5D.Jaws

PURPOSE
Renders images described by Encapsulated PostScript Format (EPSF) files. Image quality is not lost with zooms, rotation and pans of the image.

   

INPUT CLIP
Select Any Clip: the input clip is totally ignored but Jaws need a base to work from.

TIME EDITOR CONTROLS

Spin (Min: -360.0 Max: 360.0 Default: 0.0)
Specifies the spin applied to the selected region when Zoom/Transform is On. The region selected is first translated and scaled until it fills the output image. The output image (in effect) is then rotated about its center by the spin amount.

Center XY (Default: center)
The center of the region selection box on the untransformed input EPSF graphic.

Zoom XY (Min: 0.01 Max: 1000.0 Default: 1.0)
X/Y scale factor.

RENDERING
Anti Aliasing Samples (Min: 1 Max: 5 Default: 4)
Oversampling factor to use when rendering. Setting this to 4 or 5 is recommended, as Jaws isn't significantly slower doing good anti-aliasing than not (in most cases).

PI CONTROLS

SELECTING THE EPS FILE
search
Click for a file browser to locate the epsf file you want to render. The file chosen will be displayed in the EPS File box.

text box (Default: no file yet)
Displays the name of the EPS (or PostScript) file being processed. You cannot type directly into this text box.

FILE OPTIONS
From Macintosh? (Default: Off)
Off: if the EPSF file was NOT created on a Macintosh.

On: if the EPSF file was created on a Macintosh. This causes Macintosh end of line conventions to be processed correctly.

Try with PS (Default: Off)
Off: the input file is assumed to be a true EPSF format file.
On: tries to process PostScript (i.e. PostScript data intended to describe one or more whole pages as usually sent to printers, etc., as opposed to a set of graphic elements intended for inclusion in another document). While this will usually work, it is impossible for the translations, rotations and scales specified in Jaws to work correctly, since there are transformations embedded in PostScript files which cannot be undone.
Also, ALL PAGES of the input file will be processed and the results superimposed on one another! This is generally not a good idea... To stand a chance of working, the PostScript file MUST contain a valid bounding box specification (as all EPSF files do).

Read Thumbnails (Default: Off)
Off: ignores any embedded thumbnail description.
On: tries to read and display thumbnail images. Jaws can only cope with TIFF format thumbnails in EPSF files with a Windows binary header, or with device independent thumbnails supposedly found in EPSI files. Actually, the device independent thumbnails in EPSI files possibility hasn't been tested, because we cannot find anything that generates EPSI files! Shows how much the world really values portability, I guess.

TRANSFORMATIONS
Zoom/Transform (Default: Off)
Apply the geometric transformations you have specified to the EPSF file when rendering it.
Off: the entire EPSF graphic (or PostScript page) will be rendered centred in the output image at the largest scale at which it will entirely fit inside the output image. This is a good starting point. Based on this, you can use the overlay tools to draw a box around the part of the graphic that you want to fill the output image. You can also specify a spin as described below.
On: when you have selected the region you want to fill the output image, turn Zoom/Transform On and the transformations will be applied. The overlay region selection box and spin controls are available only when Zoom/Transform is Off, as that is the only time at which they make sense.
Note: transformations cannot work correctly with PostScript (i.e. non-EPSF) input files.

Match Zooms (Init: Off)
Off: the image can be stretched/squashed as the aspect ratio is not preserved if the Zoom factors do not match.
On: match the X and Y zoom factors, preserving the aspect ratios of elements in the input EPSF graphic. The X Value is used.

THINGS YOU MIGHT LIKE TO KNOW
Working with images
If you have a really high resolution image and you would like to pan around in and/or zoom into it at TV resolution, Jaws is just what you need! You can see the whole image and then set up the desired region and orientation; key framing the sequence to create the output clip. Jaws renders the output using the full input resolution. However the input image must be in epsf format. If you do not have conversion tools please contact 5D.

EPSF Files
EPSF can be output by a large number of useful packages such as Iris Showcase on the Silicon Graphics platform and Adobe Illustrator on Macintoshes and PC's. EPSF contains "vector descriptions" of graphical objects, which can be rendered at, for example, large magnifications, while retaining their integrity. This does not apply to all raster images, which can also be represented in EPSF files. The source image epsf file must be very high resolution and you want to render areas of it at TV resolution (see above, Working with images).

EPSF graphics can be positioned anywhere in the output image and subjected to translations, rotations and scales.EPSF files are rendered to images by the 5D Jaws PostScript interpreter and RIP, which is fully Level 2 compliant.
Jaws (the RIP) is supplied with Jaws (the plug-in). Jaws(the plug-in) will not work if Jaws (the RIP) has not been installed.

PS Files
Although Jaws will attempt to render PostScript (PS) files (and will usually succeed!), these files describe the placement of graphics on one or more pages, and contain their own internal transformations to position things correctly on the pages. Jaws cannot undo these transformations, so translating, rotating and scaling specified on PostScript files will not work correctly.
To have any hope of working, the PostScript file must contain a valid bounding box specification. Most PostScript files do have this.

About Fonts
In order to render text correctly, Jaws must have access to the fonts used when the document was created. This means these fonts must be present on the machine running Jaleo. If the required font is not available when an item of text is rendered, it will be drawn using the Helvetica font, and it is very likely that the character spacing will be totally wrong.

Jaws uses fonts in Adobe Type 1 format stored in the directory:
/usr/local/jaws/fonts
Jaws comes with 67 Type 1 fonts. You can add other fonts to /usr/local/jaws/fonts at any time. They must, however, be in Unix Adobe Type 1 format. Type 1 fonts are often supplied in Macintosh or PC format rather than Unix format.

Two very simple command line programs are supplied that convert Macintosh and PC Type 1 fonts to Unix format. These are called mac2ps and pc2ps respectively. To use them, you must transfer the font file to convert from your Macintosh or PC to your SGI machine using some method, which does not corrupt the contents (e.g. use binary mode FTP rather than ASCII mode). Unfortunately, we cannot advise you on the specifics of transferring data between PC's and (especially!) Macintoshes and SGI machines.

As an example, to convert a Type 1 font file from a PC environment, containing the Times-Roman font and called "TIB_____.PFB", you would use:
pc2ps TIB_____.PFB

This will create a file in the current directory which is the name of the font contained in the font definition. In this case, the file will be called "Times-Roman". You then copy this file to /usr/local/jaws/fonts, and Times-Roman will then be available. (Times-Roman is, of course, one of the fonts supplied with Jaws, but you get the idea...).

pc2ps and mac2ps are installed in the /usr/local/jaws/bin directory, so you will need to have this in your PATH, or type the full name to run these programs.

Please note that FONTS ARE COPYRIGHT. We cannot supply any fonts other than those that come with Jaws. Please respect the licensing agreements of other font suppliers.

Having to have matching fonts on the creating and rendering machines is definitely a nuisance. While you can include representations of fonts in PostScript documents sometimes, this is not generally true of EPSF files. There is simply no way around this. Problems with fonts is one of the reasons Adobe invented the PDF format!

Index