readme.laos

LaOS README for PSTOEDIT
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Warning: THIS IS WORK IN PROGRESS. YMMV

NOTE: libconfig is no longer needed to compile pstoedit!

pstoedit compilation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This should be as simple as running:
    ./configure 
	make 
	make install
Read the wiki for more information and platform specific caveats
http://wiki.laoslaser.org

How does it work?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Pstoedit reads the PostScript file and translates it into a file
format that the LaOS firmware understands. Pstoedit can create 
many different formats, to create laos files, so you need to add i
the option "-f laos" to tell it that you want a LaOS file.

To convert a postscript file on the command line, use:
    pstoedit -f laos infile.ps outfile.lgc

The CUPS printerdriver also calls pstoedit this way to convert
a printed file into LaOS code. 

TODO
~~~~
* improve image engraving
* improve engraving of filled elements of vectors
	* fill and stroke colors are not implemented correctly yet
	* background color is not handled correctly in overlays
	* stroke thickness is not handled correctly
	* paths that consist of multiple unconnected polylines are 
	  messed up
* define config options as PostScript features
* define a PostScript configfile that can be read 
* make filter presets configurable (now in drvlaos.h)

Changelog
=========
* pstoedit now recognizes CUPS images. CUPS translates images into 
  bitmap fonts. Thanks to Wolfgang Glunz (pstoedit) we can now use
  this image data in drvlaos.cpp directly.
  FIXES: find out why pstoedit can read one type of image, but not other
  Info: You need to use the -dgbm flag to enable the new behavior.
  Your backend needs to define that it can accept PNG files. That enables i
  the best support for images. All other ways have one or another restriction.

Links
=====
Libpng:
* http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/libpng-1.2.5-manual.html
* http://zarb.org/~gc/html/libpng.html