Re: [Gnome-print] Re: [Gimp-print-devel] An introduction to gnome-print (fwd)

[Robert L Krawitz <rlk alum mit edu>]

   Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2000 19:57:09 +0200 (CEST)
   From: Lauris Kaplinski <lauris@ariman.ee>

   Nope. To get top-quality output, applications should be able to intervent
   every single step in printing process.
   Take adding alpha channel (not yet possible via ghostscript) as example:
   While printing, save all printing commands to array
   If semitransparent image is encountered:
   - calcualte its binding box and clip path
   - find real output resolution
   - allocate new bitmap
   - replay previous printing to buffer
   - send that buffer to printer
   Continue, until next semitransparent image
   Note, that this process requires complete rendering subsystem in
   client-space.

I don't see how this follows at all.  All you have to do is render the
image to a composite bitmap and send that off to the print system.
You do want to know the output resolution (which you can get from a
PPD file), but that doesn't require doing the actual dithering and
printer command generation anywhere near the application.

-- 
Robert Krawitz <rlk@alum.mit.edu>      http://www.tiac.net/users/rlk/

Tall Clubs International  --  http://www.tall.org/ or 1-888-IM-TALL-2
Member of the League for Programming Freedom -- mail lpf@uunet.uu.net
Project lead for The Gimp Print --  http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net

"Linux doesn't dictate how I work, I dictate how Linux works."
--Eric Crampton