
SAOimage hardcopy

outputting an image to a laser printer

Clicking on the "print" button in the "etc" submenu dumps a hardcopy
of the main display image to a postscript printer.  The output image
includes the central display window and the colorbar.  Any cursors,
showing in the display window are included in the output.  This is
a monochrome file, not color postscript.

In order to get a hardcopy that looks something like what you have on
the screen, it is best to use the "gray" colormap.  You should find
a good scaling for the image and manipulate the contrast with the
"gamma" control.  The output image will be dithered by the Postscript
printer's own dithering algorithm.

On color workstations, the image is read from the screen and includes
any graphics which may be showing.  The image also includes the upper
portion of SAOimage (the title area and two auxiliary windows).  By
default, the buttons are not included, but they may be included by
first using the -lprbuttons switch on the command line.

When SAOimage is in its mono (halfone display) mode, an image of the
display window, only, is created and printed.  This image is made
directly the internal data, using the current scaling information,
and does not include any cursor graphics graphics.  (It will include
markings made with IRAF's tvmark task).

The output file can be directed anywhere by setting an environment
variable called R_DISPOSE.  The R_DISPOSE string is a format statement
for an sprintf which creates the UNIX command, where '%s' will be
replaced by its temporary file name.  The default is "lpr -Plw -r %s".
The -r in the print statement deletes the postscript file after being
printed.  One could, for example, set R_DISPOSE to "mv %s /tmp/foo.ps"
to save the file for later use.

If no R_DISPOSE environment variable is set, SAOimage looks for a
PRINTER environment variable.  If one is set, the hardcopy will be
sent to that printer.  If no PRINTER variable is found, the default
destination is lw.

The postscript file is scaled to fill an 8.5x11 inch page (regardless
of the printer resolution).  To get a smaller image, centered on the
page, see the comment in the ASCII section at top of the file.

Sending an image to a printer over serial lines at 9600 baud, as is
common for the Apple printers, will tie up the printer for about 12
minutes.  Be considerate of other users who use the printer.

While this is generally a sufficient and convenient form of hardcopy,
the user may also wish to try "xwd" or one of the several other
window dump facilities available for X11.
