seji
New Member
Posts: 3
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Post by seji on Mar 22, 2007 10:41:45 GMT -5
Hello Google session provided no naswers, but maybe you can help me. Did anyone wrote/tried to write a PDF viewer for C64? There is a jpg viewer but I found no traces of attempts to bring PDF to C64. As far as I remember GEOS had some postscript support so mabe it's possible to write such software? Please forgive me if this question is lame . I'm not a programmer (done some BASIC and PASCAL and LOGO and that's all) so I have no idea what would C64 need to display a PDF.
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Post by Golan Klinger on Mar 22, 2007 12:34:51 GMT -5
No, there isn't a PDF viewer for the 64.
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Post by gmoon on Mar 22, 2007 12:52:30 GMT -5
Yeah. A PDF is a large subset of the postscript PDL (page description language.) As such, the postscript rendering engine not only includes font, bitmap and vector-drawing capabilities, but very sophisticated clipping and masking for those graphics. A type1 or type3 postscript font alone is larger than most c64 programs.
For example, there's a 'transformation matrix' that's applied to all rendering. Changing that matrix once enables all sorts of image translations.
It's a very rich, powerful, stack-based language. There's a reason why companies like Micro$oft have tried to introduce 'postscript killers,' but always failed.
I suppose a semi-functional C64 version of AI 88 (the initial 1988 format of Adobe Illustrator) could be coded. AI 88 is a very small subset of postscript cmds.
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Post by robertb on Mar 23, 2007 13:20:16 GMT -5
As far as I remember GEOS had some postscript support so maybe it's possible to write such software? Right. You could view and print Postscript documents through GEOS/Wheels. The PostPrint program (developed by Maurice Randall) could print Postscript 1 and Postscript 2 documents. Geopublish 1.1 (developed by Todd Elliott but then never released) had a feature in which you could actually see and place a JPEG within a Postscript document. However, viewing a .PDF was never developed. Truly, Robert Bernardo Fresno Commodore User Group videocam.net.au/fcug
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Post by gmoon on Mar 23, 2007 14:37:39 GMT -5
Right. You could view and print Postscript documents through GEOS/Wheels. The PostPrint program (developed by Maurice Randall) could print Postscript 1 and Postscript 2 documents. Geopublish 1.1 (developed by Todd Elliott but then never released) had a feature in which you could actually see and place a JPEG within a Postscript document. However, viewing a .PDF was never developed. The very first DTP I did was with geowrite, when an Apple laserwriter cost ~7000 USD for a 300dpi printer. Qlink had a feature where you could upload your documents and for about $5/page, have crude camera-ready art. Just amazing, for the time.... Writing postscript program can be very simple, even one that does complex imaging. All you need is a text editor. Dumping the program into a printer is easy, too. But rendering (rasterizing) that program isn't simple. It worked with geowrite because the file was converted to ps, and the rendering engine (including a set of basic fonts) is in the printer itself. That's the crux with PDF files...
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