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re: (meteorobs) NAMN LM Charts
Gary,
> The AAVSO places their full page variable star charts on the web. One of
> the most efficient formats is a PS file that is compressed by the ZIP
> routine. The full page files are usually 40 to 60 kb in size, which is very
> manageable for modems as slow as 14.4. Even though ZIP files are for PCs,
> there are some great programs for Macintosh computers that can uncompress
> ZIP files. PS files, or postscript files, are universal. Photoshop 4.0 can
> open them on Macintoshes, and there are a few stand-alone programs as well.
> On PCs a program called Ghostscript is great.
I don't know whether PS is really that a good choice.
Personally I would have no problem to view or print postscript files,
since as a computer scientist I have enough different machines, operating
systems and software in use. ;-)
As long as you are sitting on a UNIX workstation, PS should cause no
problems. However, most 'web surfer' will work on a PC (or Mac). Then you
either need Linux+Ghost* (which only a few will have) or a software under
Windows that reads PS. I know almost no program that is capable of doing
that, at least all common picture viewers cannot. I'm not sure whether
Photoshop for Windows can read PS either (maybe EPS? I have to check
that!), but this is not the cheapest software, and only a few will have
Photoshop running at their computers.
I have no idea how many of you Americans use Macintoshs, but outside
the US the fraction of Mac users is neglible. I remember that I was
not able to read PS files with Photoshop for Mac at my old institute
(again, maybe you mean encapsulated postscript EPS).
To cut the long story short: I'd rather suggest you to use pixel oriented
image formats like GIF. Especially when you have b/w images, their
compression algorithm is really effective.
Sirko
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