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From: szeliga@fluke.forestry.umn.edu (Tim Szeliga - NWS)
Subject: HP-GL/2 format converter needed
Message-ID: <szeliga.783817991@fluke>
Followup-To: comp.infosystems.gis
Keywords: HPGL,hp2xx
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Reply-To: szeliga@snow.nohrsc.nws.gov
Organization: University of Minnesota, Twin Cities
Date: Wed, 2 Nov 1994 23:13:11 GMT
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Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu comp.infosystems.gis:26221 comp.sys.hp.apps:2265 sci.image.processing:10664



In trying to convert Arc/Info coverages into rasters, we found that
Arc/Info can export to HPGL, HPGL/2 or PostScript, among other formats.
The difference between the HPGL and HPGL/2 formats seems to be
the HPGL is geared toward pen plotters and HPGL/2 is for 
electrostatic plotters.  The HPGL files are limited to eight colors,
while the HPGL/2 can handle up to 255. 

We came across the HP2XX program, one of the GNU programs, that converts
HP-GL to a variety of vector and raster formats. 
I hoped the hp2xx program could convert the files to PBM rasters
so we could build GIFs and post them, but it doesn't seem to be able
to read the HPGL/2 files at all.   The documentation says that
hp2xx emulates the HP 7550A plotter commands.  Arc/Info documentation
implies that the HPGL format includes the 7550A as one of the plotters,
but the HPGL/2 format is for the HP 7600/355 electrostatic plotter line.

Questions:  Can hp2xx work with HPGL/2 files? 
Are there any plans to include this capability in a future release of HP2XX?
Are there any similar programs that can read HPGL/2 and convert the format?
If we try PostScript output instead, are there any PD conversion packages
for postscript files, (other than ghostscript)?


Tim Szeliga
National Weather Service
tim@nohrsc.nws.gov



