hp2xx(1)hp2xx(1)NAMEhp2xx - A HPGL converter into some vector- and raster for-
mats
USAGEhp2xx [-options] [hpgl-file(s)]
OPTION SUMMARY
Option Format Default Description
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
General options:
-c char * 11111111 Pen color(s). Valid: 1 to 8 digits of 0-7 each.
0=off, 1=black, 2=red, 3=green, 4=blue, 5=cyan,
6=magenta, 7=yellow.
-f char * "" Name of output file. "" = autom., "-" = stdout
-l char * "" Name of optional log file
-m char * pre Mode. Valid (some are compile-time options):
mf,cad,dxf,em,emf,epic,eps,escp2,fig,jpg,gpt,hpgl,
rgip,pcl,pcx,pic,img,pbm,png,pre,svg,tiff,pdf,nc
-p char * 11111111 Pensize(s) [dots] (default), [1/10 mm] (mf, ps).
Valid: 1 to 8 digits of 0-9 (or characters A-Z for
widths beyond 0.9mm) each.
-P int 0:0 Selected page range (m:n) (0 = 0:0 = all pages)
-q off Quiet mode. No diagnostic output.
-r double 0.0 Rotation angle [deg]. -r90 gives landscape
-s char * hp2xx.swp Name of swap file
Size controls:
-a double 1.0 Aspect factor. Valid: > 0.0
-h double 200 Height [mm] of picture
-w double 200 Width [mm] of picture
-x double - Preset xmin value of HPGL coordinate range
-X double - Preset xmax value of HPGL coordinate range
-y double - Preset ymin value of HPGL coordinate range
-Y double - Preset ymax value of HPGL coordinate range
-z double 1.0 Z engagement (working depth) (used in nc output only)
-Z double -1.0 Z retraction depth (used in nc output only)
-t off True size mode. Inhibits effects of -a -h -w
HPGL handling controls:
-n off No filling of polygons; draws outline instead
-N off Ignore PS commands, calculate plot size as needed
-e int 0 Extend IW clipping limits by given amount
Raster format controls:
-d int 75 DPI value (x or both x&y)
-D int 75 DPI value (y only)
PCL only:
-F off Send a FormFeed after graphics data
-i off Pre-initialize printer
-S int 0 (Deskjet) Special commands: 0=off,1=b/w,3=CMY,4=CMYK
-d (see above) Valid ONLY 300, 150, 100, 75
-D (see above) INVALID for PCL!
EPS, PCL, and some previews:
-o double 0.0 x offset [mm] of picture (left margin)
-O double 0.0 y offset [mm] of picture (upper margin)
-C Modify -o -O to center picture within -w -h frame
TIFF only:
-S int 0 Compression: 0/1=off,2=RLE,3=G3FAX,4=G4FAX,
6=OJPEG,7=JPEG,8=deflate
Preview on PC's (DOS):
-V int 18 VGA mode byte (decimal)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
-H Show help.
DESCRIPTIONhp2xx reads HPGL ASCII source files, interprets them, and
converts them into either another vector-oriented format
or one of several rasterfile formats. Currently, its HPGL
parser recognizes a large subset of HPGL/2. Some high-
level functions related to polygon filling are missing.
Also, only some of the fixed space vector fonts and none
of the variable space arc fonts are supported. Beside
these limitations, hp2xx has proven to work with many HP-
GL sources without any trouble.
GENERAL OPTIONShp2xx reads from stdin or from a file if any given on the
command line. If no output file name is given (default),
the output automatically goes into a file whose name is
derived from the input file name and the current mode. For
example, hp2xx-m pcl foo.hpgl writes the output to a file
"foo.pcl". Use option -f outfile to specify your output
file name explicitly, or -I -f- to write to stdout, e.g.
when piping into a queue.
The program scans the current HPGL source, converts all
drawing commands into elementary vectors, saves these in a
temporary file, and concurrently determines the maximum
coordinate range used. It then processes the vectors by
mapping them into a user-defined coordinate system, pre-
serving the aspect ratio of the original data.
This coordinate system by default fits into a window of
size 200 mm by 200 mm. To change the size of this bounding
window, use -h height and -w width to set the (max.)
desired height and width of your output picture; option-
ally use -a aspectfactor to alter the aspect ratio by the
given factor (aspectfactor < 1 narrows your picture). The
generated picture will always fit into the window defined
by -h height and -w width, padded with background color at
the lower or right margin if needed.
A second way of defining sizes is relying on the size the
picture would actually show if plotted on a sheet of paper
by a HP-compatible plotter. By activating flag -I -t (true
size), options -a, -h, and -w are ignored, and the sizes
are derived from the HP-GL file assuming that 1 HP unit =
1/40 mm.
Option -r rotation_angle (in degrees) allows you to rotate
the object prior to all scaling operations. Its main use
is to facilitate landscape format: -r90 rotates your whole
picture, e.g. from portait to landscape format. However,
any reasonable rotation angle is valid.
By naming a file with option -l log_file you can redirect
the diagnostic outputs into the given file, even without a
redirection mechanism for stderr like in UNIX shells (e.
g., DOS). Option -q (quiet) gets rid of them completely.
If you need to process a series of similar objects which
should be translated into exactly the same coordinate sys-
tem, there is a way to override the auto-scaling: First,
run all files separately and note the infos on the used
coordinate ranges. Then, pick a range that will cover ALL
your pictures. You can now assign defaults to the inter-
nally generated range limits by specifying -x xmin, -X
xmax, -y ymin, and -Y ymax. NOTE: Clipping is only sup-
ported via the IW command ! If any picture coordinate
exceeds your limits, they will be overwritten.
Use option -m mode to select the program mode, i.e. the
output format. Currently supported: mode = "mf" (Meta-
font), "em" (emTeX \special{} commands), "epic" (line
drawing using TeX macros within epic.sty), "eps"
(PostScript), "dxf" (Autocad), "emf/emp" (MS Enhanced
Metafile / Printing - available in Windows-built executa-
bles only), "svg" (Scalable Vector Graphics), "fig" (XFig
3.2), "gpt" (GnuPlot ascii), "hpgl" (simplified HP-GL,
e.g. for import tasks), "pcl" (HP-PCL Level 3 format
(suitable for printing on a HP Laserjet II, DeskJet, or
compatible printer), "escp2" (Epson Esc/P2 printer com-
mands, suitable for printing on Epson Stylus models),
"img" (GEMs IMG format), "jpg" (JPEG image), "pdf" (Adobe
Portable Document format), "pbm" (Portable Bit Map /
Portable PixMap for color plots), "pcx" (PC-Paintbrush
format, also accepted by MS-Paintbrush / Windows 3.0 and
many other PC based pixel renderers), "png" (Portable Net-
work Graphics format), "nc" (CNC G-code, for engravings),
or "rgip" (Uniplex RGIP). There is also a preview option
"pre" which supports VGA cards (DOS), ATARI, AMIGA, X11
servers, and Sunview. Default mode is "pre". (As some of
these modes rely on external libraries, they may not be
builtin by default, and not be available in prebuilt bina-
ries supplied e.g. in Linux distributions. The usage mess-
sage generated when hp2xx is invoked without parameters
will always list exactly those modes that are actually
available.)
If you use a raster format, the picture is rasterized by
default into a 75 DPI resolution image. Use option -d
DPI_value to change the resolution, e.g. -d300 will cause
a HP LJ-II compatible 300 dpi rasterization. There is a
way of specifying a different resolution for y direction:
-D DPI_y_value
Some programs were found to generate HPGL output with too
tight clipping bounds, which lead, for example, to some
parts of text characters clipped off. Use option -e extr-
aclip to add some extra amount of space to clip areas to
workaround such mistakes. For example, -e 40 will add 40
extra plotter units to every side of clipping box which is
1 mm in true size.
While processing large pictures at high resolution on low-
memory machines, typically under DOS, the program may
start swapping. Optionally change the swap file by using
-s swapfile, e.g. to speed up processing by swapping to a
RAM disk.
Unless the hpgl file specifies its own selection of pen
widths and colors (for up to 256 pens), a carousel of 8
pens is simulated. You can specify pen sizes and colors
for each of these pens via options -p string and -c
string. "string" must consist of 1..8 digits (0-9 for
size, 0-7 for color). Digit number n (counting from left)
corresponds to pen number n. The digit value is this
pen's color or size in internal units. For raster for-
mats, a unit is a pixel, and for vector format, it corre-
sponds to 1/10 mm (see below). The default size is 1 for
all pens. Colors are assigned according to: 0=off,
1=black, 2=red, 3=green, 4=blue, 5=cyan, 6=magenta, 7=yel-
low. Examples of use: -p22222222 -c33333333 changes all
pensizes to 2 units, all colors to green -p302 -c407 makes
pen #1 a blue pen of size 3 , pen #3 a yellow pen of size
2, suppresses all drawing with pen #2, and keeps all other
pen sizes and colors. Setting either -p or -c will over-
ride the equivalent HPGL/2 commands (PC,PW) in the HP-GL
file.
Sometimes, HP-GL files contain several pages of plotter
output. hp2xx recognizes the HP-GL commands for "feed-
forward" or "new page", and by default draws each image as
a separate page (saving to sequentially numbered output
files, or opening a new preview window for each). You can
select any particular page range by using option -P first-
page:lastpage which causes hp2xx to skip all drawing com-
mands except those on the given pages. Please note that
even if only a single page is actually drawn, hp2xx will
nonetheless process the whole HP-GL file. This makes sure
that effects of early pages on internal modes indeed
influence later pages, as on a real plotter.
VECTOR FORMATS
Supported vector formats are: TeX/Metafont, emTex-spe-
cials, TeX/epic-Macros, Autocad DXF CNC G-code XFig 3.2,
GnuPlot ASCII, Simplified HP_GL, Uniplex RGIP Scalable
Vector Graphics (SVG) Adobe PDF(if libpdf is available)
and -I PostScript. Use -m mf to convert a HPGL drawing
into a Metafont character to be included into a TeX docu-
ment as the character "Z" of a special font that you may
create. Edit the metafont source, e.g., to change the let-
ter "Z" for another, or to change the line thickness,
which is set to 0.4pt by default. The other TeX-related
modes ("cad" for TeXcad compatible code, "em" for employ-
ing \special{em:line} macros, and "epic" for drawing lines
with macros from "epic.sty") address different compromises
to cope with TeX's poor line drawing capability and are
generally not recommended nor fully supported. Feel free
to experiment with them -- they generate ASCII output that
should be "input" into TeX/LaTeX documents.
Use option -ppensize(s) for control over pensize: The
actual Metafont or PostScript pensize will be "pensize *
0.1 mm", with pensize = 0 - 9 (0 = no drawing). The same
applies to
In PostScript mode (-m eps), you may also need to use
options -o and -O (see below) for proper margins on paper
since hp2xx puts your picture "flush" to the left and
upper paper limit by default.
RASTER FORMATS
The following formats are supported: HP-PCL, Esc/P2, PCX,
PIC, IMG, JPG, PBM/PPM, PNG, TIFF, and previews. (PNG and
TIFF formats rely on external libpng,zlib and libtiff, JPG
relies on libjpeg. Versions built on MS windows systems -
or versions linked against libEMF on other platforms - may
additionally support EMF generation and printing.)
Addition of other formats is made easy for programmers
because of hp2xx's modular structure. The program allo-
cates a bitmap on a line-by-line basis, swapping lines to
disk if needed, and plots into this bitmap. Depending on
the selected format, a conversion module is then acti-
vated, which can easily be replaced by other converters.
Add more formats if you like!
Option -ppensize(s) controls the size (in pixels) of the
virtual plotting pen. The only implemented shape of the
pen tip is a square of the given length. pen sizes of
5...9 units will be acccepted but replaced by 4 units.
Specifying -p4 when in 75 DPI mode will make pretty clumsy
pictures, while you may prefer -p2 over -p1 when in 300
DPI.
PCX: The size of a PCX picture is controlled via its spec-
ified height and the current DPI value. To create a high-
resolution PCX image, just increase the DPI value as
desired. PCX format does not accept offsets.
IMG: See PCX.
PBM/PPM: See PCX for options. If your hpgl file is not
monochrome, hp2xx will automatically create a PPM
(portable pixmap) file instead of a PBM bitmap. (Use
-c11111111 to force generation of PBM from a color hpgl
file). Depending on the compile-time option PBM_ASCII,
hp2xx will create ascii or binary pbm (ppm) files - usu-
ally the more efficient binary format should be preferred.
(Unsupported options) PIC, PAC: ATARI ST screens (640x400
pixels) can easily be dumped to files. Programs such as
STAD accept graphics by including such screen dump files.
Graphics filling more than one screenful may be split into
screen-size blocks and loaded/mounted blockwise. hp2xx
converts to ATARI bitmap format by trying to fit the
resulting picture into a single screen equivalent (max.
400 rows, max. 80 Bytes (640 pixel) per row). If it suc-
ceeds, hp2xx produces a single output file. Specify ONLY
its base name (option -f), since hp2xx adds the file
extension ".pic" or ".pac" automatically. Do NOT try to
work on more than one HPGL file simultaneously! Do NOT use
more than 6 characters for the file name, and avoid dig-
its. If more screen blocks are required horizontally
and/or vertically, hp2xx will automatically split the pic-
ture into separate files, counting them columnwise (top-
to-bottom and left-to-right), adding a two-digit number to
the given file name. A maximum of 10 columns is supported.
The picture is padded with background color at its right
and lower margins, if needed. PAC features file compres-
sion, PIC does not.
PCL: HP-PCL Level 3 format, most useful for direct printer
output. Due to this action, there have been added some
extra flags and options: Use flag -i to send a printer
initialization sequence before the actual image. Among
other things, this will instruct the printer which paper
size to use. Flag -F adds a Form Feed (FF, hex 0C) after
the image is completed, which is what you may want most of
the time. However, overlay printing of several files is
feasible by omitting -F.
For additional control of the picture's final position on
paper, you may add x or y offsets using -o X_offset or -O
Y_offset. E.g., -o 20 -O 30 will give you 30 mm additional
top margin and 20 mm additional left margin. Option -C
modifies these offsets to center the picture within the
frame defined by -w -h.
The option -C will attempt to center the drawing on the
paper automatically. Note also that hp2xx now honors any
PS (page size) commands in the hpgl file, which can also
create white space around the actual drawing.
The option -N will make hp2xx ignore any PS commands given
in the hpgl file, and recalculate the image size based on
the actual geometry instead.
The option -n will make hp2xx ignore any polygon filling
commands, rendering only their outlines. This may serve
both as a work-around for hp2xx' limited polyfill support,
and improve clarity of thumbnail images of PCB designs and
the like.
For DeskJet / DeskJet Plus / DeskJet 500 / Deskjet 550
printers, there are some special printer commands. Acti-
vate them with option -S n. n=0 switches them off, n=1
activates black/white mode, n=3 (DJ500C and DJ550 only)
supports CMY color data, n=4 (DJ550C only) supports CMYK
color data. Any n!=0 activates PLC data compression (TIFF
mode: 2).
Esc/P2: This is the control language used in the Epson
Stylus family of inkjets. hp2xx currently does not
address more than one line of nozzles in the print head,
so printing, while exact, is extremely slow. Users might
prefer piping the output of the PostScript module through
ghostscript until this issue is resolved.
PNG: Support for the Portable Network Graphics format
relies on libpng which is available from www.libpng.org.
PRE: Preview on all machines. Use options -h -w -o -O -C
to define the screen size and position of your output (-o
-O-C may not always apply). Under X11, you can pan
around an image that is larger than the screen size by
'dragging' it with the mouse (pressing button 1 while mov-
ing the mouse in the desired direction). Any other mouse
button or keyboard key will terminate the preview. For
VGA cards (DOS), option -V VGAmode gives you a simple way
to utilize SVGA modes. Please take care not to define
larger windows than your graphics device can handle, as
the results are unpredictable. As hp2xx uses standard BIOS
calls to set pixels on VGA cards (slow but portable), you
can select any hi-res mode supported by your system by
simply specifying the mode byte with this option.
TIFF: The tagged image file format is supported by most
graphics and image manipulation programs. Support for TIFF
in hp2xx relies on the TIFF library available from
www.libtiff.org, which offers several means of image com-
pression. The -S commandline option selects between them
as follows: -S 0 or -S 1: no compression -S 2: RLE (run
length encoding) -S 3: Group 3 FAX (monochrome) -S 4:
Group 4 FAX (monochrome) -S 5: GIF (not available by
default, because of the UNISYS patent) -S 6: JPEG ('old'
TIFF 6.0 style) -S 7: JPEG -S 8: deflate
EXAMPLES
% hp2xx-m pcx -f my_output.pcx -d300 -p2222 -h50 -a 1.2 my_input.hp
creates a PCX file at 300 DPI of height 50 mm, using an aspect factor
of 1.2 and a pen size of 2 pixels for pens 1-4.
% my_hpgl_generator | hp2xx-f- -o20 -O30 -F -q | lpr -P my_PCL_printer
HPGL output is piped through hp2xx; the resulting PCL code is piped to
the printer queue, giving an image of height 100 mm at 75 DPI.
An additional left margin of 20mm and upper margin of 30mm is created.
A formfeed will be added (handy if your printer queue does not).
% hp2xx my_input.hp
Preview on screen or into window.
ORIGINAL AUTHOR
Heinz W. Werntges, Physikal. Biologie, Geb. 26.12,
Heinrich-Heine-Universitaet,
D-40225 Duesseldorf, Germany.
MAINTAINER SINCE V 3.30
Martin Kroeker, daVeg GmbH,
Schottener Weg 2
D-64289 Darmstadt, Germany.
mk@daveg.com or martin@ruby.chemie.uni-freiburg.de
ATARI features & PIC, PAC, IMG modes are due to Norbert Meyer, Duesseldorf.
AMIGA version & PBM mode are due to Claus Langhans, Kelkheim (Ts.)
X11 previewer is due to Michael Schoene, Duesseldorf.
Thanks for VAX support and a lot of testing to
Michael Schmitz & Gerhard Steger, Duesseldorf
Many OS/2 helps were due to Host Szillat, Berlin.
(Later contributors: See TEXINFO file).
DIAGNOSTICS
The number of ignored and/or unknown HPGL commands is
given. You will be informed if swapping starts. Progress
is indicated by a logarithmic count of internal vectors
during scanning and plotting, or by dots during (raster
mode) output, where each dot corresponds to 10 scan lines.
BUGS
There still are many non-implemented HPGL commands.
The color assignment of some X11 servers leaves something
to be desired.
Color is only partially supported (not all possible for-
mats).
VGA preview: Color "magenta" shows as brown on some VGA
cards.
To match the specified sizes on your display during pre-
view, you may have to calibrate it using -d-D, e.g. by
overwriting the 75 DPI default.
Only little testing has been done on TeX-related and ATARI
formats, so be prepared for bugs there, and PLEASE report
them -- thank you!
SEE ALSObm2font(1), F. Sowa's raster-to-TeXfont converter.
6 May 2001 hp2xx(1)
