Plotting Postscript files on an HP-GL/w Plotter

We are running uStation V8

Unfortunately, whomever spec'd out our plotter got the HP 800 (C7780B)
instead of the HP 800PS.

How can we plot a postscript file to an HP-GL/2 plotter? Is there a
freeware conversion utility or something similar?

Help! Any advice is appreciated.

 

Is there no way to buy a Postscript accessory for the HP 800? If not,
that is a bummer.

As for software, try looking into Ghostscript. It is basically a
Postscript interpreter, with more features added on to it through the
years. I believe is started as a Unix application, but it has been
ported to other platforms, including Windows. There is a companion
utility (GSView?) that will let you send the output to any Windows
printer, which should be sufficient for sending it to the HP 800.

As for price and licensing, my understanding is that there are three
basic licenses. One is for free non-commercial use only (AFPL license),
one is free and can be sometimes be used for commerical purposes
(GNU/GPL license), and the other one is a fully commercial license that
comes with support (Artifex).

I am kind of foggy on the details, so I will just provide you with a
couple of links to get you started:

http://www.artifex.com
http://www.ghostscript.com

Good luck!

--Alex

 

If you haven't found a free solution, you could consider using our
commercial ps2vector software to batch convert the PostScript files to
HPGL format to feed to your HP plotter.

See www.visual-integrity.com for details. You're welcome to contact me
directly if interested.

Jeroen Dekker