In article <learn-2406951102280001 at tench.microbiol.washington.edu>, learn at u.washington.edu (Jerry Learn) writes:
>>ftp://alanine.gcg.com//pub/mac/GCGFigure.sea.hqx>>>>I've tried it and it appears to work pretty well. It allows you to zoom
>in on or to select a portion of a GCG Figure
>
I disagree emphatically. All characters and many curves are rendered as
a zillion small line segments by this program. Most annoying, since within
the Figure file this information was intact. While it is true that
GCGFigure can put all of these line segments into a PICT, you can't do
squat with them once they are in that form. By this I mean, you can't edit
text, you can't change fonts, or bold/italic/whatever. Most of the
programs I have take a *very* long time to load and redraw these line
segment rich files.
The only good method I've ever seen for getting a workable PICT (text as
text) involves using the HP2PICT stack. Here's the blurb out of our online
help:
GENERAL_INFO
MAC_Software
Other_Applications
hp2pict___________f
This converts HPGL graphics commands to PICT. This is one way to
convert arbitrary graphics into a format that you can manipulate
on the Macintosh. Print your HPGL formatted graphics to a file,
transfer them to your Mac, then use this stack to convert to the
PICT format. Now you can import the graphic into various draw
programs, or into a Microsoft word document as an illustration.
Here are some explicit instructions for using it:
On the VMS machine (change as appropriate for Unix)
$ DEFINE TOFILE somefile.ext
$ HPGL HP7550 TOFILE: A4
(generate your graphics)
(send somefile.ext to your Macintosh, for instance, with Fetch)
On the Macintosh
open the file with WORD and save it as TEXT ONLY.
Double click hp2pict.
Click the LEFT arrow on the picture.
Click the "Plot file" button.
Once the file is loaded, click the SAVE button.
Quit Hypercard.
Launch MacDraw (or equivalent) and OPEN the file
that you just saved.
I believe that HP2PICT came from ftp.bio.indiana.edu.
Regards,
David Mathog
mathog at seqaxp.bio.caltech.edu
Manager, sequence analysis facility, biology division, Caltech
