Postscript output from troff

[Ken Greer]

>From article <17859 at mimsy.UUCP>, by steve at fnord.umiacs.umd.edu (Steven D. Miller):
> I'd love to know the answer to this, too.  The Adobe TranScript package seems
> (without beating on it particularly hard) to compile and run without problems.
> Unfortunately, it seems (from the poking about I've done) that there's no
> way to get the DECstation troff to read *any* font width files, even those
> in /usr/lib/font. If anyone else knows the answer to this, I'd love to hear it

Briefly there are two types of troffs in the world (both written at AT&T):

1. C/A/T Troff, which is on SUNs, DECs, most BSD based UNIX systems.
   This troff was written for the C/A/T typesetter and has the character
   geometries hard coded (!) for the C/A/T.  Using this troff to any other
   device (like a laser printer) will result it quite awful looking output.
   This troff is useless, in my most humble opinion, no matter what filter 
   it's going with.  (This is the troff you have, by the way.)

2. Device Independant Troff (often called diTroff), which was written 
   (again by AT&T) when laser printers were starting to come of age.
   Ditroff uses font tables for each font, each which is unique also
   for each particular output device.  If you're not driving a C/A/T,
   you should be using this troff.

There is always a catch -- the first one's free; the second one ain't.
You get what you pay for, as the saying goes.

Where do you get diTroff?  You can get a very buggy one from AT&T.
Or, you can get an enhanced and supported one from one of only a few
vendors in the country.  The company I work for is one such vendor!
We are also the formost.  Our software (EROFF) is used extensively 
with site licenses at Hewlett Packard, SCO, GE, to name a few.

For those interested in better looking troff output on laser printers,
please feel free to contact the sales folks at the number below.
(You can even call me, if you like!)

Ken Greer
Elan Computer Group, Inc.
888 Villa Street, 3rd Floor
Mt. View, CA 94041
{ames,hplabs,uunet}!elan!kg
415-964-2200