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Postscript Utility...

  1. Required Components
  2. How To Revive Postscript Files
  3. EPS Numbering and Normalization Utility

Anyone who has had a postscript printer (especially if it is a postscript clone) has experienced postscript errors when trying to print out files that may be too complicated, too big, or... well, sometimes we never know why a file won't print.

Knowledgeable service bureau technicians are now finding out that Acrobat is becoming a "utility" tool for dealing with these problems. By saving the file to postscript and then using Acrobat Distiller some, if not all, of the pesky problems seem to melt away. That is because distilling diminishes the impact of "postscripts constructs" that have been built into the file by the authoring program (and its user). To use a simple analogy, chunky postscript "peanut butter" has been smoothed out into creamy. Creamy is easier for printers to process.

Handmade Software markets Image Alchemy PS which is sold in multiple platform versions and is useful for converting up to 94 different format files in batch mode to and from Postscript and PDF formats. A 15-day demonstration version is available for downloading and there is even an online conversion demonstration.

Sometimes even a re-distilling of a PDF file is warranted. If, for instance, fonts have been mistakenly left unembedded in the file, it is possible to recover them by saving the file out of Exchange as a postscript file and then re-distilling. Even PDF files can have printing problems, re-distilling is an option. Proceed to Adobe's download site for Exchange Plug-ins and look for the free plug-in, Export PS, available for your platform. This plug-in adds an "Export PostScript or EPS Options" entry to the Export menu that brings up the following dialog box.

For other cross program uses of a PDF file, it doesn't hurt that they can be opened directly in Illustrator and Freehand, can be imported into PageMaker, and will soon have a filter for importing into Quark XPress picture windows.

1. Required Components
  • Minimum system requirements
  • PDF conversion software - Acrobat Distiller®
  • the knowledge how to use these programs

Component Availability

The Adobe Acrobat software bundle (including Distiller, Exchange, PDFWriter, PSPrinter, Catalog, and the Capture plug-in) can be purchased directly via mail order for about $200.

2. How To Revive Postscript Files

The "clean" way to create a PDF file is to:

  1. Save your source file, regardless originating program, as a Postscript file with the fonts embedded. The file may be many pages in length.
  2. Open Distiller and select the appropriate "Job Options" regarding font embedding and particularly "Compression." For proof e-mailing we recommend 72dpi compression resolution.

For advanced distilling (pre-press, color separations, spot colors, etc.), check out the distilling instructions submitted by Michael Jahn (PDF Evangelist for AGFA). If you have difficulty outputting this file through your postscript driver, print the PDF to postscript from Adobe Exchange. Then download the postscript file to your printer using Downloader or similar utility.

3. EPS Numbering and Normalization Utility

From Gordon Kent's website on Internet Publishing with Acrobat...

Adobe Systems, Inc.'s CEO John Warnock has created a script to normalize and automatically number EPS files.

Here is the script (a text file) for download

Mr. Warnock's description of the script and his direction for its use:

I wrote a utility (in PostScript) that points at a folder of images in EPS format. When you open this utility with the Distiller, it goes through the folder of images and normalizes the size of the images (the maximum dimension is set to 7 inches. The Distiller creates a single PDF file with all the images in order (as they would appear by "name" in the folder). I have modified this utility so that it will number your images (from any starting number you like).

Directions for use:

  1. Cut and save the text below into a text-only file.
  2. Edit the "folder" line to point to the folder containing the EPS images. (PhotoShop 4.0 (using Actions) will convert a complete folder of images into EPS formatted files with one step).
  3. Either open the utility with the Distiller or Drag and Drop the utility (on a Mac) onto the Distiller application. A single PDF file will be created into the same folder that contains the utility.
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