Fancy colour pictures on a computer screen are often too disappointing for words – a thousand words? – when they are printed out on paper and IBM GDDM Graphics Data Display Manager users who are restricted to IBM’s selection of output devices know the feeling only too well. Colour graphics specialist Uniras, based in Slough, has introduced XL-Copy which will enable GDDM users to use the more popular raster-based devices from the likes of Tektronix, Versatec and Benson rather than than IBM”s vector-based printerplotters. XL-Copy has been developed independently of Uniras’ own graphics applications and is a piece of system software which intercepts the user’s GDDM files (or is summoned from within a user’s application program) converting the picture files into a raster form and sorting them in a raster database. It then uses the appropriate Uniras device-driver to generate the hardcopy by using the maximum resolution of the hardcopy device rather than simply enlarging the screen copy. XL-Copy supports all applications written in GDDM, including APL-based programs, ICU, Tell-A-Graf, Disspla, PGF, SAS/Graph as well as Uniras’s own interactive packages which run on all IBM machines from the 3090 to the AT. Shipments begin in September. Uniras has been involved in a number of joint projects with IBM, including the RT and, more recently, the interface to the GKS Graphics Kernel System from GDDM, under IBM contract.
UNIRAS XCOPY ENABLES IBM GDDM TO USE RASTER-BASED GRAPHICS PLOTTERS
