Re: A sense of humor needs to be restored to these proceedings

"Elliot Burke" <elliot@...> writes:

>Now on to getting patterns printed on plastic. Forgive me if this is too
>elementary, but there may be some out there who don't know this trick. The
>trick is to use the Linotronic (type) film printer at a printing service.
>These print on mylar film very high contrast stable patterns. The machines
>have resolutions from between 1200 and 3600 dpi.

A good idea, subject to the proviso that film recorders are not perfectly
linear, and that high resolution alone is no guarantee of linearity and
absolute accuracy. In my experience most low-end service bureau shop owners
don't know the specifications of their machines, just whether or not it is
adequate for their application. For precision work I recommend you find a
service bureau that does specializes in quality color-separation work and
image it at the highest resolution available, preferably 3600 dpi.

>They are used by Mac zealots, and only understand file formats that are
>popular in the graphic arts world.

They all understand PostScript and will accept a PostScript text file for
direct download. For a project like this it would be preferable to avoid
page layout programs and code the scale directly in PostScript to avoid
pixel rounding errors, although if you run it at 3600 dpi the rounding error
may not be significant enough to matter. If line width is critical, note
that rounding errors can give rise to lines of different width as well as
+/- 1 pixel positioning errors.

>Finally, let me add my voice to those who think that a CD with RT Linux and
>EMC on it made as simple as possible to install is a good idea. Like, put
>in the disk, get a instant machine controller. Is this possible?

Since the installation of Linux is very machine dependent, i.e., the set of
drivers installed on my machine may differ from the set installed on another
machine of different hardware makeup, I suspect it won't be possible, or at
least simple, in the near term.

Phil Plumbo
St. Paul, MN