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| artifexirc-bot | <BarneyRubble> Hi guys. I am in the screen printing business. At times I need to print halftones(tones of a picture being reproduced by equally spaced dots of varying size). Being that I do not have a postscsript enabled printer(a requirement to print halftones) I am interested in using Ghostscript to allow me to do so. Sorry to say but my knowledge on this matter is based on web searches and YouTube videos. I have followed | 19:13.34 |
| | <KenSharp> Hi @BarneyRubble Lisa Fenn just said over in our private channel that you would contact us. It's very late in my day here in the UK but, what I suspect is happening is that GSView is using the mswinpr2 device to print a contone image to the Windows printer driver for your printer. | 19:21.05 |
| | <KenSharp> GSView is unfortunately very old, and has not been supported for some time (and wasn't an Artifex tool) | 19:21.36 |
| | <KenSharp> It has essentially reached the point where it doesn't work. | 19:21.49 |
| | <KenSharp> You can try something like gswin64 -sDEVICE=mswinpr2 <input file.ps> which I think will pop up a dialog to allow you to select your printer, and then print to it. | 19:22.34 |
| | <BarneyRubble> Thanks for the input. Sorry...how do I do that ? | 19:41.46 |
| | <KenSharp> From the windows command shell | 19:41.59 |
| | <BarneyRubble> Sorry Ken. Not good with this at all. I entered gswin64 -sDEVICE=mswinpr2 <input file.ps> and changed 'input file .ps' to the file name. I was to do that correct ? What I get is 'The syntax of the command is incorrect.' | 19:50.19 |
| | <KenSharp> If you type just gswin64 and press return, what do you get ? | 19:50.57 |
| | <BarneyRubble> 'gswin64' is not recognized as an internal or external command, | 19:51.25 |
| | <BarneyRubble> operable program or batch file. | 19:51.25 |
| | <KenSharp> OK so you have not added the Ghostscript path to your system's $PATH environment variable. So you need to specify the full path to Ghostscript. | 19:51.52 |
| | <KenSharp> Which version of Ghostscript did you install ? And 32 or 64-bit ? | 19:52.03 |
| | <BarneyRubble> 64 | 19:52.10 |
| | <KenSharp> And teh version number ? | 19:52.16 |
| | <KenSharp> And the version number ? | 19:52.20 |
| | <BarneyRubble> 9.55 | 19:52.21 |
| | <BarneyRubble> Thanks Ken | 19:52.42 |
| | <KenSharp> OK so you want to type "c:\program files\gs\gs9.55.0\bin\gswin64" and see what happens. Don't forget the "" marks | 19:52.49 |
| | <BarneyRubble> A Ghostscript window opened up containing text and then GS> | 19:54.28 |
| | <KenSharp> OK good so close that (alt-F4 or file->close) | 19:54.49 |
| | <BarneyRubble> Done | 19:55.09 |
| | <KenSharp> Then use the same command line but add -sDEVICE=mswinrp2 filename.ps where filename.ps is the full path to your file. If that's hard to type, you can just type "c:\program files\gs\gs9.55.0\bin\gswin64" -sDEVICE=mswinpr2 and then drag and drop the file onto the command shell window | 19:56.00 |
| | <KenSharp> Then use the same command line but add -sDEVICE=mswinpr2 filename.ps where filename.ps is the full path to your file. If that's hard to type, you can just type "c:\program files\gs\gs9.55.0\bin\gswin64" -sDEVICE=mswinpr2 and then drag and drop the file onto the command shell window | 19:56.17 |
| | <KenSharp> Then press return | 19:56.27 |
| | <KenSharp> That should launch Ghostscript using the mswinpr2 device as the output instead of the display device (which is what it defaults to) | 19:56.50 |
| | <KenSharp> Any joy ? | 19:59.15 |
| | <KenSharp> For me that pops up a dialog allowing me to select a printer | 19:59.26 |
| | <BarneyRubble> Print window pop up. Pressed ok but nothing printed. | 20:00.51 |
| | <KenSharp> Hmm well it should have printed to the default printer, what was selected ? | 20:01.13 |
| | <KenSharp> Oh, you will need to press return in the Ghostscript Windows | 20:01.24 |
| | <KenSharp> And then type quit | 20:01.29 |
| | <KenSharp> and return | 20:01.38 |
| | <KenSharp> It is waiting for you to tell it to finish the page | 20:01.48 |
| | <BarneyRubble> Somethings printing..... | 20:02.24 |
| | <KenSharp> OK so that's what I 'guess' your YouTube tutorial is doing. | 20:02.40 |
| | <KenSharp> However, I doubt that's really what you want. | 20:02.46 |
| | <KenSharp> What that is doing is printing to an RGB bitmap and sending that to your printer | 20:03.06 |
| | <KenSharp> What is it you are actually trying to achieve ? | 20:03.18 |
| | <BarneyRubble> Trying to achieve to print halftones in a non-postscript enable printer. | 20:04.38 |
| | <KenSharp> Hmm | 20:04.57 |
| | <KenSharp> I'm not sure what you mean I'm afraid. | 20:05.05 |
| | <KenSharp> If the printer is a contone printer then it won't print halftones at all. | 20:05.15 |
| | <BarneyRubble> contone ? | 20:05.28 |
| | <KenSharp> If it is not a contone printer such as a dye sublimation device, then it will be doing it's own screening when we send a contone image to it. | 20:05.38 |
| | <KenSharp> coneone = continuous tone | 20:05.45 |
| | <KenSharp> That is, nont screened/halftoned/dithered 8 or more bits per ink | 20:06.14 |
| | <KenSharp> That is, not screened/halftoned/dithered 8 or more bits per ink | 20:06.20 |
| | <KenSharp> So if we create a 24-bit RGB image, then tell Windows to print that to the printer (which is what we are doing with the mswinpr2 device) then the pritner will either print it directly if it is a 24-bit RGB device. Or it will have to convert the data itself into say CMYK, and halftone or dither the data to produce 1 bit per ink data | 20:07.56 |
| | <BarneyRubble> The Ghostscript printed page is very similar to printed page directly from the drawing software. So...not a success. But my issue right now was to print the page. I will have a look at the YouTube video again...I may have missed something. Hey small victory. At least I can print. | 20:10.18 |
| | <KenSharp> I would expect it to be the same (more or less) as printing directly from the application software, as you are using the same printer driver and pritner to turn the data into the printed page. In this case Ghostscript isn't halftoning the data at all. | 20:11.09 |
| | <KenSharp> All it is doing is turning the input file (PostScript or PDF) into a bitmap so that the printer can print it. THis is a technique to allow people to print PostScript or PDF files to a non-PostScript printer. | 20:11.59 |
| | <KenSharp> Getting Ghostscript to do the halftoning is a different issue, we can do that, but then there's no way to send it to the printer. | 20:12.22 |
| | <KenSharp> OK I need to head off for the night, it is possible that someone else might reply if you ost more questions here, or I'll see them tomorrow. | 20:14.07 |
| | <KenSharp> Goodnight all | 20:14.10 |
| | <BarneyRubble> You are right. Thanks Ken. Have a great night | 20:15.18 |
| | <RayJohnston> @BarneyRubble I'm around for the next 8 hours or so if you have questions | 20:33.50 |
| | <BarneyRubble> Hey Ray. I believe I have it working. Thanks for the input | 21:02.36 |
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