Re: unified FLTK & Gnuplot printing

[Ben Abbott]

On Aug 25, 2010, at 9:32 PM, Ben Abbott wrote:

> On Aug 23, 2010, at 9:13 PM, Ben Abbott wrote:
> 
>> I've prepared a changeset to unify the printing for both the FLTK and 
>> Gnuplot backends.
>> 
>> For both backends, ghostscript is relied upon more heavily than before. 
>> Ghostscript is used to produce most output formats from an eps image of the 
>> figure.  The output formats based upon an eps image are bmp, jpg, pbm, pcx, 
>> pdf, pgm, pgn, pnm, ppm, ps, and tiff. Using an eps image as the basis for 
>> most output formats allow all those formats to benefit from efforts invested 
>> in eps output.
>> 
>> Some improvements to Gnuplot printing include;
>> 
>> (1) The "-tight" option applies to all output derived from eps files.
>> (2) The size option "-SXSIZE,YSIZE'" applies to all output formats which 
>> accept size specifications.
>> (3) The font option "-FFONTNAME:SIZE" applies to all output formats which 
>> accept font specification.
>> (4) The "output_to_paper", "implicit_margin", and "__pixels_per_inch__" 
>> variables have been eliminated.
>> (5) As ps and pdf output are derived by placing an eps image on a page, the 
>> paper properties are handled precisely.
>> 
>> The above options also apply to the FLTK backend. In addtion, the "-mono", 
>> "-color", "-solid" and "-dashed" options apply to all output formats, for 
>> both backends, that support these line types.
>> 
>> Other noticeable changes are improvements in placement/spacing of the axes 
>> and tick labels. These improvements are most noticeable for the Gnuplot 
>> "aqua", and "svg" terminals. In addition, the Gnuplot "eps" output now 
>> produces the fontsizes specified by the object properties (before they were 
>> half the size ... a Gnuplot feature).
>> 
>> While I've done a lot of testing, more is needed. In particular, I'd like to 
>> see printing to non-postscript printers tested on Linux, BSD, and Windows 
>> (mingw, cygwin, and native if possible).
>> 
>> If anyone has a favorite output format, please take the time to check it now 
>> before my feeble memory forgets the details of what I've done ;-)
>> 
>> If no significant problems surface by the end of the week, I'll push this 
>> changeset.
>> 
>> Ben
>> 
>> <changeset.patch>
> 
> This is a refresh of the changeset. The color/mono option is handled by 
> gnuplot (rather than changing the RGB values in Octave). I've also attempted 
> to have the gnuplot backend produce level1 ps output for eps, epsc, ps, and 
> psc output (not sure that it is working).
> 
> Before committing, I still need to either mark the temp files, or delete them.
> 
> Ben
> 
> <changeset.patch>

I've pushed the changeset.

        http://hg.savannah.gnu.org/hgweb/octave/summary

Ben