hp2xx [-options] [hpgl-file(s)]
Option Format Default Description
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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
-M int 0 Remap pen no.0 commands to given pen
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)
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-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, preserving 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; optionally 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 system, 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 internally generated range limits by specifying
-x xmin, -X xmax, -y ymin, and -Y ymax. NOTE: Clipping is only supported 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" (Metafont), "em" (emTeX ecial{}
commands), "epic" (line drawing using TeX macros within epic.sty), "eps"
(PostScript), "dxf" (Autocad), "emf/emp" (MS Enhanced Metafile / Printing
- available in Windows-built executables 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 commands, 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 Network 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 binaries supplied e.g. in Linux distributions. The usage messsage
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 extraclip 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. The pen width unit corresponds to 1/10 mm - using pen widths beyond
0.9mm is possible by using the letters of the latin alphabet, so that A=1mm,
B=1.1mm etc. 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=yellow.
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 override 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", "pause" 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 firstpage:lastpage which causes hp2xx to skip all drawing
commands 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 FormatsSupported
vector formats are: TeX/Metafont, emTex-specials, 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 document as the character "Z" of a special font that you may
create. Edit the metafont source, e.g., to change the letter "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 employing
ecial{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 -p pensize(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 FormatsThe 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 allocates 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 activated, which can
easily be replaced by other converters. Add more formats if you like! Option
-p pensize(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 specified 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 - usually 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 succeeds, 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 digits. If
more screen blocks are required horizontally and/or vertically, hp2xx will
automatically split the picture 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 compression,
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.
The option -M pennumber will remap any color or drawing commands from pen
0 to the specified pen (which should typically be otherwise unused in the
drawing). Historically, selecting pen 0 instructed a pen plotter to put
away the pen and stop drawing, while modern inkjet plotters can use it
like any other color. Due to this ambiguity, hp2xx will draw the background
of raster graphics in the pen 0 color, unless this option is used. For
DeskJet / DeskJet Plus / DeskJet 500 / Deskjet 550 printers, there are
some special printer commands. Activate 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 moving 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 compression. 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).
DiagnosticsThe 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.
BugsThere
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 formats). VGA preview: Color "magenta" shows as brown
on some VGA cards. To match the specified sizes on your display during
preview, 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.