RFC 320: Workshop on Hard Copy Line Graphics

Network Working Group                                           R. Reddy
Request for Comments: 320                                            CMU
NIC: 9350                                                  27 March 1972

                  Workshop on Hard Copy Line Graphics

   At CMU we have recently interfaced a Xerox Graphic Printer (ex-LDX)
   to the PDP-10 using a PDP-11 as in intelligent controller for the
   printer.  Specially designed interface and data structures permit the
   PDP-11 to generate each scan line as needed without having to resort
   to the brute force generation of the bit image for the whole page.

   The attached pages were produced using this system with the help of a
   document generation program and a character set design program.  This
   is something personal.

   In response to several requests, we are conducting a one day workshop
   on the XCRIBL system.  The workshop will be held in 3124 Science Hall
   at Carnegie-Mellon University on April 12.  An agenda for the
   workshop is attached.  If you are interested in coming or sending
   someone to this workshop, please contact Dr. D. R. Reddy (412-621-
   6200 ext. 149), Mr. Mack Hicks (412-687-5846) or Miss M. Kostkas
   (412-626-2600 ext. 141), for further information or local
   arrangements.  Local reservations may be made at the Webster Hall
   Hotel (412-621-7700) or the Civic Center Motor Hotel (412-683-6700)
   which are within walking distance of Carnegie-Mellon University.

                        CARNEGIE-MELLON UNIVERSITY

                   WORKSHOP ON HARD COPY LINE GRAPHICS

                                 April 12

                                  Morning
                 Document Generating Languages and Systems

   9:00-9:30    Raj Reddy          Overview of the XCRIBL system
   9:30-10:20   Joe Newcomer       Languages for Document Generation
   10:20-10:30  Coffee Break
   10:30-12:00  Examples of Document Generation
                              Letter Producing Systems
                              Technical Report Production
                              A Graphics and Gray Scale Image System

                                 Afternoon
                              Systems Support

   12:00-1:45  Lunch               Character Sets (Generation and
   1:45-2:45   Lee Erman           Modification)
   2:45-3:00   Coffee Break
   3:00-4:00   George Robertson    The PDP-11 Support System
   4:00-5:00   Bill Broadly and    The PDP-11 XGP Interface (Hardware)
               Jack Wright

                                  Evening
                         Session for the "Hackers"

   7:30-10:30  Discussion session of as yet unsolved issues and
               possible hardware-software solutions.

                              XCRIBL SYSTEM
                        COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT
                        CARNEGIE-MELLON UNIVERSITY

   What you are now reading is a computer printout produced by the
   XCRIBL system.  Computers printers do not have typefaces like this
   one nor can they change typefaces.  Conventional computer printers
   cannot print character sets where the center to center distances are
   not all the same.  The machine that printed this document is a
   facsimile copying machine built by Xerox a number of years ago.  The
   computer science department of Carnegie-Mellon University has
   designed and constructed the interface to connect it to a
   minicomputer (PDP-11) which in turn is linked to a large computer,
   the PDP-10.  The equipment has been working since January.

   The Xerox Graphic Printer (XGP) works in a similar fashion to the
   Xerox office copiers.  Instead of reflecting light off a printed page
   as in a copier the XGP uses a cathode ray tube similar to old
   television tubes as a source of light.  The image is drawn as a
   series of dots on the CRT with a resolution of 12 dots per inch.  The
   line of dots is reflected  onto a selenium drum which
   electrostatically attracts a fine black powder to the exposed
   selenium areas.  The powder is transfered to a moving sheet of paper.
   Finally a fuser melts the powder onto the paper.

   To be able to print any character the pattern of dots which will be
   printed as that character must be entered into the computer along
   with an indicator of what the pattern represents.  To facilitate this
   a program has been written to design character sets.  This program
   draws a grid on a display terminal.  Each box in the grid represents
   one dot in the final Xerox output.  The dots may be set or unset and
   the character redrawn on the display as frequently as one might
   desire.  Because of the ease with which this may be done it becomes
   an enjoyable task to design a character set and then be able to
   change any part of any character.

   The XGP is also capable of drawing lines and gray scale images.  The
   AI group is using the XGP to print pictures of faces and speech
   spectrograms.  The range of possible uses is boundless.

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