comp.sys.acorn (1476/1513) Path: cix!slxsys!uknet!acorn!mhardy From: mhardy@acorn.co.uk (Michael Hardy) Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn Subject: Re: DTP Message-ID: <12287@acorn.co.uk> Date: 20 Jan 92 14:04:23 GMT References: <9201142022.AA01583@solan4> Sender: mhardy@acorn.co.uk Distribution: comp Organization: Acorn Computers Ltd, Cambridge, England Lines: 95 In article <9201142022.AA01583@solan4> dhmyrdal@SOLAN.UNIT.NO (Dag H}kon Myrdal) writes: >In article rhodar@sideways.welly.gen.nz writes: >>2) All of the systems to link small computers to large repro systems need >>encapsulated postscript files on either PC or Mac formatted discs. > >There are *lots* of programs to read/write MSDOS discs on the Arc. >And the work needed to make !PrinterPS output into EPS is minimal. >You need to remove the 'showpage' statement, and put in 'bounding-box' >info for the file... >This could be done manually, or by a small BASIC program... >Alternatively, I was told that ArtWorks will both read and write PS and >EPS files, making it an ideal convertion utility! In fact, Draw generates Encapsulated PostScript (or EPSF). Here, for everyone's benefit, are a few hints and tips on importing RISC OS EPSF into other DTP packages. Although - so far as I am aware - our EPSF conforms to Adobe specifications, some programs are fussy about what they will accept, and reject some conformant features. Note that you're very unlikely to get a preview image from the package into which you're importing the EPSF. WYSIWYG systems are likely to give an outline showing size and position only. (Although there is a way to include a screen image with Encapsulated PostScript as an ASCII encoded bitmap, Acorn don't support it. The files would be huge as a result, too. If you really want to know, get a definition of the EPSI format - I believe that's Encapsulated PostScript for Interchange - from somewhere.) Also, remember that there are public domain programs that will convert your illustrations to industry standard formats such as TIFF. For bitmap images, such as screendumps, these may well better meet your needs. In particular, you're likely to get a preview image. Importing graphics ------------------ To convert RISC OS pictures to Encapsulated PostScript: 1) Get the picture into Draw - this can produce Encapsulated PostScript (or EPSF), whereas Paint et al can't. 2) Print to file using version 2.44 of PrinterPS. (This version produces EPSF that is more widely acceptable for import than that produced by earlier versions of PrinterPS. You'll find it much harder to successfully import to a wide range of packages the EPSF produced with those earlier versions. Version 2.44 should be generally available from Acorn suppliers.) 3) You may need to change the line: %!PS-Adobe-2.1 EPSF-2.0 to read %!PS-Adobe-2.0 EPSF-1.2 (Some packages will reject the later version numbers.) If you need to do so, you can change the binary for PrinterPS so it always does this. Load it into Edit or whatever, search for the offending version numbers, and change them. The literals are still the same length => no problem with the code being affected. We haven't experienced any nasty side effects with the PostScript produced as a result of making this change to our copies of PrinterPS; but I must point out that making such a change is not forally sanctioned by Acorn. The RISC OS 3 printer drivers use the latter version numbers, and so are unlikely to need changing. 4) You may need to move the line: %%BoundingBox: so that it replaces the line near the start: %%BoundingBox: (atend) (Although the '%%BoundingBox: (atend)' syntax is allowed in the definition of the PostScript language, many packages do not support it, but expect to always find the bounding box at the start of the file.) I hope the above helps. - Michael J Hardy Technical Publications Email: mhardy@acorn.co.uk Acorn Computers Ltd Telephone: +44 223 214411 Cambridge TechnoPark Fax: +44 223 214382 645 Newmarket Road Telex: 81152 ACNNMR G Cambridge CB5 8PB England Disclaimer: All opinions are my own, not Acorn's