beta demo file

[Hans Hagen <pragma@wxs.nl>]

Hi all, 

I posted a demo file at our site (context->context->beta) named
johan.pdf. This file plays a little with a scan of a drawing my little
nephew made me (it's an instruction on how to build a plane). It's an
unfinished document, but it demonstrated some features that will be
present in the next versions of context:

(1) shading: using metapost, context can include native pdf shades and
blends (and some day patterns) as fills; currently Matthew and I are
working out a decent model of defining them; PS support will come later;
this feature will be available later this year; im the demo, the blue
and brown are shaded (a bit rough now, but will be better later). 

(2) alternate images: pdf supports low res screen/high res printing
graphics; this feature is available in the next context/pdftex release;
for some obscure reason, pdf can only handle bitmaps as alternates,
while, as matthew remarked recently, it sometimes makes sense to inlude
a bitmap for viewing and vector for printing (because acrobat viewers do
not anti alias graphics); in the demo one sees graphics at 25% of the
resolution as the ones used for printing; Tobias will make sure this
feature works in GS too. 

(3) backgrounds: well known to some already, mp can be used to define
fancy backgrounds; a next release will provide an interface to MP that
gives access to all layout areas, including the ones between the 25
areas currently supported; in the demo, one can see how multiple areas
are treated as one. 

(4) clipping: one can pinpoint pieces of graphics by applying clipping;
all graphics shown are actually clips, so there are only two graphics
embedded: the low res and teh high res; at the last page one can see
that arbitrary clipping paths are supported; indeed, one can use MP to
provide such an path; later taco will have to sort out the PS way of
doing things.

This file is generated with pdftex version 14. Because some low level
changes are rather fundamental, I strongly suggest to update pdftex as
well as context in tandem. I will upload a new version when Thanh is
updating pdftex. Beware, the new pdftex will not work with the old
context, but within limits the new context will work with old pdftex's.
I will announce the moment for updating both here. 

Hans

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                                          Hans Hagen | PRAGMA ADE
              Ridderstraat 27 | 8061 GH Hasselt | The Netherlands
      tel: 038 477 53 69 | fax: 038 477 53 74 | www.pragma-ade.nl
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