#ProDraw to Win
17 messages in this thread
Hello,
Few years ago, I created a ProDraw clip that I now need on my PC in
Windows (MS Office). What is the easiest way to convert the clip from
ProDraw to a Windows compatible format ?
Thanks….
— Michel Hebert —
On Amiga AutoPilot, from Montreal (Quebec)
Michel,
>Few years ago, I created a ProDraw clip that I now need on my PC in Windows
(MS Office). What is the easiest way to convert the clip from ProDraw to a
Windows compatible format ?
Not being familiar with ProDraw I don't know what format they save their
clips in. Is this a graphic clip? If so, one of the graphics manipulation
programs (AdPro, ImageFX, Imagemaster) should be able to convert it to a fromat
that will be accepted in Windows. If it's a text clip, I really can't help you
unless it can be saved in ASCII.
Skimming through the Redwoods on AutoPilot
Asha
Asha,
About ProDraw file format, I can't answer precisly but it is some kind of
structured graphic format.
The tools you are mentionning (AdPro. ImageFX, ImageMaster) are they
commercial program or shareware?
Thanks,
— Michel Hebert —
On Amiga AutoPilot, from Montreal (Quebec)
Michael,
>About ProDraw file format, I can't answer precisly but it is some kind of
structured graphic format.
I'm not sure about converting those types of files as I've never had (or
created) any. Don't even own a structured drawing program…:)
>The tools you are mentionning (AdPro. ImageFX, ImageMaster) are they
commercial program or shareware?
All three are commercial. I own AdPro and ImageFX and generally prefer
ImageFX but keep them both on hand.
Skimming through the Redwoods on AutoPilot
Asha
Asha,
Thanks for the information,
— Michel Hebert —
On Amiga AutoPilot, from Montreal (Quebec)
If you know someone who has pagestream 3.0 they could load the art and then
export it as say illustrator 3.0 or something else. It would be real easy to
do, a virtual snap. No pun intended.
Matt Straney, 3 hours late, without your luggage
from Grand Ledge — on AutoPilot ——–>
A fully working version of ImageFX V1.5 is being given away on two coverdisks
on the latest issue of CU Amiga.
Jeff Walker.
Jeff,
>A fully working version of ImageFX V1.5 is being given away on two coverdisks
on the latest issue of CU Amiga.
This should allow some folks to get a taste of what ImageFX has turned into.
Their latest upgrade (2.0) is a rather large improvement to 1.5.
Skimming through the Redwoods on AutoPilot
Asha
It certainly is. I hope it works for Nova Design, but I suspect people in the
UK will just say "Ooo! Thanks! Don't need to buy it now!"
Jeff Walker.
Jeff,
>It certainly is. I hope it works for Nova Design, but I suspect people in the
UK will just say "Ooo! Thanks! Don't need to buy it now!"
Fortunately, CU Amiga is distributed world wide. Amigans really need to
pull together and support those developers we still have if they want the
computer to succeed. Escom can only do so much. ImageFX 2.0 is a GREAT
improvement over 1.5. Hopefully there is an artical in CU Amiga that will
point that out to users.
Skimming through the Redwoods on AutoPilot
Asha
You don't need to sing ImageFX's praises to me, I've been using it for years
for my DTP work: scanning, retouching, compositing. (Although the latest
Imagemaster R/t look veeery interesting 😉
To be frank, I doubt if many UK CU Amiga readers have enough ram to do much
with the 1.5 giveaway.
Jeff Walker.
Yes, the people who mentioned programs like ImageFX were incorrect; that
program converts between bitmap image formats, not structured drawing formats.
If you plan to edit the image as a structured drawing on the PC, then you need
to get to Adobe Illustrator format. Someone mentioned that PageStream does
this. If you don't need to edit it, then you could export it as a straight EPS
file, and then you'd be able to place and position the un-editable graphic
within any PC program, as an EPS. Or, you could even do a screen-grab on the
Amiga and save the bitmap, then use that instead of the structured drawing.
ImageFX 2 can import EPS graphics and convert them to bitmaps, if that's what
is required.
To get ProDraw clips into another format is more difficult, mainly because the
ProDraw clip format is more sophisticated than "standard" formats, like
Illustrator88 format for example. In other words, there things you can do in
ProDraw clips which simply cannot be translated into Illustrator88 commands.
Soft-Logik supplies a tool which converts ProDraw clips (with varying success)
to IFF-DR2D format. This format could be imported into Art Expression (by
Soft-Logik but no longer available) and exported in Illustrator88 format, and
the Illustrator88 format file could be imported into a Windows package.
But, once again, there are things that can be done in ProDraw clip format which
cannot be done in IFF-DR2D, and there things that can be done in ProDraw clip
format and IFF-DR2D format which cannot be done in Illustrator88 format. So
depending on exactly what you did in your original ProDraw clip you might end
up with a good Illustrator88 drawing or you might not.
Confused? You will be 😉
The short answer is: If your drawings are destined to be imported to a Windows
package, don't use ProDraw on the Amiga to draw them, use Art Expression or
ProVector. (Or does Gold Disk's Windows proggy read Amiga ProDraw clips…?)
Jeff Walker.
Considering that I'm the first person (outside of Gold Disk) to have parsed the
Pro Draw file format, and that I've written Adobe Illustrator importers and
exporters, no, I'm not confused yet. 🙂 But I'm sure all this mess does
confuse most people who simply want to move a graphic from one platform to
another.
It's funny to think that Gold Disk had the first color desktop publishing
package out there, on any platform…
Jeff: ProDraw for Windows can't read ProDraw for Amiga clips as far as I know.
John: if GD had just had the common sense to release the ProDraw file format,
everybody on the Amiga would have used it. When we parsed it, we realized it
was better than DR2D, which was pretty lame. We tried to extend DR2D so that we
could use it for PageStream3, but basically we'd have had to shoehorn an entire
new format into the DR2D shell and ignore what was already there. Thus we came
up with IFF ILUS, which is part of our IFF DOC format. We will be using the
same IFF DOC format for the Mac and Windows versions of PageStream, by the way.
IFF DOC and ILUS are available to developers such as yourself on request BTW.
Cheers,
Michael @ Soft-Logik Publishing
That'll teach me to think I know what I'm talking about 😉
Jeff Walker.
The other approach is to plot a HPGL file to disk from Prodraw and then
import it into Corel Draw (on PC). You can then export it from Corel
Drawit just about any format that you choose (structured or bitmap).
I know this works, because I have done it myself, but be prepared for huge
files if there is a lot of text or filled objects in the drawing.
Graham Wyatt