Hello,
I apologize if this is too close to a “request” instead of a problem. It is currently not possible to save gif files in batch mode. I have two questions:
Why is this? (I assumed that it had to do with the Gif patent; but that ran out last year)
Is there any plan to change this?
Thanks,
Charles
p.s. Yes, I know you can convert an eps file to a gif file, but this is really CPU intensive. If it would be possible to write gif files directly from root (in batch mode) it would make many things easier.
This is because the gif writing is implemented by first rendering on the screen. However you can emulate batch mode by creating a ‘virtual frame buffer’ (See example in the roottalk archive).
eps to gif is expensive with ghostscript (convert uses gs). We found another solution which is to use a Java program called Batik. This is not as nice looking as with gs, but 30 times faster. And you don’t need a frame buffer device.