@@ -16,15 +16,24 @@ You can install all of these dependencies with: apt-get install ruby1.8 curl ghostscript make ocrad imagemagick libpng12-dev libgd-ruby1.8 -For composing the poster strips you will need netpbm of at least -version 10.34. The Debian version of this doesn't support large -files properly the last time I checked, so you'll need to compile -your own version. See steps 4 and 5 for more on this. +For composing the poster strips you will need the upstream +version of netpbm of at least version 10.34, which you can get +from: -A completed build tree for this poster is about 28GiB for me so -you need lots of disk space. One of the stages creates -symlinks, so make sure you're doing this on a filesystem that -supports them. + http://netpbm.sourceforge.net/ + +The Debian packaged version of netpbm is very different from the +upstream, and unfortunately I've only got these scripts to work +properly with the latter. (The reasons for the Debian fork are +good ones: the license situation of the upstream netpbm tools is +very confused and there was concern over buffer overflows. As a +result, I'd recommend that you use only use the upstream version +for this application and submit bugs or patches to the Debian +BTS to help improve the Debian-packaged version.) See steps 4 +and 5 for details of how to get the upstream netpbm. + +A completed build tree for this poster is about 18 GiB for me so +you need lots of disk space. Step 1: Extracting the Glyphs ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ @@ -33,9 +42,9 @@ You should be able to run: ./make-unicode-poster -After a long time (at least a day on my computer) this will generate -some useful output in the directory 'individual-characters'. These -files include: +After a long time (at least a day on my computer) this will +generate some useful output in the directory +'individual-characters'. These files include: U????-???-????????.png @@ -47,26 +56,27 @@ files include: U????-???-????????-bottom.png - Just the image of the Unicode codepoint, also cropped from the - full glyph image. + Just the image of the Unicode codepoint number, also cropped + from the full glyph image. In the base directory there will also be: top-sizes.yaml - Information about the size of the -top.png image files and the - block that the characters are from. + Information about the size of the -top.png image files and + the block that the characters are from. codepoints.yaml This file gives the name of each image glyph and the Unicode - codepoint acquired from doing OCR on the codepoint in the image. - These values will have a number of errors in them, since the OCR - isn't perfect; if you want to be able to map each image to a - codepoint, see the option Step 5 below. + codepoint acquired from doing OCR on the codepoint in the + image. These values will have a number of errors in them, + since the OCR isn't perfect; if you want to be able to map + each image to a codepoint, see the option Step 5 below. Step 2: Drawing the Poster Strips ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ + The script "compose-inline-breaks" will create poster strips from these blocks. You can invoke it like: @@ -88,12 +98,12 @@ manager will crash if you open this directory. Step 3: Composing the Poster Strips ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -Composing these strips into the final poster images is quite tricky -since many programs won't cope elegantly with such large images. -netpbm (in the non-Debian version) works fine for this, however. -You'll need to compile this yourself, so download netpbm 10.34 and -build it. Then edit the paths that contain "/home/mark" in the -scripts: +Composing these strips into the final poster images is quite +tricky since many programs won't cope elegantly with such large +images. netpbm (in the non-Debian version) works fine for this, +however. You'll need to compile this yourself, so download +netpbm 10.34 and build it. Then edit the paths that contain +"/home/mark" in the scripts: generate-output-multi-page and compose-pnm-files-multi-page @@ -104,17 +114,16 @@ Now, to compose the strips into a single file, just run: ./compose-pnm-files-multi-page -That script converts each strip to PGM, concatenates them into -gigantic PNM files, one per page of poster. +That script converts each strip to PGM format and concatenates +them into gigantic PNM files, one per page of poster. ****** WARNING ***** You need a great deal of disk space for this to run to - completion. The strips converted to PGM will be about 12GB - in size. The concatenated version is another 12GB. So, - before you consider running this file you probably want to - make sure that you have 30GB of disk free to be on the safe - side. + completion. The concatenated version of the poster is about + 12GB. So, before you consider running this file you probably + want to make sure that you have 30GB of disk free to be on + the safe side. ******************** @@ -122,9 +131,7 @@ The eventual output should be called (for a single page poster): poster-complete-00.pnm -... or multiple files for multi-page posters. Once you're confident -that this is what you want you can save 12GB by removing the -poster-inline-breaks*.pnm files. +... or multiple files for multi-page posters. In some sense this is the final output (a complete poster!) but it's 12GB and 90000x130000 pixels, so not very useful for README c663bec349a353abe5f4bcc78b75e28406d82b81 Mark Longair mark@claret.study http://github.com/mhl/unicode-poster/commit/12ae41be379f4e4554676c320c937d68ed2dcc61 12ae41be379f4e4554676c320c937d68ed2dcc61 2008-07-18T11:28:34-07:00 2008-07-18T11:28:34-07:00 Update the README to reflect the recent changes to the scripts ae92411d113a8f164636f9d3d3e0001416de9aca Mark Longair mark@claret.study