kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Henner Zeller <h.zeller@xxxxxxx>]

On 13 February 2014 13:11, Cirilo Bernardo <cirilo_bernardo@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
>
>> From: Henner Zeller <h.zeller@xxxxxxx>
>> To: KiCad Developers <kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> Cc:
>> Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2014 6:10 PM
>> Subject: [Kicad-developers] Documentation footprint postscript/pdfs in kicad-library are HUGE bitmap images.
>>
>> Hi,
>> The documentation files in
>>   https://github.com/KiCad/kicad-library/tree/master/modules/footprints_doc
>>
>> Are very huge. In fact, this directory alone contributes to 502M out
>> of 580M of the whole kicad-library. Yes, almost 90% of the data
>> downloaded for the kicad-library is pixelated PostScript files. Which
>> means it takes forever to download on a slow link.
>>
>> They seem to be generated from bitmaps, which makes them so huge (and
>> pretty low quality on print; even on a low-resolution screen they are
>> already pixellated). Since they are generated from the PCB printouts
>> of KiCad, this indicates that at the time they were generated, the
>
>
>
>> version of printing was broken - shouldn't it always generate vector
>> graphics ?
>>
>
> Unfortunately, no. MSWin has never implemented PostScript in a sensible way.
> They use their existing printer DC structure to create a bitmap (up to 1200dpi)
> and wrap that in PostScript.

I am so glad that I never had to use Windows in my life :)

>
>> Since I am right now working my way through the code of KiCad on other
>> parts, I have not entered the printing realm yet - what is the
>> commandline way to generate a postscript file from a *.sch or *.brd
>> file ? That way, these things can be automated in a Makefile.
>> Does KiCad generate/export PostScript directly without going through
>> some generic wxWidgets way of printing ? If not, I could have a stab
>> at it (I usually write PostScript by hand for fun).
>>
>
>
> Use the 'plot' function rather than 'print' - it will generate a
> PostScript file. I think the PostScript file can be made neater,
> but there is nothing technically wrong with it.

Thanks. Yeah, I discovered the plot feature and that is indeed much
nicer. I think we should just base the printing on that (which would
be the natural thing to do on Unix or OS X, not sure about Windows
though).

>
>> If this would be vector graphics, the output would be 1/100 the size
>> and extremely high quality. Compare the original
>>    pcbnew
>> library-repos/kicad-library/modules/TO-92_Housings_06Jun2013_Part3.kicad_pcb
>> with the generated PostScript result:
>>    okular
>> library-repos/kicad-library/modules/footprints_doc/TO-92_Housings_06Jun2013_Part3.ps
>> The postscript file is a 4.6MB and a pixelmess that is not worth printing.
>>
>> I'd like to write a Makefile that generates new, higher quality
>> postscripts, easy-updatable. What would be a commandline-call to
>> pcbnew to do that ?
>>
>> (I just tried printing, and it didn't work on my machine; but I
>> remember to have seen on the list that I need to install some gtk tool
>> to make it work).
>>
>> -h
>
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