks good on
the screen, and while you can capture all of the original full-page image, it
will print poorly.

What you really need is a stretched, 640 mode B&W conversion.  There is only
one program that I know of that can do this:  the "Show It!" NDA/Finder
extension.  Unfortunately, while the docs say the program can save converted
images, it isn't really true -- the save options are in fact a choice between
a "Invalid pathname syntax" error message and crashing the system.

So I guess the answer is that it's possible but unimplemented.  :-(

--Leif Strand