$Home$ $Mail$ $Up$ $Previous$ $Next$ $Help$ $it$ $en$

Fractals and PostScript

Somebody says that PostScript files are always too long. The following GIF picture is 17087 bytes long

while the PostScript source code is the following:

%!PS-Adobe-2.0 EPSF-2.0
%%Title: Curva di Koch - by Emanuele Paolini
%%BoundingBox: 0 50 550 660
%%Pages: 1
%%EndComments
%%EndProlog

%%Page: 1 1
/koch {
dup 1 ge {
1 sub gsave
1 3 div dup scale dup koch
1 0 translate 60 rotate dup koch
1 0 translate -120 rotate dup koch
1 0 translate 60 rotate dup koch
grestore} {newpath 0 0 moveto 1 0 lineto stroke}
ifelse pop
} def

20 500 translate
500 500 scale
0.1 setlinewidth

%numero di iterazioni:
8            

dup koch
1 0 translate -120 rotate dup koch
1 0 translate -120 rotate dup koch
showpage

%%Trailer

The whole file is 559 bytes long, comments included. If you have a preview program for PostScript or a PostScript printer, you can try to feed it with the previous PostScript code to see the result: koch.ps.

Notice that PostScript pictures are vectorial, so the printing resolution is only bounded by the resolution of the printer (or the monitor if you use a preview). As a matter of fact, the previous picture is the 8th iteration of the "snow-flock" fractal, and it contains exactly 196608 small segments, each 0.003 cm long.

Notice moreover that the number of iteration can be modified at will simply modifying a number in the source code. PostScript, indeed, is a complete programming language (in reverse polish notation). All the computations needed to draw the fractal, are accomplished by the printer itself.

Other nice fractals written in PostScript:

This is a non periodic tiling: penrose.ps (diby Maurizio Paolini).

$Home$ $Mail$ $Up$ $Previous$ $Next$ $Help$ $it$ $en$

Last updated: dom lug 12 2009