gs and meeting stuff at end [was Re: tlug: "L. Peter Deutsch": Announcing the release of Aladdin Ghostscript 5.0]

[Craig Oda <craig@example.com>]

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tlug note from Craig Oda <craig@example.com>
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On Tue, 10 Jun 1997, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------------
> tlug note from "Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull@example.com>
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> Thought you all might like to know.  My subjective opinion is that 5.0

Stephen,
I found this bit of information interesting.  Thanks.

> interpreter any more), with PDF 1.2 support you can now reliably
> directly feed PDF files to lpr and in combination with the gv
> front-end get good performance in on-screen viewing of PDF files.  And

This is also of interest to me.  I've recently began using PDF
files to exchange documents with the few people I know who
aren't using Linux machines.  PDF allows people on a Mac or
Windows machine to easily open up documents created with LaTeX
on Linux.  I was using PostScript, but many Mac and Windows
people don't know what to do with it.  Most people seem to
understand Adobe Acrobat.  One of the people I was sending
files to had problems  printing from a Mac.  Perhaps this
was due to incompatible PDF versions?  When writing English,
I use the \usepackage{times} command to use the PostScript
fonts and the quality of the Adobe Acrobat file is awesome.

Also, a Mac user was telling me that the new StuffitExpander
supported zip, so if I zip the files before mime encoding,
the size isn't so bad.   There is zip for Linux if you don't
already have it installed. 


> The CID/CMap support will eventually mean much better support for
> Kanji (no more 3 versions of the same font for different encodings and 
> TeX and that and this).

I would be interested in hearing more about this.  I guess it is
not working yet?

For people interested, I've defined 5 distinct ways to enable
a Linux system to print Japanese.

  1) GhostScript 4.03 standard with the Virtual Font library
     allows printing with free zeit Japanese TrueType fonts
     or Microsoft mincho and gothic.  
        Good point: don't have to patch GS and is pretty
        Negative: slow

  2) GhostScript 4.03 with source patch for Virtual Font Library
     support and VFLib.
	Good: Fast and good looking fonts
        Negative: have to modify your gs

  3) GhostScript 4.03 with free Wada PostScript fonts from 東大
	Good: don't have to hack gs
	Neg: have to hack fontcap (can someone comment on font
		quality?)

  4) The 2.x GhostScript that comes with the JE distribution
        Good: widely used by JE people and can thus ask other
            people for help
        Neg: limited print device support.

  5) CNPrint
        Good: easy to install
        Neg: limited font quality


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Re: Large Japanese Files
Another thing is that I'm having problems printing large Japanese
files.  I have to break the file up into smaller pieces.  I'm
using gs4.03 with the vflib patch and TrueType fonts.  Is this
a common problem?



Re: meeting

Should we congregate at Joe Marchak's place near Tokyo Station?
If so, Joe can you post directions?

Also, I was thinking that it was fairer if we gave away
at least one CD and T-Shirt set to a TLUG member that couldn't
make it to the meeting.  I'm not sure how to go about
decided who gets what.  How about people send me a personal
e-mail (craig@example.com) to nominate a member to get the 
CD and T-shirt set?  Thus, it could be like a honorarium 
or something and the person also gets the 気持いい feeling
of the thanks of the group..   






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