I asked:
> Does anyone out there use ImageMagick on DU 3.2C? We use the convert utility
> to take an eps file to a gif image, and it works, except that the gif file is
> on average about 500K in size. This is huge, considering that ImageMagick on
> an SGI delivers a gif image an order of magnitude smaller given identical
> eps input. Anyone have an explanation, and preferably, a clue as to what we
> may be doing stupidly? Of course, I will summarize...
First, sincere thanks to the folks who took their valuable time to reply:
"Craig I. Hagan" <hagan_at_ttgi.com>
John Stoffel <john_at_wpi.edu>
Woody Lee <woody_at_gergu3.tamu.edu>
Joe <joe_at_resptk.bhp.com.au>
Andrew Leahy <A.Leahy_at_st.nepean.uws.edu.au>
The problem pretty much turned out to be that versions of ghostscript after 3.12
and versions of ImageMagick after 3.6.3 had the gif compression routines yanked
after the Unisys patent fiasco. I was able to find a copy of ghostscript 3.12 at
ftp://ftp.cs.wisc.edu/ghost/aladdin/ghostscript-3.12.tar.gz. I found a copy of
ImageMagick 3.6 at:
http://fonsg3.let.uva.nl:8001/HLselect/Tools_archives/ImageMagick,
and all works well now.
Again, I really appreciate your valuable time. All of the responses indicated
the basic problem, with Woody Lee providing the best ghostscript response:
>I see what you mean.
>-rw-r--r-- 1 woody users 564278 Mar 5 15:20 toots.gif <- from convert
>-rw-r--r-- 1 woody users 10119 Mar 5 15:22 toots_c.960305.gif
>-rw-r--r-- 1 woody users 32211 Mar 5 15:16 toots_c.960305.ps
>The second gif (toots_c.960305.gif) listed above was generated with this
>call to ghostscript v3.12:
>gs -sDEVICE=gif8 -dNOPAUSE -sOutputFile=toots_c.960305.gif \
>toots_c.960305.ps -c quit
>It has to be 3.12 compiled with the gif device option. The gif driver was
>not included in later versions of gs because of that CS/Unisys patent mess.
John Stoffel also got me close to the ghostscript piece:
>As I remember, ImageMagick ends up using gs to convert the PostScript
>figure into an intermediate format (ppm I think) and then takes it
>fromt here. So you might want to compare the DEC and SGI versions of
>gs to see if they produce differently sized output.
And Andrew Leahy provided the other half of the solution:
>Are you using the same version of "ImageMagick" on both systems?
>ImageMagick recently stopped using the proprietary GIF compression
>routines... I haven't compiled the new versions myself (so I'm just
>guessing here!). Check the ImageMagick ChangeLog for more info.
Honorable mentions to Craig and Joe for giving me other things to check.
What a great list!
----dale
Received on Wed Mar 06 1996 - 17:44:52 NZDT