[sdiy] cool tool for panel designs

Sun Feb 6 21:36:17 CET 2005

Coming in on the middle of this (or maybe the end)...  The 72 dot/inch
standard is for COMPUTER MONITOR PREVIEWING ONLY as that's the pitch of most
screens.  If you want to image graphics using a bit file for a face plate,
you need to go to 240 DPI minimum.  This is the printing standard for single
plate (single color) work.  Trust me, I was an art director for 15 years and
blew enough lousy film to encase the wall of China.

harrybissell wrote:

> Hi JH
> 
> not "dpi"
> 
> Think little bits of metal type, stacked by hand to get the printed effect
> you want.  The way it was done 50 years ago... then you will have the idea
> of the 'point' standard
> 
> Sort of like the carryover from Roman chariot wheelbase to some modern
> train track gauges  :^P
> 
> H^) harry
> 
> "JH." wrote:
> 
>> Thanks to all who have told me about points.
>> I knew about DPI stuff for printing, but didn't know there
>> was a standard of 72.
>> 
>> But anyway: I think the placement of the numbers around the tick marks is
>> less than perfect. When I make my panels step by step in
>> Frontplattendesigner,
>> I often adjust the placement by hand, because the "default" position (as
>> rotated
>> around the center hole, and then around the number's own center point to
>> get th eright orientation back) may look good for _some_ numbers, but
>> not for all.
>> For instance, if you have a "-8", the "optical gravity" (if there's omething
>> like that) is not the default center point at all.
>> 
>> JH.
>> 
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Don Tillman" <don at till.com>
>> To: "JH." <jhaible at debitel.net>
>> Cc: <mverbos at earthlink.net>; <synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl>
>> Sent: Sunday, February 06, 2005 5:18 PM
>> Subject: Re: [sdiy] cool tool for panel designs
>> 
>>>> From: "JH." <jhaible at debitel.net>
>>>> Date: Sun, 6 Feb 2005 00:05:09 +0100
>>>> 
>>>> Looks great -
>>>> 
>>>> But what do they mean with "radius in points" ??
>>> 
>>> Hey JH,
>>> 
>>> "Point" is a measurement unit used in the printing industry, most
>>> typically to specify the height of a font.  A point is 1/72 of an
>>> inch.  (For you metric folks, that's 28.35 points per centipede.)  A
>>> typical font might be 12, 15 or 18 points in height.
>>> 
>>> This tool is really just plugging parameters into a simple PostScript
>>> program that draws the dial.  And then it uses some convertomatic code
>>> to present the other output forms.  PostScript uses points as it's
>>> default measurement unit, which makes sense given its application.
>>> 
>>> I have long recommend doing panel design by learning the PostScript
>>> language, writing out the panel in raw PostScript, and sending that to
>>> a laser printer.  Here are a couple postings from a few years ago,
>>> including an example that looks similar to the code generated by the
>>> tool.
>>> 
>>> -- Don
>>> 
>>> ----------------------------------------------------------------
>>> 
>>> Date: Wed Oct 31 09:35:50 -0800 2001
>>> From: Don Tillman <don at till.com>
>>> To: apogeesunset at juno.com
>>> CC: synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
>>> Subject: Re: [sdiy] Front panel labeling
>>> 
>>> Date: Wed, 31 Oct 2001 08:36:05 -0800
>>> From: Casey J Crane <apogeesunset at juno.com>
>>> 
>>> Thanks for all the response to my front panel label question. Don
>>> Tillman suggested I use "Raw Postscript" What do I need for that ?
>>> Special software ?
>>> 
>>> So, Basically, what is postscript ?
>>> 
>>> PostScript is a "page description language", the language that most
>>> laser printers use to print stuff.  The technology is owned by Adobe,
>>> but most of it is based on work from Xerox PARC (like almost all
>>> modern computer technologies).
>>> 
>>> PostScript is a very simple stack based language.  (If you use an HP
>>> calculator you're half way there.)  The syntax is a little hard to
>>> read, but no compiler is needed.  The exciting thing about it is the
>>> set of functions that are available for doing all sorts of 2D graphics
>>> operations on paper output and the fact that you can build up and
>>> customize these operations for your needs.  Line drawing, filling,
>>> rotation, translation, scaling, colors, curves, regions... everything
>>> you need, because that's what the printer uses to print everything
>>> you normally print.
>>> 
>>> Best way to learn is to pick up a copy of the "PostScript Lanaguage
>>> Tutorial and Cookbook" and the "PostScript Language Reference
>>> Manual".  (These are somewhat old, they may have been replaced with
>>> something with a similar title.)  The physical books are nice to have,
>>> but you can also download a free copy of the reference manual from
>>> Adobe.
>>> http://www.adobe.com
>>> 
>>> Just use your favorite text editor to write the PostScript code (I use
>>> Emacs with PostScript mode!) and ship it to your printer.
>>> 
>>> To save trees while you try things out I highly recommend a program
>>> called "GhostScript" which will do a screen display.
>>> http://www.ghostscript.com
>>> 
>>> Adobe Photoshop can read PostScript and render it beautifully, but
>>> doesn't provide any debugging help.  With PhotoShop you can make gif
>>> files to include your artwork in a web page; I've used this technique
>>> for a number of the articles on my web site.
>>> 
>>> -- Don
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Don Tillman
>>> Palo Alto, California, USA
>>> don at till.com
>>> http://www.till.com
>>> 
>>> ----------------------------------------------------------------
>>> 
>>> Date: Tue May 28 11:26:17 -0700 2002
>>> From: Don Tillman <don at till.com>
>>> To: amajorel at teaser.fr
>>> CC: synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
>>> Subject: Re: [sdiy] dial graduations
>>> 
>>>> Date: Tue, 28 May 2002 15:33:48 +0200
>>>> From: Andre Majorel <amajorel at teaser.fr>
>>>> 
>>>> On 2002-05-23 21:25 -0700, Don Tillman wrote:
>>>> 
>>>>>> From: "Michael Ruberto" <frankentron at hotmail.com>
>>>>>> Date: Thu, 23 May 2002 21:46:25 -0400
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I am in the process of designing front panel graphics for all
>> of
>>>>>> my modules so I can have them laser etched. the biggest
>> problem
>>>>>> so far is creating the tick marks to go around the knobs. I am
>>>>>> doing it "by hand" in photoshop but it is really quite time
>>>>>> consuming. is hand drawing these the only way to go?
>>>>> 
>>>>> This is very easy to do in raw PostScript.
>>>> 
>>>> Interesting. Would you care to post a code fragment, for those
>>>> of us who don't mumble PostScript in their sleep ?
>>> 
>>> (Hey, you wouldn't ask this of that guy who suggests doing everything
>>> with a PIC!)
>>> 
>>> Below is a PostScript program for drawing three dial scales, complete
>>> with center crosses.  See, it's easy.
>>> 
>>> Note that there are several very cool features about this approach.
>>> It's accurate in the sense that you can say "I want this switch
>>> *here*", where here is the measurement you specifcy with respect to any
>>> other point you specify.  You can parameterize stuff, so that if you
>>> decide later to change the style of something you only have to change
>>> one parameter.  And you have complete control over everything.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> ----------------
>>> initgraphics
>>> 
>>> %% scale to inches
>>> 72.0 72.0 scale
>>> 
>>> %% draw the center cross
>>> /center-cross-size 0.25 def
>>> 
>>> /draw-center-cross {
>>> gsave
>>> 1.0 72.0 div setlinewidth
>>> -0.5 center-cross-size mul 0.0 moveto
>>> +0.5 center-cross-size mul 0.0 lineto
>>> 0.0 -0.5 center-cross-size mul moveto
>>> 0.0 +0.5 center-cross-size mul lineto stroke
>>> grestore
>>> } def
>>> 
>>> /dial-inside-radius 0.5 def
>>> /dial-outside-radius 0.75 def
>>> /dial-arc 270 def
>>> 
>>> %% draw a dial here
>>> %% stack:
>>> %%   n divisions
>>> /draw-dial {
>>> gsave
>>> currentpoint translate
>>> draw-center-cross
>>> 0 1 2 index
>>> {
>>> gsave
>>> 1 index div dial-arc mul dial-arc 0.5 mul sub rotate
>>> 0.0 dial-inside-radius moveto
>>> 0.0 dial-outside-radius lineto stroke
>>> grestore
>>> } for
>>> grestore
>>> pop
>>> } def
>>> 
>>> 1.5 72.0 div setlinewidth
>>> 
>>> %% draw a few dials
>>> 2.0 8.0 moveto 10 draw-dial
>>> 4.0 8.0 moveto 10 draw-dial
>>> 6.0 8.0 moveto 10 draw-dial
>>> showpage
>>> 
>>> 
>>> ----------------
>>> 
>>> -- Don
>>> 
>>> --
>>> Don Tillman
>>> Palo Alto, California, USA
>>> don at till.com
>>> http://www.till.com
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
> 