Slidemaker Instructions
Version: 3.02, 11-APR-2000
Source:
http://saf.bio.caltech.edu//slidemaker.html
Signup for time:
http://saf.bio.caltech.edu/cgi-bin/caltech/calendar/slidemakerreserv.pl
This document contains the full set of instructions for using the
slidemaker. Unless you really need all this detail, please refer to
the shorter platform specific versions for
Windows
(http://saf.bio.caltech.edu//slidemaker_pc.html)
and
Macintosh
(http://saf.bio.caltech.edu//slidemaker_mac.html)
Please send comments and corrections to
mathog@caltech.edu
If you have any problems making slides, first review these instructions,
paying particular attention to the Known problems
sections. Then, if the problem is still not resolved, send an email
message describing it. The more information the better, as it is very hard
to figure out what has gone wrong from a statement like "it didn't work"!
Quick start
Film information
Preparing the images on your machine
Making slides on the slidemaker from BLL files
General Information
Quick start
These quick start instructions provide a bare overview of the slidemaking
process. If you need more details, look elsewhere in this document. These
quick instructions assume that you are generating BLL files on a
Macintosh for final rendering on the slidemaker using Ektachrome Elite II.
1. Let your film start warming up to room temperature. Reserve some time
on the slidemaker using the Web based calendar system.
Then on your Macintosh...
2. Prepare your slides using Canvas, PowerPoint, Photoshop, etc. Avoid
patterns, use only the supported fonts. If geometry can be set in your
program, use a slide geometry (most programs default to an 8.5 x 11 inch
page geometry.)
3. Start MacRascol Queue builder. Create a queue or open an existing one.
Add your slides to that queue. Apply the appropriate preferences to your
slides (the two most important attributes in the preferences are, film
recorder = "Personal LFR Plus" and film type = "Ektachrome Elite II"). If so
desired, manually crop your slides, otherwise, go with the default. Then
process your slides to BLL files, which should only take a few
seconds per slide. Quit MacRascol Queue Builder.
4. Start up Fetch, login to slidemaker.bio.caltech.edu as Anonymous, no
password needed. Create a folder for yourself, or open an existing one. Set
Fetch to binary mode, if you are prompted, select "raw data" for the type
of binary transfer, and transfer all of your BLL files to the
slidemaker. Quit Fetch.
5. Move to 158 Braun and sit down at the slidemaker console.
You may have to log in as "slidemaker". The WinRascol application should
already be started, if not, look under "Start" (lower left corner) to turn
it on. Do not delete or close the current queue - everybody uses
the same one. Click on the plus icon and add all of your BLL files.
Load your film. Click on the green "go" icon. The slidemaker will begin
imaging your files. When it is finished, select all of your images in the
queue, delete them with the "scissors" icon. Remove your film by holding
down the rewind button for 5 seconds. Leave WinRascol running, do
not log out of the slidemaker account. Later, after you verify that your
slides are ok, delete the files from your folder on this machine.
6. Enter the number of slides you took on the sign up sheet near the
slidemaker computer.
Types of Film to Use
For best results, use only films which have their own "film type" setting,
for instance Kodak Ektachrome Elite 100. Let the film warm up
to room temperature before use!
Do not use the 200 or 400 ASA variant of a film when the film type is set
for the 100 ASA speed. If you absolutely have no choice, kick yourself for
not planning better, than compensate for the speed change by adjusting all
three color balance settings. For instance, set R,G,B to 50% if you have
a 100 ASA film type setting, but the 200 ASA variant of the same film.
Ektachrome Elite II
Ektachrome film is color slide film and must be developed with an E6
development process. Fujichrome 100 or Agfachrome 100 may be be
substituted. Also consider using Kodak's Electronic Output film for
film recorders.
Kodak Gold Plus 100
Kodak Gold Plus is a color print film. Fujicolor 100 or Agfacolor 100 may
be substituted.
Polachrome HC (High Contrast)
Polachrome is an instant film which takes only minutes to develop. The
results can be dark and grainy but may be suitable for group meetings, in-
house presentations or any time you may need rush slides. See Processing
Instant Film below.
Where to Buy Film
You may purchase both Ektachrome 100 and Polachrome film at:
The Biology Stockroom in Beckman Behavioral Laboratory
Fromex in the Burlington Arcade
Lee Mac Camera on Lake Ave.
Getting Film Developed
Ektachrome film development:
Consolidated Media. This is your best bet if you are in a great hurry.
Film is developed and mounted in 3 hours (plastic mounts) and 24 hours
(glass mounts). You can also ask them to number and date your slides.
Address: 130 N. Marengo, between Holly and Walnut,
in Pasadena
Phone: 818/405-0500
Hours: 8:00 a.m. - 10:00 p.m. Monday through Friday
9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Saturday.
Fromex. If the film is in by 2:00 p.m. on M-Th you get it back the next
afternoon. They send E6 film to Consolidated Media.
Address: 380 S. Lake Ave, Pasadena. In the Burlington
Arcade, between San Pasqual and Del Mar,
Phone: 818/577-8383
Hours: 10:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. Monday - Friday
10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m. Saturday
12:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. Sunday
Polachrome development:
Instant film can be developed and mounted in several minutes in plastic
mounts using the Polaroid autoprocessor and slide mounter in 158 Braun.
See the autoprocessor instruction sheet for details.
Why you must use BLL files
A BLL file is a binary representation of the image the slidemaker will
produce. The slidemaker is attached to a Windows NT machine, and will
render BLL files produced on either a Macintosh or Windows machine.
It will not render PICT or other Macintosh formats directly.
You produce the BLL files on your own machines using BLL
drivers, and then transfer these BLL files to the slidemaker for
final rendering. Once the BLL file is produced the only attribute
which you can change on the slidemaker will be the number of slides to
produce for that BLL, or in some cases, the film type, so be sure
that you set your options correctly on your machine before you generate
these files..
Downloading and installing BLL software
You may install the BLL driver files on any machine in you
laboratory on campus, but on no machine off campus. In order to enforce
this (legal) restriction, you will be asked for your SAF username/
password when you download. (This is the same as your DNA sequencing
facility account.) Download the appopriate driver from
http://saf.bio.caltech.edu//productivity_www.html.
Once the BLL software has been downloaded, just install it as you
would any other software on your platform. If you are prompted for the
film recorder type, enter Personal LFR Plus. If it wants a
serial number, just type in a string of zeros until the dialog is happy.
After installation configure the BLL generator (in the
printers menu on windows, and under the chooser
on a Macintosh.) On a Macintosh you should also start the MacRascol Queue
Builder application, then do:
1. Open Preferences
2. Select and copy the one preference you see.
3. Paste in 4 preferences which you will have the orientations/background
attributes of: Portrait/White, Portrait/Black,Landscape/White, Landscape/Black.
(You can set as many preferences as you would like - they are essentially styles which you can apply to your slides.)
The preference at the top of the list will be the default preference.
4. Close the default queue (which is in the MacRascol folder) and create a
new one in a more appropriate location (such as in a users folder.)
Previously installed BLL software
If you already have the BLL software installed you may continue to
use it. However, you must change the the film recorder setting to
Personal LFR Plus.
How to move BLL files to the slidemaker
BLL files need to be moved in binary mode between your machine
and the slidemaker.
from either a Macintosh or Windows machine:
Windows ZIP disk (most modern Macs can read/write these too)
FTP
- anonymous FTP to slidemaker.bio.caltech.edu
- you will be in C:\users\slidemaker, create subdirectory there
- transfer your files in binary mode ("raw data", not MacBinary!!!)
from a Macintosh:
from a Windows 95/NT machine:
Generating BLL files on a Macintosh
All of this work should be performed on your own Macintosh after you have
loaded the BLL driver and the MacRascol Queue Builder application.
Macintosh BLL driver instructions
MacRascol Queue builder should be your first choice for preparing BLL
files on a Macintosh. Go directly through the BLL driver only if
you have an application where you can print, but cannot export into any
format that MacRascol Queue Builder can import.
1. Go to the chooser. Select the BLL driver. Click on SETUP and be
sure that the settings match. (Film type, Film recorder type, and other
options.) Note where the output folder is - that is where your BLL
files will appear. If you are going to generate several BLL files
from one application, you will generally use the same options for each of
them. If any need different options, you can change that with "Page Setup"
from inside the application.
2. Start whichever application you wish to make slides from, format the
image(s) you wish to make slides from.
3. Print your slides through the BLL driver.
You should only print one slide at a time, not a whole series. Usually
this means you have to specify a slide or a page to print in the print
options menu which comes up when you print. You must do this because
most applications cannot successfully print a series of slides to
BLL files in one operation. This is a problem with the applications
and not the driver, but it is unfortunately a very common problem.
Normally printing to BLL files is a very fast operation. Be careful
not to interrupt the printing (by, for instance, quiting the application.)
It is a good idea to check the size of files in the output BLL folder
to be sure that the files are stable (not increasing in size) before
you quit the application. Also, be sure that you have enough room on disk
to hold the BLL files you produce, or you will end up with missing,
or truncated, BLL files.
4. Move your BLL files to the slidemaker.
MacRascol Queue Builder instructions
1. Create a folder for your slide data.
2. Put your data into the folder.
3. Start MacRascol Queue Builder and select/create your image queue in
that folder.
You may use MacRascol Queue Builder to render the following file types:
PICT, PICT2, ScrapBook, TIFF, Targa, Photoshop, LL, and HPGL. If your
file is Postscript, it must first be converted to one of these formats, see
File Types, below, for more information. You cannot use MacRascol Queue
Builder to view the BLL files which it produces.
When MacRascol Queue Builder starts you will see the last queue that was in
use. Unless it is yours, don't use it! Instead, select New Image Queue to
create a new queue, or Open Image Queue to select your own preexisting
queue. First select your folder in the dialog box. Note, it will
default to the folder that contains the items in the apple pull down menu,
it's your machine, but you probably do not want to create a new queue
there!). Select your existing queue, or if you are creating a new
queue, enter a queue name name similar to your own ("John Smith" might
enter a name "Smith Q"). Then click Save to create your new queue, or open
your existing queue, as appropriate.
4. Add files to your blank queue:
To add a single file, click the Add button in the queue window and
select your file. It will then appear in the queue window.
To select many files at once, click the Add Many button. Add
Many allows
you to add all of the files in a folder at the same time or to select files
from different folders. When you are finished adding files click the
Done
button to return to your queue. Note that you must set the image type in
the pull down menu to
match the type of files that you have, otherwise the application won't
find them. The default image type is PICT.
To add all of the files from a Scrapbook file, click the Scrapbook button
and find your Scrapbook file. All images in the Scrapbook will be placed
in the queue by default. The images will actually reside in an images
folder in the folder where your queue is located.
You may also add an image which has been cut from another application.
Select the edit menu and then paste.
Important!
DO NOT move files once you have "queued" them. The files you
"add" to the queue are actually just pointers to the real files. If you
move files, you must delete the original entry and requeue them.
DO NOT move your queue. It may not work correctly afterwards.
DO NOT add images to a queue directly from a floppy disk or from a
disk mounted across the network. Both are too slow to image from.
Also, if the floppy is removed or the network connection lost MacRascol
will not be able to find your image at all.
5. Make modifications to your slides.
Once all of your images are loaded into the queue, you may do one or more
of the following:
Apply characteristics to one or a set of your images at the same time.
1. Highlight a set of images by clicking on the names in the left column
while holding down the shift key.
2. Click on the characteristic you want to change, for instance,
preferences. A pull-down menu will appear.
3. Select one of the predefined options.
To Modify cropping, highlight the name of the image, and then select "Crop
Image" from the menus. Modify cropping to add space around your images (the
default is to crop as close as possible to the image, which is often too
close.) Hold down the shift key to force the cropping frame to retain a slide
shape as you drag it around and resize it. (Note, you may not modify TIFF
or Targa images with MacRascol.)
SEE the MacRascol Queue Builder Options section below for descriptions of
all MacRascol menu options and ways to modify your images.
6. Check the status of each image.
The Status column in the queue shows the processing status of all files.
The default status for all new files is Waiting. Waiting images will be
automatically processed once you select Process from the file menu.
A file with a Hold or Done
status will
be skipped. Once all Waiting files have been processed, the statuses
will all read Done or Error (if there were problems).
Exit the MacRascol Queue Builder application when you have finished
modifying the files in the queue. Your queue will be automatically saved
for you.
7. Generate your BLL files.
Select Start Processing from the File menu.
A print monitor will appear. It will show the number of images remaining,
and the Images Done. Usually BLL files render so quickly
that you won't have time to bring the print monitor into the foreground
before the rendering completes. Check the
amount of disk space available before and after this operation. The
BLL files have to go somewhere, and if you run out of disk space,
some or all will either not be rendered or they may be produced, but
truncated.
8. Errors.
There should not be any errors encountered when generating BLL
files. If there are the status will show error instead of
done. Click on the word error for more information. It might
help to restart the machine and try it again after first changing that
entry's state to waiting. (Probably not though.) If your image
requires too much memory you may not be able generate the output file. Try
remaking huge slides using images sampled at a lower resolution
(no more than 1000 x 1500 pixels in the final image matrix.) If you
encounter an image which will not render, try opening it with the
GraphicConverter application - this will tell you how big the image is, and
will often give you other indications of what might be wrong with the
image.
9. Move your BLL files to the slidemaker.
10. Go to the slidemaker, and render your BLL files.
Macintosh options
MacRascol Queue Builder is a very logical program that is organized somewhat
like a spreadsheet with styles. In the preference window it lists all sets
of predefined setting preferences which have names. In the queue window it
shows all images which are queued, the preference for each, and it also
allows you to override one or more settings for a given preference. For
instance, you might queue two images which should be rendered as white text
on a blue background, landscape orientation, and then three images which
should be rendered as black text on a white background, in portrait
orientation. If the matching preferences have been predefined, you need
only set them in the preferences colum in the queue window - as opposed to
manually setting all properties for each image. If you override any
preference specified property in the queue window, the preference field
will be cleared, but the previously specified preference will still supply
all nonmodified properties (ie, if you change copy number, it will not
change the film type.)
You can cut and paste rows in either window. In the queue window that will
delete or duplicate an existing image, and in the preference window it will
delete or create a preference (you will be prompted for a name.) The
properties which can be set in a preference, or on an image by image basis,
are:
Image Type
Queue window only. This lists the type of the image. It should
be PICT, ScrapBook, Photoshop, TIFF, Targa, BLL, LL, or HPGL. If you click
on this field it will supply this additional information about the image
file: name, size, and location. Warning, if you queue a BLL file
into MacRascol Queue Builder it will show attributes grayed out which
correspond to the default preference settings, NOT the settings
in the actual BLL file.
Status
Queue window only. Values are:
Waiting slide has not yet been imaged
Done slide has been imaged, no errors
Error slide could not be imaged, click on
this field for more information about
the error
Hold slide is queued, but do not image it
this time - for instance, because film
type is wrong.
Preferences
Queue window only. The name of the preference to use
for this image. If any values are overridden, this field
will be blank, but the properties which are not explicitly
overridden will still be applied to the image.
Copies
Number of copies. (Usually set to 1.)
Film Recorder
This should always be "Personal LFR-PLUS".
Film Type
Since our slidemaker only has a 35mm camera back, the only valid settings
are for 35 mm films.
Color
Fast 21 bits per pixel (2 million possible colors)
Fine 24 bits per pixel (16 million possible colors)
Use this for most work.
Extra Fine 33 bits per pixel.
Only necessary for certain types of shallow
color gradients.
Contrast
Use Hard contrast for slides which are pure graphics,
Soft contrast for slides containing photographic images.
Resolution
Options are Fast (2048 x 1365) or Fine (4096 x
2731). Do not specify Extra Fine (8192 x 5461) as
our slidemaker does not support that resolution.
AntiAliasing
AntiAliasing should never be turned on. It isn't needed at
high resolutions, and it increases the slide exposure time
tremendously (assuming that the slide doesn't fail with an
error.) Do not use this even when generating BLL files, as
the actual antialiasing occurs when the slide is rendered.
Minimum Exposure Time
Color Balance and Gamma
Generally you want to use the default. The sole exception
would be if you are using film with an ASA which differs
from that specified in Film Type.
Patterns
Avoid patterns, use colored blocks instead. If your image already contains
geometric shapes filled with patterns, set this to "blend", so that a
uniformly colored shape is produced instead.
Black and White
This affects only text and line art. If it is set to
Normal black is black, and white is white. If it
is set to Invert black becomes white, and white
becomes black. (This change shows up in the slide only, you
cannot see it in the cropping window.) Colors other than
Black and White are unaffected. The only common use for the
Invert setting is to create white text on a blue
background. It might also be used to invert a graphic image
(plot) consisting of a small amount of black text and
fine lined graphics on a white background. (Such slides do
not project well - the thin black lines are washed out by
all of the white.)
Character Spacing
If your application has fractional widths, you might want to
turn this on. Most applications do not, so generally you
can leave this off.
Background
The background color, applied to all unspecified areas of
the slide and any areas outside the cropping box but inside
the projected area of the slide, usually either black or
white. Hint: black background behind black text and
graphics is a bad idea!
Orientation
Cropping
In the queue window, if the cropping column is enabled, clicking in it
will let you manually crop images. If the preference window, if the
cropping column is enabled, clicking in it will let you type in a cropping
value you derived from interactively cropping an image. The only time
you might set cropping to a value in the preference window is if you have a
series of slides which are very nearly identical, for instance,
showing a series of steps in some process. It would be a better idea to
use a slide generator program such as Persuasion, PowerPoint, or Freelance
to format this series of slides.
Font Substitution
This should normally be off. (However, be sure to read the section
below about font choices.) You should turn this on
only for slides which use vertical and rotated text. It will then
cause the system to substitute all fonts with those supplied by
LaserGraphics, which can be rotated. (TrueType fonts do not rotate
correctly, and end up being bit mapped, so they appear blocky in the
output.)
Pen Thickness
Applies only to LL and HPGL image types, where it controls the thickness
of the lines which are drawn.
Plotter Model
Applies only to the HPGL image type. When in doubt, use HP 7475A.
Pen Colors
Applies only to the HPGL image type.
Raster Scale
Applies only to raster images (TIFF, targa, and Photoshop.)
Use the default of Best fit of entire image in frame.
Generating BLL files on a Windows machine
Making slides on a Windows machine is similar to doing so on a Macintosh
machine, except that on Windows there is no application resembling the
MacRascol Queue Builder only a BLL driver - you only have access to
the BLL printer driver. You must set all of the options for
BLL files either in the printers control panel, or in the
"printer setup" menu of the application you are using to print the file
through the BLL printer driver.
Windows BLL driver instructions
1. Start whichever application you wish to make slides from.
2. Set up your slide the way you want it to look.
3. Configure the printer to be the BLL driver.
Set whichever options are appropriate for this slide. If you are going to
generate several BLL files from one application, you will generally
use the same options for each of them. It is especially important that you
set the film recorder and film types correctly!
4. Print your slides through the BLL driver.
You should only print one slide at a time, not a whole series. Usually
this means you have to specify a slide or a page to print in the print
options menu which comes up when you print. You must do this because
most applications cannot successfully print a series of slides to
BLL files in one operation. This is a problem with the applications
and not the driver, but it is unfortunately a very common problem.
Normally printing to BLL files is a very fast operation. Be careful
not to interrupt the printing (by, for instance, quiting the application.)
Also, be sure that you have enough room on disk to hold the BLL
files you produce, or you will end up with missing, or truncated, BLL files.
5. Move your BLL files to the slidemaker.
6. Go to the slidemaker, and render your BLL files.
Windows options
The options in WinRascol or the BLL printer driver are generally
equivalent.
Image Type
Queue window only. This lists the type of the image. It should
be BLL, HPGL, LL, Photoshop 2.5, TARGA, and TIFF.
Status
Queue window only. Values are:
Waiting slide has not yet been imaged
Done slide has been imaged, no errors
Error slide could not be imaged, click on
this field for more information about
the error
Hold slide is queued, but do not image it
this time - for instance, because film
type is wrong.
Preferences
Queue window only. The name of the preference to use
for this image. If any values are overridden, this field
will be blank, but the properties which are not explicitly
overridden will still be applied to the image.
Copies
Number of copies. (Usually set to 1.)
Film Recorder
This should always be "Personal LFR-PLUS".
Film Type
Since our slidemaker only has a 35mm camera back, the only valid settings
are for 35 mm films.
Color
Fast 21 bits per pixel (2 million possible colors)
Fine 24 bits per pixel (16 million possible colors)
Use this for most work.
Extra Fine 33 bits per pixel.
Only necessary for certain types of shallow
color gradients.
Contrast
Use Hard contrast for slides which are pure graphics,
Soft contrast for slides containing photographic images.
Resolution
Options are Fast (2048 x 1365) or Fine (4096 x
2731). Do not specify Extra Fine (8192 x 5461) as
our slidemaker does not support that resolution.
Minimum Exposure Time
Color Balance and Gamma
Generally you want to use the default. The sole exception
would be if you are using film with an ASA which differs
from that specified in Film Type.
Background
The background color, applied to all unspecified areas of
the slide and any areas outside the cropping box but inside
the projected area of the slide, usually either black or
white. Black background behind black text and
graphics is a bad idea! If you print a document from most word processors
to a BLL file you will need to manually set the background to white!!!
Orientation
Raster Scale
Applies only to raster images (TIFF, targa, and Photoshop.)
Use the default of Best fit of entire image in frame.
Making slides on the slidemaker from BLL files
1. Login on the console as slidemaker, there is no password.
When you login WinRascol will automatically start. There is only one image
queue, and it will likely contain the images of the last person who used
the machine. The queue should be stopped, which is indicated by a green
icon on the tool bar.
2. Create a folder for yourself under C:\users\slidemaker and put your
BLL files into it (if you have not already done so.)
3. Clear out the last user's images with select all followed by
cut.
4. Click on the + button and add all of your BLL files.
5. You may preview your BLL files by double clicking on the name of
each.
Generally the lowest resolution setting is sufficient to see if your BLL
files are formatted correctly. If not, view them at medium resolution.
The machine will run out of physical memory and become very slow if you try
to preview at the highest resolution.
Very thin horizontal or vertical lines may not be present in the preview,
but should be present in the final slide.
6. Make modifications to your slides.
The only attribute you may modify on a BLL file is the number of
copies to expose. (Under some circumstances you may also be able to
change the film type.) The values shown when BLL files are queued
correspond to those in the default preference. It is not uncommon to have
BLL files come over with the wrong film type shown because the film type
sets on the Mac and Windows are not identical. However, if the film type
is set to Polachrome, and the slidemaker will not let you change the film
type, it means that the film recorder type was set incorrectly, and you
must reset the recorder type to personal LFR plus, and remake the BLL
slides.
7. Check the status of each image.
8. Load the film
The 35 mm camera attached to the slidemaker will both autoload
and autorewind.
Simply load the film as you would for any 35 mm camera, paying attention to
the cartoon instruction diagram inside the camera. Be sure to extend
the film
leader so that it aligns with the mark specified in the cartoon. (Also, be
careful not to poke your fingers through the shutter - we have had to
repair the camera more than once from this type of accident.) Once the
back is closed the film will automatically load and wind all the way out.
Then the display will indicate the number of exposures available. As
exposures are made the film will wind back into the film cartridge, and the
display will be updated to show how many unexposed frames remain on the film.
9. Do NOT reboot the machine.
It is not necessary to reboot the machine before exposing your slides.
10. Make your slides.
Select Start Processing from the File menu or
click on the green go button.
A print monitor will appear. It will show the number of images remaining,
and the Images Done. Images done knows how many copies were mode,
but images remaining only counts each queued image once. If during
processing you need to stop taking pictures for some reason (you just
realized that half of your slides are black text on a black background),
then select Stop or Abort on the print monitor. The former
quits after the current slide completes, the latter exits immediately.
Each image is sent in three passes (one pass each
for the red, green, and blue colors, which are selected by a rotating
filter wheel with in the slideprocessor). Once the image is exposed you
will hear the shutter close. The camera display will show how many
expsoures have been used and how many are left on the film.
Typical slides take betweeen 90 and 150 seconds to expose.
11. Reimage errors?
After your run has completed check the status for each image
in WinRascol. They should all show done. If some say
error click on the word error for more information. Unless
the error is something you can correct (out of film, for instance), assume
that your BLL file is bad and remake it. See General
Information, for more information.
If the status shows "Failed" the queue will stop. Before you can restart
the queue you will need to unjam the slidemaker. Select "file menu", then
"diagnostics", then "communications test". After running that test
click on the green "go" button on the toolbar, and imaging should resume.
12. Unload the film.
Hold the rewind button down for a few seconds until the motor starts
whining, then release it. When the motor is silent open the back and
remove your film. The camera back will also indicate when it is safe to
open the camera. Note that the camera always winds the film all the way
into the cannister, leaving no protruding leader film. This is not a
problem for the film processing laboratories.
General Information
The following sections contain information that may be helpful in
generating the files that you wish to make slides from.
Monitor calibration
If the monitor on your computer is not calibrated correctly the slides
produced by the slidemaker will not turn out as you expect. Usually only
contrast and/or brightness are wrong, because if the color balance is off
the monitor would have been displaying white with a distinct hue. A monitor
calibration tool is included with Photoshop. If you don't have that, then
you should be able to get close to the correct setting by following the
instructions here:
Be sure that your monitor is set to "millions of colors", or something
similar, so that the full color range is available to you.
File Formats
The Macintosh MacRascol Queue builder software can image
PICT,
TIFF,
Photoshop,
LL,
HPGL,
TARGA, and
Scrapbook files. On your own machines, you would convert these to
BLL files, and then transfer them to the slidemaker for redering. If you
have installed the BLL drivers on your system then you can print
from most applications directly to BLL files, which MacRascol also
recognizes.
The Windows BLL driver software may be used to print from any application
to a BLL file. Note, that in general you should only print one image at a
time through the BLL driver, since many applications are ill behaved and
will not create a series of images with one print command.
Although the WinRascol software on the Slidemaker can make slides from
file formats other than BLL, you do so at your own risk.
It is also possible to make slides of Postscript files, albeit with
a bit of work. First, you must format the document so that the page is
slide shaped (2048 x 1365), then print the file to disk. Transfer the
resulting postscript file via FTP in TEXT mode to the SAF server, and convert it to
a TIFF file with the program ghostscript. The commands are:
% gs "-sDEVICE=tiff24nc" "-sOutputFile=output.tiff" -
"-dNOPAUSE" "-dBATCH" "-r200" input.ps
% ftp slidemaker
anonymous
your_account_name
cd "yourname X1234"
binary
put output.tiff output.tiff
exit
% rm output.tiff
% rm input.ps.
The r200 parameter sets the number of dots per inch, and is a variable
you must adjust. For instance, if your image was 10 inches across, use
r200 to generate an image 2000 pixels wide.
Don't forget to delete the files you just created on the SAF server as they
will be huge and will use up a lot of your disk quota.
The slidemaker can queue and image the tiff file. You will need to
manually set the number of copies and the film type, as well as the
background color. Alternatively, you may transfer the tiff file
back to your own machine, review it, for instance with Photoshop,
and produce a BLL file from it.
If your Macintosh program can print then you can always
save the output as a Postscript file by:
1. Selecting Print... from the File menu.
2. Checking Postscript file for the destination in the print
dialog.
Many Windows programs have similar "print Postscript to disk" options,
although Postscript generated by Windows programs often violates various
sections of the Postscript standard (usually some lines are longer than
that standard allows) and so may need to be manually edited before they
can be converted.
If your software only produces other formats, you must convert it to one of
the above formats using a graphic format conversion program before you will
be able to make slides. PowerPoint files should be saved as Scrapbooks or
written one slide at a time through the BLL driver.
Macintosh
If at all possible, use the PICT format and then render to BLL through
MacRascol Queue Builder. If you cannot Save as or Export a
PICT file, see if you can save to a Scrapbook file. Failing that, TIFF
would be preferred. If that isn't an option, then you either have to save
in whatever format is offered, and use a graphics file conversion program,
or install the BLL driver on your Macintosh and see if the program will
print to the BLL driver. If none of those work, print to a postscript file
and image that to TIFF using the Ghostscript.
Microsoft Word
There is a way to make slides directly from Microsoft Word documents.
Unfortunately, it does not seem to work with Word 98
1. Move the Word document to the slidemaker Macintosh.
2. Double click the document to launch Microsoft Word.
3. Select the text that you want to make a slide of.
4. Press Command-Option-D. This creates a PICT image of the word text and
places it in the Clipboard.
5. Start MacRascol Queue Builder and select your existing queue or create a new one.
Choose Paste from the Edit menu. An image
with a name beginning with "clipboard" will appear in your queue. You may
work with it as you would any other PICT file.
Windows
Since creating a PICT will never be an option, try to use TIFF
or install the BLL drivers. If Postscript is the only type of graphics
file that the program produces, then your best bet is to print them to
disk, convert them to TIFF with Ghostscript, and then transfer the
resulting TIFF files to the slidemaker.
Default Cropping
There are basically two types of images which you can render: those which
are a simple array of pixels, and those which are a description of a series
of objects. PICT files which contain drawings are typical of the latter
type. The Rascol programs will normally automatically crop these by
enclosing all visible elements in the smallest box which will fit around them.
While this is fine for images, it is rarely what you want for drawings and
text, since it puts your text right up against the edges of the slide. The
best way to avoid this problem is to create a "virtual" slide frame around
your drawing by placing 2 small black dots at opposite corners. (That is,
one at the upper left corner, one at the lower right.) Then the automatic
cropping will snap the cropping rectangle onto these two dots, and the
slide will turn out exactly as you had intended. If you make these dots
very small they will not be visible in the final slide. Even if they are
somewhat larger, and so visible, they will not detract from the image
because of their inconspicuous location. One caveat - if you invert the
slide colors (white letters/drawing on a blue background, for instance),
then the dots will also become white, and may be somewhat more
visible.
Landscape vs. Portrait
Most programs give you the option of generating a document in either
landscape (wider than tall) or portrait (taller than wide) orientations.
The physical orientation of the film in the slidemaker is Landscape.
To generate a Portrait slide, some program, at some point, must rotate the
letters and images by 90 degrees. Luckily, most programs handle this
automatically, and for those you can select Landscape or Portrait modes
with no problems. Some programs, most notably PowerPoint, assume that the
output device can perform the proper rotations. Unfortunately, the
slidemaker cannot perform such a rotation, so if you want to make a
Portrait slide using PowerPoint you must construct it "on its side". That
is, it must be rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise in the plane of the
screen, so that text which will be horizontal in the final slide runs
vertically up the screen, with the top of the slide at the left of the
screen.
Time per slide
It typically takes between 90 and 150 seconds to image each slide. In
addition, you must allow a for a little time on the slidemaker to set up
your queue, and to preview your BLL files.
Cost and signups
The Division charges $1.00 per slide imaged. This money is used to pay for
the maintenance on the slidemaker, and to help defray the cost of
purchasing the machine in the first place. After you make your slides
write down your name, the number of slides you made, and
the 5 digit Caltech charge number that will be used to pay for this work
on the signup sheet on the slidemaker.
Reserving time on the slidemaker
Known problems
Here are some known problems. Please report any problems that you
encounter so that others may find out about them without having to suffer
through them.
Images in Powerpoint presentations are blocky
PowerPoint presentations created with page setup configured for "Slide"
format may contain "blocky" images when printed. This is because
PowerPoint operates at a fixed resolution (dpi) and that number is too low
when used with the default "slide" format for high resolution images.
The solution is:
- In "Page Setup" set the resolution to 28.46" x 42.67" for slides with a
resolution of 4096 x 2732 pixels.
- Make the slides, scaling inserted images as appropriate.
- Be sure that "scale to fit paper" is checked in the print
menu/dialog, or you may end up with just a corner of the slide!
- Print the slides through the BLL driver. (On Macintosh select this
"printer" via the chooser, on Windows select it from the pull down printer
menu.)
Print many vs. Print one
When constructing an output file, many programs give you the option of
sending multiple pages, or one page per file. The latter form is what
you should generally choose, since there are programs, notably PowerPoint,
that make mistakes when sending multiple pages to a file. This is
especially important when using the BLL drivers.
Choice of fonts
Photoshop warning
Photoshop bitmaps everything, including the text. If you have a high
resolution image (for instance, a big protein), then the pixels on the
letters may not be visible in the projected slide. However, if you have
a tiny image, the text will magnify to become a blocky mess. The best
solution is not to use Photoshop for the final slide preparation. Canvas,
for instance, will do a much better job, and text will never look bad, so
long as you stick to the "blessed" fonts described elsewhere in this
document.
Huge graph warning
If your image contains a bar graph with a huge number of data points, even
if that image is a BLL , it may not be possible to render it. For
instance, if you plot a 16000 datapoint bar graph, you can be pretty
confident that the slidemaker will not be able to render it. The best
solution is to reduce the plot resolution to at most 4098 data points, or
to force the graph to bitmap at that resolution, for instance, by importing
it into photoshop.
Failure 05, communications failure
The source of the Failure 05 problems has been located: the LaserGraphics
Personal LFR Plus will not work reliably through its SCSI interface when
attached to common SCSI adapters (Adaptec 1520 or 2920). Consequently,
this device is currently attached through its Parallel Port interface. For
larger files, that will result in longer exposure times, how much longer
will vary from file to file.
If the status shows "Failed" the queue will stop. Before you can restart
the queue you will need to unjam the slidemaker. Select "file menu", then
"diagnostics", then "communications test". After running that test
click on the green "go" button on the toolbar, and imaging should resume.
This mode of failure is due to a bug in the software - we do not yet know
if it is at the Macintosh BLL side, or in the Windows NT side. You can
usually work around this problem by recropping the slide. Silly as this
sounds, if a slide gives you a Failure 05 just recrop it, changing the size
of the cropping outline slightly. That will cure most cases. The
remainder seem to be cured by changing the orientation from Landscape to
Portrait (or the reverse.) This bug has been reported to the manufacturer,
but no fix has yet been supplied.
Error 12, failure to read file
The slidemaker cannot read your file - so either it was corrupt when
generated, or was corrupted in transit. The former is only likely to occur
if you run out of disk space while writing the BLL, or interrupt the
program while it is writing, so that the file is truncated. The latter
is more common, and usually results from transferring via FTP in the
wrong mode. See How to move BLL files to the slidemaker
for the method to use.
Patterns
Avoid using Macintosh patterns in your slide. There is anecdotal evidence
that patterns tend to trigger failure 05 events which cannot be corrected
by recropping. More importantly, patterns are often not visible beyond
the first few rows in a presentation, and text written over patterns is
very hard to read. If your image already contains geometric shapes filled
with patterns, set the patterns attribute to "blend", which will replace
the pattern with the color that is the average of the colors in the
pattern.
Vertical and rotated text
Vertical and rotated text (anything other than horizontal, top up, bottom
down) is problematical (on Macintosh only) because TrueType fonts do not
rotate properly, and instead are bitmapped, resulting in ugly, blocky text
in the final slide. Other than not using text in anything but the standard
orientation, you have four options to work around this problem.
1. Install ATM and use only postscript fonts. You will need to check your
fonts folder to see which these are. For MacOS 8.x look for red icons in
the fonts folder. The vertical text will look terrible in the MacRascol
cropping window, but will be ok in the BLL file, which you can
verify by using the preview mode in WinRascol on the slidemaker. Settings
in ATM preferences which are known to work are (* indicates setting is
known to be irrelevant, ? indicates other settings were not tested) :
ATM ON
Cache Size 256K
Preserve Character Shapes
* Enable Font Substitution
? Smooth font edges OFF
? Enable auto activation OFF
? Precision Character Positioning OFF
2. Use Photoshop or some equivalent, and force the bitmapping of the fonts
to occur at a very high resolution. Start Photoshop, create a new document,
and set its dimensions to match the hardware resolutions of the slidemaker,
which are Fast (2048 x 1365) or Fine (4096 x 2731). Lay out
your entire slide in this Photoshop document, including the vertical text.
All text will be bitmapped, but it will be bitmapped at the highest
resolution which the slidemaker will support, so it will look nice in the
final slide. When you're done with Photoshop, save the file as PICT and
put it into your queue, or print it directly through the BLL driver. Just
be sure that the resolution attribute you use matches the Photoshop
document's.
3. Set the "Font Substitution" attribute on slides with
vertical text. This will replace all fonts in the document with fonts
supplied by LaserGraphics. These new fonts can be rotated and scaled, but
may not match the shape of your chosen fonts exactly.Warning! Either
of the preceding two methods is preferred, and there is reason to believe
that there are situations where this method will not work.
4. Print your graphic as a postscript file, then convert it to TIFF format
using Ghostscript. This method is described above in File Formats.
The film color is off
The two most likely explanations for images with markedly incorrect colors
are bad development or the use of cold film. If the film was not developed
by Consolidated Media reshoot it and take it to them this time.
Film that has gone straight from the fridge to the camera is
likely to give you bad images. Always let it warm up to room temperature
before use. If you're in a big hurry warm the film against your torso for
ten minutes. (Depending upon your circulation and the ambient temperature
holding it in your hands may or may not be sufficient.) Water baths are
not recommended!
Although this usually manifests itself as overly bright or dark pictures,
it's also possible that your computer monitor is
seriously miscalibrated. See the calibration
instructions for further information.
Queue hangs while making the first slide
For unknown reasons the slidemaker device will occasionally hang while
rendering the first slide in a queue. Typically it will stick in one of
the exposure phases, so that the LCD display will show "exposing green" (or
some other color) and not progress on to finish the exposure. To correct
this condition, do the following:
- Stop the WinRascol32 process with the task manager.
Right mouse click on the bottom task bar -> task manager (menu selection)
-> applications (tab) -> highlight WinRascol32 -> end task (button).
- Power off the Slidemaker device using the switch on the back. This will
not negatively affect your loaded film: the film will not rewind and the
exposure count will be preserved.
- Count slowly to ten.
- Power on the Slidemaker device.
- Wait until the Slidemaker device completes its warmup, which takes
about one minute. The device displays its
current state in the LCD window on top of the camera.
- Restart the WinRascol program with: Start -> Programs ->
WinRascol32 (folder) -> WinRascol32 (program)
- Verify communications: file menu -> diagnostics ->
communications test. It should complete very rapidly, in less than 2
seconds.
- Restart the queue by pressing the green "go" button.
BLL files from PowerPoint 98 on Macs truncate image, leave text ok
There is a complex bug involving PowerPoint 98, and possibly Photoshop 5.0.2,
on Macs. This set of actions _MAY_ result in a bad PowerPoint presentation
and consequently a corrupted BLL file.
- Create a large image in Photoshop 5.0.2
- Save it as a Pict.
- In PowerPoint 98 on the Mac put that image into a slide using insert from file
(not as a link!)
If the resulting powerpoint presentation is corrupted in some way you will observe
the following problems:
- Screen redraws will be very slow.
- "Save as" of the presentation to
PICT format will result in images truncated about 2/3 of the way horizontally
across the slide.
- If the presentation is moved to Windows
the image in the slide will be corrupted, although text will be ok.
- After conversion to a BLL file, the image in the slide will be
truncated when the BLL is previewed or rendered to film.
If you observe the preceding symptoms, remake the PowerPoint presentation
in this manner and a good presentation, and valid BLL files, should result:
- Open the original PICT image in Photoshop 5.0.2.
- Save it as a Tiff
- In PowerPoint 98 on the Mac put that image into a slide using insert from file
(not as a link!) (It may be necessary to first change the memory
setting on Powerpoint before it is run for the Tiff to import properly.
If there isn't enough memory an out of memory error occurs. We had to change it from
10240 to 40240).
If the remade PowerPoint presentation is ok screen redraws will be fast, the
presentation will work with PowerPoint on all platforms, and it will render correctly to a
BLL file. The good presentation will be about 2.7 times larger than the bad
one, and the good BLL file will be something like 20 times bigger than the bad one
(because RLL encoding will have crunched down the missing area in the bad
one.)