X-Message-Number: 2913
From: Keith Lofstrom <>
Subject: CRYONICS: Postscript ...
Date: Mon, 18 Jul 1994 11:17:34 -0700 (PDT)


Transporting images:  These can be sent as either pixels or line segments.
Pixels are general but expensive.  The best way to move pixels is probably
the JPEG standard, though GIF is currently the most popular.

Line segments are restricted but more compact.  The most widespread ways
to move line segments are HPGL or PCL or Postscript.  Postscript is the
most "vendor independent" solution, and has the advantage of being a 
complete language, which means that in theory it can interpret anything
else. Thus, Postscript is also capable of moving pixels somewhat
inefficiently; I imagine someone has written a JPEG decoder for it.
That being said, Postscript comes in Level 1 and Level 2 flavors;
level 2 is an extension of 1 and not necessarily backwards compatable.
If we use Postscript, we should stick to level 1, so all you folks can
use the Postscript laser printers you found at garage sales.  

There is a public domain package called "Ghostscript" that runs under Unix
and MSDOS that will display Postscript on a PC and print it out on 
non-Postscript printers - achingly slowly, but what else are you planning
on doing with the printer?  

Even Postscript is prolix, so however these images are generated, I propose
we just archive them somewhere accessable, and don't send them out as part
of any mailings.  In an archive, the images can be stored in a number of
different formats anyway, thus rendering this little controversy moot.

Now, back to the topic of preserving our brains, surely the most valuable
way of transporting images into the future :-)

Keith

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