From postscript-request@cs.brown.edu Tue Feb 8 18:28:12 1994 Xref: dscomsa comp.lang.postscript:6825 comp.answers:3508 news.answers:13072 Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript,comp.answers,news.answers Path: dscomsa!news.dkrz.de!news.rrz.uni-hamburg.de!zib-berlin.de!netmbx.de!Germany.EU.net!EU.net!uunet!brunix!doorknob.cs.brown.edu!jgm From: Jonathan Monsarrat Subject: PostScript monthly FAQ v2.2 12-26-93 [01-04 of 11] Content-Type: text Message-ID: Followup-To: poster Summary: Useful facts about the PostScript graphics programming language Sender: news@cs.brown.edu Reply-To: postscript-request@cs.brown.edu (PostScript FAQ comments address) Organization: Brown University Department of Computer Science Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Mon, 24 Jan 1994 13:34:40 GMT Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu Expires: Fri, 25 Feb 1994 00:00:00 GMT Lines: 1169 Archive-name: postscript/faq/part1-4 Last-modified: 1993/12/26 Version: 2.2 -- PostScript -- Answers to Questions (the comp.lang.postscript FAQ v2.2) Jon Monsarrat jgm@cs.brown.edu This FAQ is formatted as a digest. Most news readers can skip from one question to the next by pressing control-G. Changes since the last version are marked with a '|' in the table of contents and in the sections in the text-only format of the FAQ. Now that there is Linux and NetBSD and BSD 386 UNIX IBM PC (and clone) users can run any of the X-windows and UNIX programs in the utilities section. See comp.os.linux. Also, there is now GhostScript for the Macintosh. Many thanks to Dan Carrigan for reformatting the books and publishers section. The utilities index from the comp.sources.postscript FAQ will be posted in comp.lang.postscript now too. Please help fix the FAQ! All comments should be mailed to jgm@cs.brown.edu. My favorite way to receive a change suggestion is when it is accompanied by a section of the FAQ that is edited and mailed to me verbatim as an example. If you would like to contribute, please read the section ``about the FAQ'' first. Thank you! Books and programs are referred to by name only. See the book sections for book information, and the comp.sources.postscript FAQ for a full list of all PostScript related programs. I have archived a number of the small utilities in wilma.cs.brown.edu:pub/postscript. You can get the comp.sources.postscript FAQ from wilma.cs.brown.edu:pub/comp.sources.postscript. Related FAQs: comp.text, comp.text.tex, comp.fonts, comp.graphics, comp.sys.mac.apps, comp.sources.postscript. Table of Contents This FAQ has 11 sections. It is available by anonymous ftp to wilma.cs.brown.edu:pub/comp.lang.postscript/FAQ.txt in ASCII, and there are also LaTeX, DVI, and PostScript formats. 1 General Questions | 1.1 What is PostScript? 1.2 How can I tell how many pages my document will have? 1.3 How can I print just one page or a few pages from a big 1.4 How can I print more than one page per sheet of paper? | 1.5 How can I edit a PostScript picture? 1.6 How can I print PostScript on a non-PostScript printer? | 1.7 How do I print a file containing 8-bit characters? 1.8 What other graphics languages are there? 2 Printers 2.1 How can I get my printer to talk back to me? | 2.2 Should I leave my printer on? | 2.3 How do you print double-sided on a single-sided printer? 2.4 How do I suppress the power-on start page? 2.5 How do I make a downloaded font ``persistent''? 2.6 How do I remove a persistent (``permanent'') downloaded font? 2.7 How do I reset the printer without power-cycling? 2.8 About saving files | 2.9 What's the control-D business? 2.10 Why does the printer say ``still busy'' when my document is 2.11 How should I set up my spoolers? | 2.12 What are PPD files? | 2.13 What's a timeout error? 3 Formats and Conversions 3.1 How can I convert PostScript to some other graphics format? | 3.2 How can I convert HPGL to PostScript? 3.3 How can I convert DVI to PostScript? 3.4 How can I convert HP Laserjet language (PCL) to PostScript? 3.5 How can I convert TeX PK format font to PostScript? 3.6 How do I embed PostScript into troff? 3.7 How do I embed PostScript into LaTeX or TeX? 3.8 How can I convert an image to PostScript? 3.9 How can I convert ASCII text to PostScript? 3.10 How can I convert PostScript to ASCII? | 3.11 How do I convert between PFB, PFA, Mac, PFM, and AFM? 4 Fonts | 4.1 What are .PFB and .PFA files? | 4.2 How does Macintosh Store PostScript Fonts? 4.3 How can I convert a PostScript font to TeX's PK format? 4.4 Why are Adobe fonts hidden? 4.5 How do I get bitmap representations of Adobe fonts? 4.6 What are some good ftp sites for fonts? 4.7 How can I re-encode a font? 4.8 What's the difference between a Type 1 and a Type 3 font? | 4.9 What vendors sell fonts for PostScript printers? 4.10 What are ATM fonts? 4.11 What are Multiple Master Fonts? 4.12 Do I need a Level Two printer to use Multiple Master Fonts? 4.13 What are Type 4 fonts? 4.14 What are Type 5 fonts? 4.15 Is there an editor for Type 1 Fonts? 5 Books 5.1 Books 5.2 Publishers 6 About Adobe 6.1 How do I get in touch with Adobe? 6.2 What can Adobe do for me? 7 Programming in PostScript 7.1 What is PostScript level 2? 7.2 Should I learn level 2 PostScript? 7.3 Where can I find examples of PostScript code? 7.4 What is the physical size of the page? 7.5 What is the Imagable Area of the page 7.6 Why can't I do a pathforall after a charpath ? 7.7 How do I center a string of text around a point? 7.8 How can I concatenate two strings together? 7.9 What do I do when I get stack overflow/underflow? 7.10 How can I print in landscape mode? 8 Computer-specific PostScript 8.1 Sun Workstations 8.2 IBM PC 8.3 Apple Macintosh 9 Encapsulated PostScript 9.1 What is Encapsulated PostScript? 9.2 What are EPSI and EPSF? 9.3 How do I convert PostScript to EPS? 9.4 How do I get the bounding box of a PostScript picture? 10 About The Comp.Lang.PostScript FAQ (and Usenet Guide to 10.1 The PostScript FAQ: What is it? 10.2 How to get the FAQ files 10.3 How to write a FAQ answer 10.4 The FAQ can contain LaTeX and PostScript inserts 10.5 Revising the FAQ 10.6 How to submit new information 10.7 How to add a program description to the FAQ index 10.8 How to add a book description to the FAQ 10.9 Questions that need answers 11 About PostScript 2 11.1 What printers support Level 2 PostScript? 11.2 What is PostScript Level 2? 11.3 [ Color Extensions ] 11.4 [ Composite Font Extensions ] 11.5 [ Display PostScript Extensions ] 11.6 [ Overview of Level 2 Features ] 11.7 Filters 11.8 Binary Encoding 11.9 Optimized graphics operators 11.10 Optimized text operators 11.11 Forms 11.12 Patterns 11.13 Images 11.14 Composite Fonts 11.15 New Color Spaces 11.16 New screening/halftoning technology 11.17 Improved printer support features 11.18 Interpreter parameters 11.19 Resources 11.20 Dictionaries 11.21 When did Level 2 products come available? 11.22 Are Level 1 and Level 2 implementations compatible? Subject: 1 General Questions Subject: 1.1 What is PostScript? PostScript is a page description programming language. It is perhaps the most versatile and loved language for printers, being used in printers world-wide. It is capable of drawing to computer screens and any kind of drawing device. PostScript is interpreted, stack based and has latent typing. It somewhat resembles the computer language FORTH. A number of programmers write PostScript programs directly for a | variety of drawing applications. The NeXTSTEP Operating System, | running on Intel-486 and Motorola machines, uses Display | PostScript Level II to manage the display. However, PostScript programs are usually documents meant to be printed that have been generated by a program written in some compiled language. Subject: 1.2 How can I tell how many pages my document will have? The easiest way to count pages is view your document on-line with a PostScript previewer. Some previewers like Ghostview and GSPreview count the pages for you. (See the comp.sources.postscript FAQ, which has a section ``PostScript Interpreters and Utilities''.) If your document is generated by a program compliant with the Document Structuring Conventions, you should be able to just count the number of ``%%Page:'' comments imbedded in the document. With UNIX you can type grep -c %%Page: document.ps to do this counting. (See Section 9, ``Encapsulated PostScript''.) The only completely reliable way to count pages is to ask the printer after the job is printed. PostScript printers maintain a page counter that can be queried before and and after the job is printed, and the page count is a simple subtraction. This tends to require rather sophisticated spooling systems and a communications channel that is bidirectional. However, some printers allow you to submit jobs on one port, and issue queries on another. Send this PostScript through a bidirectional I/O port and you'll get back the page count, nominally the total number of pages printed since manufacture: statusdict begin pagecount == end flush Experts using a level 2 printer can use the SerialOff.PS and SerialEHandlder.ps programs to communicate bidirectionally to the printer. Subject: 1.3 How can I print just one page or a few pages from a big document? How can I print pages in reverse order? Try using a host-specific program, like the UNIX command psrev, which is part of the TranScript suite of software from Adobe Systems. Or use the more general utilities Ghostview, psutils or psxlate. There is no guarantee that a given PostScript document can be split in such a manner. The reason is that some programs which generate PostScript code don't conform to the Adobe Document Structuring Conventions (DSC). (See Section 9, ``Encapsulated PostScript''.) A notable example of this is Microsoft Word. Subject: 1.4 How can I print more than one page per sheet of paper? Use psnup or pstext or enscript. These programs redefine the PostScript ``showpage'' command to do multiple PostScript pages per physical page. If one program doesn't work with a complex document, try out other ones. Some PostScript programs can't work with these programs because they break the EPS conventions (See Section 9, ``Encapsulated PostScript''.). The reason is that some Postscript operators (such as initgraphics, the list is in the Red book) change the printer state so "violently", that software trying to do things like n-up will get confused. Theoretically, an EPS shouldn't have any of these operators, but it may not really be an EPS, or there may be a weird interaction between TeX, the EPS and the inclusion mechanism that breaks psnup. Subject: 1.5 How can I edit a PostScript picture? If you know the PostScript programming language, just use any text editor to edit the code directly. If you want to do it visually, you can use Canvas on the Macintosh. | Arts Letters software package from Computer Support Corporation is | supposed to be able to read arbitrary EPS files, using a software | converter called Decipher. Also, Island Graphics has a trio of | software packages called, appropriately, Island Draw/Paint/Write. | This is also supposed to include a full-blown PostScript | interpreter, and be able to read and edit arbitrary PostScript | files. Subject: 1.6 How can I print PostScript on a non-PostScript printer? You need a tool that converts to something that your printer knows how to print. Use Freedom of Press, GhostScript, pageview, TScript, or UltraScript PC. Or, use a printer cartridge if your printer manufacturer sells one. Subject: 1.7 How do I print a file containing 8-bit characters? | If you only have Transcript you just don't. Transcript uses | "enscript" to convert a "text" file to a PostScript file and | "enscript" is not able to deal with 8-bit characters. | | You have to use one of the many programs that convert text to | PostScript, like a2ps, which not only handles the 8-bit characters | in a very nice way using the standard ISO Latin 1 character | encoding, but it also produces outputs in a series of very well | set, nice an paper saving formats, much nicer than the ones | produced by enscript. Subject: 1.8 What other graphics languages are there? HPGL is for pen plotters. PCL is for HP Laser printers (and compatibles). Both are by HP, and PCL5 is supposed to allow inclusion of HPGL commands, preceded by an appropriate escape code, however I have found this to give errors and abort even for simple HPGL code that plots fine on a plotter. Subject: 2 Printers Subject: 2.1 How can I get my printer to talk back to me? Experts using a level 2 printer can use the SerialOff.PS and SerialEHandlder.ps programs to communicate bidirectionally to the printer. If you just need the error returns from the printer, you can spawn a cat < port >> logfile& in your system startup. Then you will get a log of everything the printer says. This works on any serial-port connected printer. Subject: 2.2 Should I leave my printer on? | Most laser printers consume several hundred watts while idle in | order to keep the fuser warm. A few models shut down automatically | after a while, and this feature seems to be the wave of the future. | | Wear-and-tear due to power cycling is no longer the problem it once | was. The advice in the FAQ would have been appropriate in the | 1970s, but no longer. A good modern rule of thumb is to turn off | electronic equipment if it won't be used for a few hours (overnight | or weekends), otherwise to leave it on. Subject: 2.3 How do you print double-sided on a single-sided printer? | The biggest problem comes in jamming when you feed the document | through the second time to print the backside. To minimize this | problem, you want to minimize the curl that the paper acquires in | passing through the printer. So, if your printer normally stacks | face down (to make the page order come out right) rearrange it | (often this involves flipping out a plastic paper catcher on the | end) so the pages feed straight through and stack face up. Then | acquire and build psutils, and run your document through the | following commands: | | pstops '2:0' odd.ps | pstops '2:1U@1(1w,1h)' even.ps | | This puts the even and odd pages in different files, and rotates | the even pages 180 degrees so the top and bottom are reversed. This | lets you feed the paper back through with the old trailing edge at | the front; since pages get the most severe curl at the leading edge | this also helps reduce jamming. Print odd.ps, flip the output pile | face down and backwards, put it back in the input magazine, and | print even.ps. | | If the printer is fed by a shared print queue, you can leave the | paper magazine out after you put the first pass pages into it, | before you submit the second half, then make sure your job is at | the front of the queue (waiting for you to replace the paper tray) | before you reinsert the tray. | | Alternatively, particularly with serially-interfaced printers, | there's a long enough delay to pull the paper tray out between two | print jobs, so you can submit them both, then pull the tray out as | soon as the last page of the first job finishes. The ``pstops'' | invocations report how many pages they emit, so you can count pages | to determine when the first one is done. Subject: 2.4 How do I suppress the power-on start page? Disabling the start page is described in your printer's PostScript supplement. The most common sequence is ``serverdict begin 0 exitserver statusdict begin false setdostartpage end''. Subject: 2.5 How do I make a downloaded font ``persistent''? %!PS-Adobe-2.0 ExitServer %%BeginExitServer: 0 serverdict begin 0 exitserver %%EndExitServer % Test for existence of font, abort if present. % This won't work on a printer with a hard disk! /str 32 string def /Eurostile dup FontDirectory exch known { str cvs print ( is already loaded!\n) print flush quit } { (loading font ) print str cvs print (\n) print flush } ifelse %% Font follows... The part following ``%%EndExitServer'' is optional. If you use it, change Eurostile to the name of the font. The default PFA behavior is to use up additional VM for the new copy if another copy has already been downloaded. Subject: 2.6 How do I remove a persistent (``permanent'') downloaded font? In PostScript Level 2, you can use the undefinefont operator to remove fonts selectively. The only reliable method in PostScript Level 1 is to restart the printer, for example with: serverdict begin 0 exitserver systemdict /quit get exec Of course, the real solution is just to not download persistent fonts unless you really want them to persist indefinitely. If you want them only for one job, download them as part of the job. Subject: 2.7 How do I reset the printer without power-cycling? Most printers can be reset by issuing ``serverdict begin 0 exitserver systemdict /quit get exec''. Subject: 2.8 About saving files Adobe recommends that driver writers do not put EOT (control-D) into files when saving to disk. Normally, the EOT is a part of the protocol for parallel and serial ports and never hits the PostScript interpreter. Drivers that do embed EOD can create problems for devices that allow other communication methods (e.g. AppleTalk, Ethernet, and SCSI) where the EOT is not part of the communications protocol. It is useful to redefine EOT in these instances so that the interpreter does not generate an error. The recommended redefinition is: (\004) cvn {} def This should convert any stand-alone embedded EOTs into a null procedure. Subject: 2.9 What's the control-D business? PostScript printers communicating over serial lines use control-D as an end of job indicator. The host computer should then wait for the printer to send a control-D back to indicate that the job has finished. Managing the serial protocol between host and printer should be done by some form of print service, but if you're unsure whether your print service is doing it, it's an idea to send one yourself. PC type computers frequently do not have any kind of printer manager and applications end up sending control-D characters to the printer, sometimes before and after a job. PC applications frequently embed a control-D as the first character in the print file, presumably to flush out any other jobs, and thereby breaking | the Adobe Document Structuring Conventions. There is a way to turn | off generation off the control-D in Windows (anybody know it?). If you want to prevent applications from doing this, you could use a spooler which would look at the end of every outgoing file and drop the control-D on the end if there happened to be one. If you want a spooler, check out lprps. Subject: 2.10 Why does the printer say ``still busy'' when my document is done printing? Sometimes when you finish a print job, the printer ``Ready'' light keeps flashing for a minute or so. Somehow, the printer has received some character(s) after the control-D which was sent immediately after the PostScript file. The most common is that a newline has been inserted after the control-D. The printer took these character(s) to be another program, and eventually timed-out while waiting for the rest of it. This can happen because of the host not waiting for the printer to finish. Subject: 2.11 How should I set up my spoolers? Since PostScript usually is prefixed with ``%!'', it's easy to educate your spooler to autoselect between passing raw PostScript through to the printer or doing an ``ASCII-to-PostScript'' conversion first. There are many packages that will do this, including Transcript and psxlate. Unfortunately, many PostScript applications generate PostScript without a proper ``%!'' magic cookie. The spooler should be responsible for transmitting the ``job termination code'' (a control-D on serially-connected printers) to the printer, not the application. Do yourself a favor and disable (or filter out) control-Ds in your applications and generate them in the spooler. This will be far more reliable in the face of arbitrary input. Subject: 2.12 What are PPD files? Adobe Postscript Printer Description (PPD) files describe how to use the special features for a specific Postscript printer. They are suppose to be human-readable, but they are really only readable by PostScript gurus. It is the responsibility of the printer manufacturer to supply PPD files. However, the Adobe mail server has many of them. (see the Section 6, ``About Adobe'') | Adobe Technical Document 5003 - PPD Specification describes how to | read and parse PPD files. You can find it on the Adobe mail server, | or by anonymous ftp to | ftp.adobe.com:/pub/adobe/Documents/5003.PPD_Spec.ps. Subject: 2.13 What's a timeout error? | The wait timeout is the maximum time the PostScript interpreter | will wait for input before aborting. The timeout interval begins | when the interpreter finishes executing everything it has received | so far and starts waiting for the host to send it more data. If | this timeout expires and no more data arrives, a timeout occurs. | | In particular, a compute-bound job (or one that goes into an | infinite loop) will not encounter a wait timeout, since it is not | waiting. The long diatribe about the need to "keep sending stuff" | and problems with long compute-bound jobs is totally off the mark. | The data channel may stop due to flow control, and may stay stopped | for long periods if the printer is very busy. This is perfectly OK | and won't cause a timeout. | | Don't disable the wait timeout. The whole point of the wait timeout | is to prevent the interpreter from being indefinitely tied up by a | host application that has crashed, a communication channel that has | been disconnected, or whatever. This is particularly important for | networked printers. The only situation in which disabling timeouts | is appropriate is when debugging applications or drivers, since you | don't want the printer timing out while the host is at a breakpoint | or something. Subject: 3 Formats and Conversions This section describes formats that can be converted to and from PostScript, and how to convert them. Encapsulated PostScript and Fonts have their own sections. Subject: 3.1 How can I convert PostScript to some other graphics format? Since PostScript is not just a picture-description language, but in fact a complete programming language, you will need a complete PostScript interpreter to convert or display a PostScript graphic. See the comp.sources.postscript FAQ for an index of all PostScript related programs. Try using GhostScript. Subject: 3.2 How can I convert HPGL to PostScript? | Use hp2ps. Subject: 3.3 How can I convert DVI to PostScript? Use dvips. Subject: 3.4 How can I convert HP Laserjet language (PCL) to PostScript? Use lj2ps for simple PCL. Alternatively, another lj2ps, from psroff3.0, is a little more complete. hp2pbm can convert all of PCL4 (up to and including rasters, downloaded fonts and macros) into PostScript, G3 and any other PBM-supposed format. Subject: 3.5 How can I convert TeX PK format font to PostScript? Psroff3.0 contains programs that can convert TeX PK format or HP SFP format fonts into PostScript bitmap fonts along with rearranging encoding, etc. While bitmap bfonts scale poorly, this is sometimes of use in special circumstances. Subject: 3.6 How do I embed PostScript into troff? Most troffs can be ``coerced'' into including PostScript figures. The best approach is a configuration that takes EPS PostScript and can automatically scale it, or tell troff how big the picture is. Groff and DWB 3 have this built in. psfig is an add-on EPS inclusion handler that can add this capability to other versions of troff, provided that a compatible PostScript driver is used (Psroff 3.0 for ditroff or CAT troff, Transcript for ditroff). See the comp.text FAQ for more detail. Subject: 3.7 How do I embed PostScript into LaTeX or TeX? You should use an add-on program for seamless PostScript inclusion. Use psfig. If your LaTeX is simple, but your PostScript is fancy, try using LameTeX. If you need a good compromise, use pstricks. See the comp.text.tex FAQ. Subject: 3.8 How can I convert an image to PostScript? First determine what format your images are in. PBMPLUS will have converters for most image formats. To convert an image to PostScript in X windows, you can display the image on the screen, and grab it with xv, which can save the image in a PostScript file. A more general alternative in X windows would be to use the PPM, PGM and PBM utilities in the X11R4 and X11R5 distributions. Subject: 3.9 How can I convert ASCII text to PostScript? Unless your printer is smart about raw ASCII, you can't just send the ASCII to a PostScript printer, because the printer will attempt to interpret your ASCII file as PostScript code. You need a program which will wrap some PostScript code around your ASCII file. Try any of the following programs: asciiprint.ps, ato2pps, cz, ETSR, i2ps, lpp, lwf, POSTPRN, printer, psf, psfx80, PSR, ps2txt, pstext, swtext, text2ps, TranScript, spike.ps, enscript, nenscript, a2ps, asc2ps, ascii2ps, crossword.ps, double.ps, landscape.ps, numbered.ps, portrait.ps, or wide.ps. If you want to make something fancy, why not use a word processor? Most of them can ``include'' ASCII directly from a file and produce PostScript. Subject: 3.10 How can I convert PostScript to ASCII? In general, when you say ``I want to convert PostScript to ASCII'' what you really mean is ``I want to convert MacWrite (which makes PostScript output) to ASCII'' or ``I want to convert somebody's TeX document (which I have in PostScript) to ASCII''. Unfortunately, programs like these (if they're smart) do a lot of fancy stuff like kerning, which means that where they would normally execute the postscript command for ``print water fountain'' instead they execute the postscript command for ``print wat'' (move a little to get the spacing *just* right) ``print er'' (move a little to get the spacing *just* right) ``print foun'' (move a little to get the spacing *just* right) ``print tain'' (move a little to get the spacing *just* right) So if I write a program to look through a PostScript file for strings, like ps2ascii.pl, It can't tell where the words really end. Here my program would see 4 strings ``wat'' ``er'' ``foun'' ``tain'' And it doesn't see any difference between the spacing between ``found'' and ``tain'' (not a word break) and the spacing between ``er'' and ``foun'' (a real word break). The problem is that PostScript for text formatting is usually produced machine generated by a text formatter. A PostScript generator like dvips might have a special command like ``boop'' that differentiates between a real world break and a fake one. But every text formatter that generates PostScript has their own name for the ``boop'' command. So you really want a ``PostScript to ASCII converter for dvips output''. The only general solution I can see would be to redefine the show operator to print out the currentpoint for every letter being printed, like gs2asc, and then make up an ASCII page based on this by sticking ASCII characters where they go in a two-dimensional array. That would convert PostScript to ASCII ``formatted''. But even that wouldn't solve the problem, because special bitmap fonts and and standard fonts like Symbol don't always print a ``P'' when you say the letter ``P''. Sometimes they print the greek Pi symbol or a chess piece or a ZapfDingBat. Use ps2a, ps2ascii, ps2txt, ps2ascii.ps or ps2ascii.pl. Subject: 3.11 How do I convert between PFB, PFA, Mac, PFM, and AFM? Write or call Y and Y Software, listed in the fonts section as a | vendor. For NEXTSTEP systems, write or call Trilithon Software, | also listed in the fonts section as a vendor. Subject: 4 Fonts This section answers questions about fonts as they pertain to PostScript. See the comp.fonts FAQ for more information about fonts. Subject: 4.1 What are .PFB and .PFA files? ``PFB'' stands for Printer Font Binary, and is a STORAGE FORMAT in which Adobe Type 1 font programs are usually distributed for IBM PC and compatibles. Many application programs support fonts in PFB format, and refer to them as ``downloadable''. Macintosh uses a radically different binary storage format than PC. See below for some details. PFB files usually appear in several sections, each section preceded by a binary header containing the type of the section (ASCII, binary, or end of file) and the length of the section. Because of the presence of the binary section headers, and the possible presence of binary data sections, PFB files cannot in general be sent directly to a PostScript printer. Application programs like dvips which use fonts in PFB format unpack the font into ASCII format before sending it to the printer. If you would like to use a font which is in PFB format, you must unpack the font to make a PFA (Printer Font ASCII) file. Adobe Systems supply a font downloader for PC's which turns the PFB format into PFA format on the fly as it's being downloaded. ``PFA'' stands for Printer Font ASCII, which is the unpacked version of a PFB file. In PFB, the data is stored as-is. In a PFA, any binary data present in a former PFB file is stored as ``ascii hex''--meaning each byte of binary data is turned into two ASCII characters representing the hexdecimal value. Once you have the PFA file, just send it to the printer ahead of your file, and use the font like any other. There are several programs which can do the conversion from PFB to PFA for you. Try t1utils. | Details of the PFB format can be found in Adobe Technical Note # | 5040, ``Supporting Downloadable PostScript Fonts''. Subject: 4.2 How does Macintosh Store PostScript Fonts? | To start off understanding how Macintosh stores PostScript fonts, | first you need to know that a Macintosh file consists of two | different parts, called ``forks''. The two forks of a Macintosh | file are called the ``resource fork'' and the ``data fork''. | | The data fork normally contains the data of the file. In the case | of a text editor, for instance, the data fork contains the text. | | The resource fork contains system (resource) information about the | file: who owns the file, its icon maybe, and other information. The | various bits of information in the resource fork are contained in a | complex structure. One of the items is a resource map, detailing | the different kinds of resources and their positions in the | resource fork. | | The reason you need to know all this is because PostScript Type 1 | fonts are stored in the resource fork of Macintosh files. Why this | was done is a historical mystery now, because the information could | just as easily have been stored in the data fork in a format | similar to PFB, and unpacking fonts would have been a whole lot | easier. | | PostScript Type 1 fonts are stored in resources with the name | POST''. If you aren't familiar with the layout of resource forks, | study the ``Resource Manager'' chapter of the Inside Macintosh | books. Details of Macintosh PostScript Type 1 storage format can be | found in Adobe Technical Note 5040, ``Supporting Downloadable | PostScript Fonts''. The information in the Adobe Technical Note is | incomplete in the sense that you need to understand the layout of | Macintosh resource forks to make sense of the information. | | In the majority of cases, you can assume that the POST resources | are stored contiguously in the resource fork. Unfortunately, there | are a few cases where this isn't true, and the resulting PFA file | will be incorrect. | | POST resources occur in five types. Type 0 are comments. Type 1 are | ASCII data. Type 2 are binary data. Type 3 are end of this font | program. Type 4 means that the remainder of this font appears in | the data fork of the file! Type 5 means end of file. | | Having talked about PostScript Type 1 fonts being stored in the | resource fork, why is there a case where the font comes out of the | data fork? Some PostScript Type 3 fonts are stored in this manner. Subject: 4.3 How can I convert a PostScript font to TeX's PK format? Use ps2pk or try out the GNU font utilities in fontutils. Subject: 4.4 Why are Adobe fonts hidden? In PostScript level 1, Adobe's fonts were hidden because they didn't want people pirating copies instead of paying for them. That's why you can't do a pathforall on a charpath. PostScript Level Two has removed the restriction, in the words of the new Red Book, ``for most fonts''. There will still be some vendors who will want to restrict access. Japanese font vendors, for example, are concerned about piracy -- given the work that goes into an 8,000-character Kanji font. Subject: 4.5 How do I get bitmap representations of Adobe fonts? On the IBM PC, use the Font Foundry program included with the font. If you don't have it, contact Adobe for an upgrade. Subject: 4.6 What are some good ftp sites for fonts? ftp.cs.umb.edu sumex-aim.stanford.edu archive.umich.edu ftp.cica.indiana.edu /pub/pc/win3/fonts colonsay.dcs.ed.ac.uk /pub/postscript/fonts For the NeXT platform, fonts are available on the NeXT-FTP-archives, sonata.cc.purdue.edu :/pub/next/graphics/fonts fiasko.rz-berlin.mpg.de :/pub/next/fonts For Macintosh, look in sumex-aim.stanford.edu, mac.archive.umich.edu, and ftp.cs.umb.edu (192.12.26.23), in pub/tex/ps-screenfonts.tar.Z. Color PostScript samples and many other PostScript programs are available from irisa.irisa.fr. Subject: 4.7 How can I re-encode a font? See ddev.ps for an example for code that does this. You can find it by ftp to wilma.cs.brown.edu:pub/postscript/ddev.ps. Subject: 4.8 What's the difference between a Type 1 and a Type 3 font? The Type 1 font format is a compact way of describing a font outline using a well-defined language that can be quickly interpreted. The language contains operations to provide the rasterizer with additional information about a character, known as hints. The hints are additional information which describes how to adjust the representation of the character to make it look good when the font size is small compared to the device resolution. The Type 1 font format is defined in the book ``The Adobe Type 1 Font Format'', also known as the black book, for the colors on its cover. The Type 1 font format has nothing to do with TrueType, which is another font format defined by Apple. The Type 1 font format has been around quite a while, and is used on a wide variety of platforms to obtain scalable fonts. Most clone interpreters will not have Adobe's proprietary rendering technology which interprets font hints to improve the appearance of fonts shown at small sizes on low-resolution devices. The exceptions (PowerPage and UltraScript) have their own hint interpreters. The Type 3 font format is a way of packaging up PostScript descriptions of characters into a font, so that the PostScript interpreter can rasterize them. It is easier to create a Type 3 font program by hand than to create the corresponding Type 1 font program. Type 3 font programs have access to the entire PostScript language to do their imaging, including the 'image' operator. They can be used for bitmapped fonts, although that is certainly not a requirement. The Type 3 font format contains no provisions for 'hinting', and as such Type 3 font programs cannot be of as high a quality at low resolutions as the corresponding Type 1 font program. Both formats are scalable formats, and both can be run on any PostScript interpreter. However, because of the requirement that a Type 3 font program have a full PostScript interpreter around, Type 3 font programs cannot be understood by the Adobe Type Manager. Only Type 1 font programs can. Why bother making a font that's just made up of bitmaps? Once a character from a font has been rendered, the bitmap will be saved in a cache, and another instance of the same character at the same size and orientation can be quickly drawn without recalculation. Because of Adobe Type Manager's wide availability on a large number of platforms (PC, Mac, and Unix), the Type 1 font format makes an excellent cross-platform scalable font standard. Subject: 4.9 What vendors sell fonts for PostScript printers? PostScript font vendors are many and varied. Here is a partial list. Adobe Systems sells a variety of fonts. With the huge number of third-party Type 1 vendors, in recent years Adobe have specialized in creating their own ``Adobe Originals'' -- high-quality fonts, some of which are their renditions of classic faces (Adobe Garamond) and some of their own devising (Stone, Utopia, ...). Adobe Systems, 1585 Charleston Road, Mountain View, CA 94039. (415) 961-4400 AGFA Compugraphic, 90 Industrial Way, Wilmington, Massachusetts 01887. (508) 658-5600. Bear Rock Technologies specializes in bar code fonts. 4140 Mother Lode Drive, Suite 100, Shingle Springs California 95682. Bitstream, Athenaeum House, Cambridge, MA 02142. (617) 497-6222. | Callifonts | has a really nice looking set of calligraphy typefaces. P.O. Box | 224891, Dallas, TX 75222. (214) 504-8808. Casady and Greene, 22734 Portola Drive, Salinas, CA 93908. (408) 484-9228. Ecological Linguistics, specializes in non-Roman alphabets. Ecological Linguistics, P. O. Box 15156, Washington D. C. 20003. Emigre Graphics 4475 ``D'' Street / Sacramento CA 95819 (800) 944 9021 ] Over 70 faces, all PostScript Type 1 ATM compatible, including the omnipresent Modula and infamous Template Gothic. Almost all faces are ``must haves'' for graphic designers. Call for free catalog. | The Font Company | 12629 North Tatum Boulevard, Suite 210, Phoenix Arizona 85032. | (602) 998-9711. Image Club, # 5 1902 11th St Southeast, Calgary, Alberta T2G 2G2, Canada. (403) 262-8008. | Lanston | specializes in display faces. Letraset specializes in fancy kinds of script fonts, Letraset, 40 Eisenhower Drive, Paramus, New Jersey 07652. (201) 845-6100 Linguists Software specializes in non-Roman alphabets (Farsi, Greek, Hangul, Kanji, etc.) Linguists Software, P. O. Box 580, Edmonds, Washington 98020-0580. (206) 775-1130. Monotype, 53 West Jackson Boulevard, Suite 504, Chicago, IL 60604. Page Studio Graphics, Chandler, Arizona, specialize in symbols fonts such as Mac icons, keyboards, and others, Page Studio Graphics, 3175 North Price Road, # 1050, Chandler, Arizona 85224. (602) 839-2763. | Software Complement | specializes in creating logo fonts. 8 Penn Avenue, Metamoras, | Pennsylvania 18366 USA. | The Font Company | TreacyFaces | Trilithon Software, | Portola Valley, California can supply fonts from the Adobe Type | library for NEXTSTEP. If you're working on NEXTSTEP, getting | fonts in the correct form with ancillary information and | downloaders and such is important. You can convert Mac fonts to | NEXTSTEP (PFA) format, but NEXTSTEP demands AFM files as well, | and many Mac/PC font vendors omit AFM files because Mac/PC apps | don't use them. For Adobe fonts for NEXTSTEP, save yourself a lot | of hassle by getting the fonts from Trilithon. | | If you want non-Adobe fonts for NEXTSTEP, Trilithon Software can | supply font conversion tools to go from Macintosh or PC format to | NEXTSTEP format. The conversion tools generate AFM files if none | are supplied with the fonts, and sanity check AFM files for | correctness when they are supplied. | | Two Ohlone, Portola Valley, California 94028 USA. Telephone: | (415) 325-0767, FAX: (415) 325-0768. E-Mail: info@trilithon.com. URW supplies high-quality fonts at low prices. They are also the creators of the top of the line font creation and editing software called Ikarus. URW, 4 Manchester Street, Nashua, New Hampshire 03060. (603) 882-7445. Y and Y Software , 106 Indian Hill, Carlisle Massachusetts 10741 USA. (508) 371-3286. Sells a Font Metric Manipulation Package for DOS with lots of interesting utilities. Many more font vendors exist. Look in magazines and other sources. Check the Usenet newsgroup comp.fonts. Look in U & lc, published by ITC, for long lists of vendors. Subject: 4.10 What are ATM fonts? There has been a rash of misunderstanding about the nature of Type 1 fonts and what people call ATM fonts. ATM fonts are Adobe Type 1 fonts. ATM stands for Adobe Type Manager -- a utility to render smooth characters on Macintosh and PC screens, from font outlines (Type 1 fonts) instead of using bitmap fonts. In one sense, there's no such thing as an ``ATM font'' -- ATM interprets Type 1 fonts, so there's no need to create a new name. A correctly constructed Type 1 font can be interpreted by ATM. Subject: 4.11 What are Multiple Master Fonts? Multiple Master Fonts are an extension to the Adobe font format. providing the ability to interpolate smoothly between several ``design axes'' from a single font. Design axes can include weight, size, and even some whacko notions like serif to sans serif. Adobes' first Multiple Master Font was Myriad -- a two-axis font with WEIGHT (light to black) on one axis, and WIDTH (condensed to expanded) along the other axis. In the case of Myriad, there are four ``polar'' designs at the ``corners'' of the design space. The four designs are light condensed, black condensed, light expanded, and black expanded. Given polar designs, you can set up a ``weight vector'' which interpolates to any point within the design space to produce a unique font for a specific purpose. So you can get a ``more or less condensed, somewhat black face''. Subject: 4.12 Do I need a Level Two printer to use Multiple Master Fonts? No -- Multiple Master Fonts can be used on any PostScript printer. Multiple Master Fonts need a new PostScript operator known as makeblendedfont. The current crop of Multiple Master Fonts supply an emulation of this operator so the printer doesn't need this operator. A short tutorial on Multiple Master Fonts and makeblendedfont appears in PostScript by Example, by Henry McGilton and Mary Campione, published by Addison-Wesley. Subject: 4.13 What are Type 4 fonts? Type 4 fonts are actually Type 3 fonts which contains a Type 1 font. They're stored on hard disk in a special way to save space when they're loaded into printer RAM by findfont. Your interpreter must have the extra PostScript operator CCrun to handle Type 4 fonts. They are usually used for Kanji (Japanese) characters. Subject: 4.14 What are Type 5 fonts? Type 5 fonts are actually Type 1 fonts, but stored in printer ROM in a special compressed format. They're also known as CROM fonts (for Compressed ROM fonts). The contents of the CharStrings entries in Type 5 will probably be different from Type 1. Subject: 4.15 Is there an editor for Type 1 Fonts? Fontographer for the Macintosh and MS-Windows under DOS is available from Altsys Corporation, 269 West Renner Road, Richardson, Texas 75080 USA. (214) 680-2060. Ikarus-M is availble for the Macintosh from URW, Harksheider Strasse 102, 2000 Hamburg 65, GERMANY. (040) 60 60 50 Or URW Software and Type, 4 Manchester Street, Nashua, New Hampshire 03060. (800) 229-8791 in USA. (603) 882-7445 otherwise. Acknowledgments This FAQ was compiled based heavily on the contributions of and with the help of Henry McGilton, Dick Dunn, Howard Gayle, Dan Carrigan, Carl Orthlieb, Ed Garay, Robert Lerche, Bruno Hall, Tom Epperly, and Chris Lewis. Also thanks to contributors Paul Balyoz, Karl Berry, Jerry Black, Charles Cashion, Jim DeLaHunt, Leonard Hamey, Chris Herborth, Steve Kinzler, Bill Lee, Timo Lehtinen, Carl Lydick, Otto Makela, Bill Pringle, Tony Valsamidis, and Jamie Zawinski. Special thanks to Ken Porter, who originally compiled and organized this FAQ. Ver Date Reason ---------------------------------------------------------------- 1.00 12-18-90 Creation by Ken Porter 1.06 5-29-91 expanded on EPS explanation, general updates 2.00 10-25-92 Brought up to date and expanded, by Jon Monsarrat 2.1 5-21-93 Revised because of new comp.sources.postscript group. 2.2 12-26-93 Finally incorporated all the '93 comments and suggestions. This FAQ is copyright (C) 1994 by Jonathan Monsarrat. Permission is granted to freely edit and distribute as long as this copyright notice is included. This document was written with the LaTeX language and formatted by LameTeX, the PostScript hacker's LaTeX. %! Jon Monsarrat jgm@cs.brown.edu moderator, comp.sources.postscript %! (LcHdBidZi_hdQ6[PaVa1b4c6F"J4b/>$O<)(di_zk{:UFfUg;ABF)(2n>]Eh:u?<)(P"M#R(:$T<) ([gXfSZ]f"dZbeZeb^fH;`?dR=ZS7)(K P!U!: H<)(9l9cCf:o?$)(7W4]6`:X;=)(U"W#_%:"R-) (A 5"<&Y%K"F"M,M,S)i3e.M5F_PZR9>lP-)(wBxEuEs7x;uBq:qhFh7o:=Nj<)(Z#]#b#:$R-) (m+m+k3S!R+d,;"^<)(GFP"RamZf;TAP{X{fd<{C7)(4840N2:6N=)([ Z#^&:!c<)(<%?$C$:#8<) (D!J"L#:!B<)/a{def}def/M{exch}a/S{repeat}a/Q{{40 add}if}a 18{{}forall/R M a/x 2 /y 3/z 5 3{R M mod 1 eq a}S x Q M y Q moveto 57 sub{3{y Q M x Q M 6 2 roll}S curveto}S z{fill}{stroke}ifelse}S showpage From postscript-request@cs.brown.edu Tue Feb 8 18:28:17 1994 Xref: dscomsa comp.lang.postscript:6826 comp.answers:3509 news.answers:13073 Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript,comp.answers,news.answers Path: dscomsa!news.dkrz.de!news.rrz.uni-hamburg.de!zib-berlin.de!netmbx.de!Germany.EU.net!EU.net!uunet!brunix!doorknob.cs.brown.edu!jgm From: Jonathan Monsarrat Subject: PostScript monthly FAQ v2.2 12-26-93 [05-06 of 11] Content-Type: text Message-ID: Followup-To: poster Summary: Useful facts about the PostScript graphics programming language Sender: news@cs.brown.edu Reply-To: postscript-request@cs.brown.edu (PostScript FAQ comments address) Organization: Brown University Department of Computer Science Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Mon, 24 Jan 1994 13:35:36 GMT Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu Expires: Fri, 25 Feb 1994 00:00:00 GMT Lines: 868 Archive-name: postscript/faq/part5-6 Last-modified: 1993/12/26 Version: 2.2 -- PostScript -- Answers to Questions (the comp.lang.postscript FAQ v2.2) Jon Monsarrat jgm@cs.brown.edu This FAQ is formatted as a digest. Most news readers can skip from one question to the next by pressing control-G. Changes since the last version are marked with a '|' in the table of contents and in the sections in the text-only format of the FAQ. Now that there is Linux and NetBSD and BSD 386 UNIX IBM PC (and clone) users can run any of the X-windows and UNIX programs in the utilities section. See comp.os.linux. Also, there is now GhostScript for the Macintosh. | Many thanks to Dan Carrigan for reformatting the books and | publishers section. The utilities index from the comp.sources.postscript FAQ will be posted in comp.lang.postscript now too. Please help fix the FAQ! All comments should be mailed to jgm@cs.brown.edu. My favorite way to receive a change suggestion is when it is accompanied by a section of the FAQ that is edited and mailed to me verbatim as an example. If you would like to contribute, please read the section ``about the FAQ'' first. Thank you! Books and programs are referred to by name only. See the book sections for book information, and the comp.sources.postscript FAQ for a full list of all PostScript related programs. I have archived a number of the small utilities in wilma.cs.brown.edu:pub/postscript. You can get the comp.sources.postscript FAQ from wilma.cs.brown.edu:pub/comp.sources.postscript. Related FAQs: comp.text, comp.text.tex, comp.fonts, comp.graphics, comp.sys.mac.apps, comp.sources.postscript. Subject: 5 Books There are many good books on PostScript language programming. Descriptions of all known books are listed below. A listing of publisher information follows. The most commonly known books are the ``blue book'', ``big red book'', and ``green book'' from Adobe, to be read in that order. They are nicknamed according for their jacket colors. Other books recommended to me include Thinking in PostScript, which allows its examples to be freely distributed, and PostScript by Example. Subject: 5.1 Books Adobe Illustrator - The Expert Advisor Series Author Diane Burns, S. Venit, David Smith Publisher Addison-Wesley, 1989 ISBN: 0-201-14397-6 $22.95 Adobe illustrator 3 complete. Author Venit, Sharyn ; et al. Publisher Reading, MA ; Wokingham : Addison-Wesley, c1991 Description ix, 412 p. : [4] p. of plates : ill. (some col.) ; 24 cm. ISBN 0-201-57756-9 (pbk.) $22.45 Library # 006.6765 Adobe illustrator 3.0 : the official handbook for designers. 3rd. ed. Author Bove, Tony ; Fred Davis, Cheryl Rhodes Publisher New York : Bantam Books, 1991 Description xvi, 420 [8] p. of plates : ill. ; 24 cm. ISBN: 0-553-35385-3 (pbk.) $24.95 ($31.95 Can.) Library # Z286. .D47 B66 1991 The Adobe Illustrator 3.2 : designer's guide (Sybex Macintosh library series) Author Holzgang, David A. Publisher San Francisco : Sybex, c1992 Description xviii, 358 p. : ill. ; 23 cm. ISBN 0-7821-1002-9 $24.95 Library # T385 .H674 1992 Adobe type 1 font format. [The Black Book] Author Adobe Systems Incorporated. Publisher Reading, MA : Addison-Wesley, c1990. Description iii, 103 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. ISBN 0-201-57044-0 $14.95 (18.95 Can.) Library # QA76.73 P67 A36 1990 This is the specification for the Type 1 font format. Type 1 fonts are the standard outline format found in Adobe PostScript printers, implementations of the Display PostScript system, and available as download able fonts from the Adobe Type Library. This document describes the syntax of the Adobe Type 1 font format, including complete information regarding hints, encoding of character outlines, and the charstring and eexec encryption algorithms. | Apple LaserWriter reference : for the LaserWriter, LaserWriter Plus, | LaserWriter IINT and IINTX. | Author Apple Computer | Publisher Reading, MA : Addison-Wesley, c1988 | Description xv, 167 p. ; 24 cm. | ISBN 0-201-19258-6 $19.95 | Library # TK7887.7 .A66 1988 Build your own PostScript laser printer and save a bundle. 2nd ed. Author LaBadie, Horace W. Publisher Blue Ridge Summit, PA : TAB Books, 1993 Description xviii, 149 p. : ill. ; 25 cm. ISBN 0-8306-4306-0 $19.60 Library # TK7887.7 .L33 1993 Creating special effects on the Macintosh. Author Holzgang, David A. Publisher Reading, MA : Addison-Wesley, c1992 Description xx, 471 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. + one computer disk (3 1/2 in.) ISBN 0-201-57779-8 $28.95 ($37.95 Can.) Library # Z52.5 M28 H64 1991 Design essentials. Author Cohen, Luanne Seymour ; et al. Publisher Mountain View, CA : Adobe Press, c1992 Description vii, 102 p. : ill. (some col.) 23 x 31 cm. + 3-D viewing glasses inserted. At head of title: Professional studio techniques. ISBN 0-672-48538-9 $39.95 ($49.95 Can.) Library # T385 .D473 1992. Design Techniques with Adobe Illustrator Author Linda Miles, Betty Wilson Publisher Sams, 1992 ISBN 0-672-30205-5 $39.95 Display PostScript programming. Author Holzgang, David A. Publisher Reading, MA : Addison Wesley, c1990 Description x, 406 p. : ill. 24 cm. ISBN 0-201-51814-7 $24.95 Library # QA76.73 .P67 H63 1990 Encapsulated PostScript : application guide for the Macintosh and PC's. Author Vollenweider, Peter Publisher New York ; London : Prentice Hall 1990 Description xvii, 226 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. Translated from German ISBN 0-13-275-843-1 (pbk.) $16.95 Library # QA76.73 .P67 V65 1990 The book's focus is EPS. However, it is an excellent book full of actual real life PostScript and Encapsulated PostScript applications on Macs, PCs, UNIX, IBM mainframe, and other computer systems. | Expert advisor : Adobe Illustrator. | (The Addison-Wesley expert advisor series) | Author Burns, Diane ; S. Venit, David Smith | Publisher Reading, MA : Addison-Wesley, c1988 | Description ix, 350 p., [4] p. of plates : ill. (some col.) ; | 24 cm. | ISBN 0-201-14397-6 $22.95 | Library # T385 .B864 1989 Graphic design with PostScript. Author Kunkel, Gerard Publisher Glenview, IL :Scott, Foresman, c1990 Description ISBN 0-673-38794-1 $29.95 Library # Z286 .D47 K87 1990 Halftoning with Adobe Accurate Screens Author Peter Fink Publisher Hayden, 1992 ISBN ??? $29.95 Hands-on PostScript. Author Spring, Michael B. ; David S. Dubin Publisher Carmel IN, : Hayden Books, c1992 Description xx, 431 p. ; 24 cm. + one computer disk (3 1/2 in.) ISBN 0-672-30185-7 $29.95 ($37.95 Can.) Library # QA76.73 .P67 S67 1992 This is an introduction to PostScript for the novice or casual user. PostScript programming principles are introduced in the context of useful projects (e.g. greeting cards, letterhead, multi-page posters). The book includes five PostScript driver projects in Basic, Pascal, and C. A 3.5" DOS formatted diskette is included with all the source code. It does not cover PostScript level 2. | Illustration techniques with Adobe illustrator for windows. | Author Miles, Linda ; Betty Wilson | Publisher Carmel, IN : Hayden, c1992 | Description xxviii, 323 p., [16] p. of plates : ill. | (some col.) ; 23 cm. | + one computer disk (3 1/2 in.) | ISBN 0-672-30205-5 $39.95 | Library # 006.6869 Inside the Apple LaserWriter Author Hart, Roger Publisher Glenview, IL : Scott, Foresman, c1989 Description xvii, 293 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. ISBN 0-673-38064-5 Library # TK7887.7 .H38 1989 Inside PostScript. Author Braswell, Frank Merritt Publisher Berkeley, CA : Peachpit Press c1989 Description various pagings ; 23 cm. ISBN 0-938151-10-X $37.50 Library # QA76.73 .P67 B73 1989 Inside PostScript essentially takes one on a tour of the standardinternal PostScript code in most printers. The author has worked extensively with an interpreter. (in PostScript terms, no low-level hardware stuff here like cexec and internaldict). Laserwriter Reference Author Apple Computer Publisher Addison-Wesley, 1988 ISBN 0-201-19258-6 $19.95 Learning PostScript : a visual approach. Author Smith, Ross Publisher Berkeley, CA : Peachpit Press, 1990 Description various pagings ISBN 0-938151-12-6 $ 22.95 Library # QA76.73 .P67 S55 1990 Learning PostScript is a tutorial on the PostScript language. It is very appealing, very easy to follow and filled with examples. Each example occupies two pages. A brief explanation and source code is on the left page, and the resultant print-out is on the facing right page. The book starts off very simply for beginners, and covers a lot of material at the end for experts. It was written before level 2 PostScript. In the later half of the book, a few examples can executed only if an additional disk is purchased. The code for LPAVA is $ 20 from Smith Consultants, 834 Third St., Suite B, Santa Rosa, CA 95404, U.S.A. fax number: 415-524-9775 Linotronic imaging handbook : the desktop publisher's guide to high-quality text and images. Author Cavuoto, James ; Stephen Beale Publisher Torrance, CA : Micro Publishing Press, 1990 Description vi, 217 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 23 cm. ISBN 0-941845-06-0 $27.95 Library # Z253.4 .L56 C387 1990 | Mastering Adobe illustrator. | Author Holzgang, David A. | Publisher San Francisco : Sybex, c1988 | Description xviii, 330 p. : ill. ; 23 cm. | ISBN 0895884631 (pbk.) | Library # Z286 .D4 H67 1988 Mastering Adobe Illustrator 88. Author McClelland, Deke ; Craig Danuloff Publisher [Boulder, CO] : Publishing Resources Inc. ; [Homewood, IL] : Dow Jones Irwin, c1989 Description xii, 298, [21] p. : ill ; 24 cm. ISBN 1-55623-157-1 (Dow Jones Irwin) $24.95 Library # Z286 .D47 M375 1989 The official Adobe Photoshop handbook. Author Biedny, David ; Bert Monroy Publisher Toronto ; New York : Bantam Books, 1991 Description xxxviii, 423 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 24 cm. ISBN 0-553-34876-0 $26.95 ($33.95 Can.) Library # QA76.8 .M3 B52 1991 | PostScript by example. | Authors McGilton, Henry ; Mary Campione | Publisher Reading, MA : Addison-Wesley, c1992. | Description xviii, 620 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 24 cm. | ISBN 0-201-63228-4 $29.95 ($38.95 Can.) | Library # QA76.73 .P67 M34 1992 | | PostScript by example is a tutorial for PostScript people at | all levels. It covers level 2 PostScript. The book starts | at novice level and works through to Level Two composite fonts, | patterns, forms, color, halftones, Display PostScript rectangle | operators and text operators. It contains a chapter on practical | issues of downloading fonts, talking to printers, and error | handling. 620 pages containing over 500 fragments of PostScript | code and over 750 illustrations. A long-awaited ``upgrade'' | to the Blue Book. | Henry McGilton can be reached by email as henry@trilithon.com. | Mary Campione can be reached by email as mem@taranis.com. | A disk containing 13,000 lines of PostScript code from the book | can be ordered separately for $ 20 from: Trilithon Software, Two | Ohlone, Portola Valley, CA 94028, U.S.A. | | Or, send email to info@trilithon.mpk.ca.us. A postscript cookbook. Author Thomas; Barry Publisher New York : Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1988. Description vii, 144 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. ISBN 0-442-23686-7 $9.98 Library # QA76.73 .P67 T48 1988 | PostScript screening : Adobe accurate screens. | Author Fink, Peter | Publisher Mountain View, CA : Adobe Press, c1992. | Description xvi, 175 p. : ill. ; 25 cm. | ISBN 0-672-48544-3 (pbk.) | Library # T385 .F55 1992 | | Explains in detail all the issues and specifically covers Adobe | Accurate Screens -- Adobes' own screening technology. Peter Fink | is an expert on the subject of halftone screens as they relate | to color issues. | PostScript, Eine Umfassende Einfuhrung in die Programmierung | Author Wilfred Soker | Publisher Vieweg & Sohn Verlag GmbH, Postfach 5829, | D-6200, Wiesbaden 1, Germany | ISBN 3-528-14711-3 PostScript font handbook - a directory of type 1 fonts. Rev. ed. Authors Grosvenor, Jonathan editor ; Kaye Morrison, Alexandia Pim Publisher Reading, MA : Addison-Wesley, c1992. Description x, 425 p. : ill ; 24 cm. ISBN 0-201-56893-4 $24.95 ($31.95 Can.) Library # Z250.7 .P67 1992 PostScript fuer Workstations Author Vollenweider, Peter (rzuvo@rzu.unizh.ch) Publisher Reading, MA : Addison-Wesley, 1992. ISBN 3-89319-459-2 Dieses Buch ist in Deutsche geschrieben. Es beschreibt PostScript fuer Workstations, mit Display PostScript, PostScript 2, und Farben. This book is written in German. It describes using PostScript on workstations. It covers Display PostScript, PostScript Level 2, and colors. PostScript Language Program Design. [The Green Book] Author Adobe Systems Incorporated ; Glenn Reid Publisher Reading , MA : Addison-Wesley, c1988 Description xii, 224 p. ; 23 cm. ISBN 0-201-14396-8 (pbk.) $22.95 Library # QA76.73 .P67 R45 1988 PostScript Language Program Design is intended to teach the fundamentals of designing PostScript language programs and to show how the language works, so the your programs will be fast, well-behaved, easy to understand, and portable. Code Examples: $ 15 from the developer support hotline. Free from the Adobe mail server (see Section 6, ``About Adobe''). PostScript Language Reference Manual. 1st ed. [The Old Red Book] Author Adobe Systems Inc. Publisher Reading, MA : Addison-Wesley, 1985. Description ix, 299 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. ISBN 0-201-10174-2 Library # QA76.73 .P67 P67 1986 The first edition of the reference manual. It describes PostScript level 1 only. It is a subset of the PostScript level 2 book, but is still more common and costs less. PostScript language reference manual. 2nd ed. [The Big Red Book] Author Adobe Systems Incorporated ; [authors, Ed Taft, Jeff Walden ; editing, Jeff Walden, Paul Engstrom ; illustration Carl Yoshihara, Wendy Ball, Dayna Portfield] Publisher Reading, MA : Addison-Wesley, c1990 Description viii 764 p. : ill. 24 cm. ISBN 0-201-18127-4 $28.95 ($37.95 Can.) Library QA76.73 .P67 P67 1990 PostScript language reference manual is the book that defines the PostScript language. The second edition not only defines Level 1 PostScript, but also encompasses the color, composite font, file system, and DPS extensions and the PostScript language Level 2. PostScript language tutorial and cookbook. [The Blue book] Author Adobe Systems Incorporated Publisher Reading, MA : Addison Wesley, 1985 Description x, 243 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. ISBN 0-201-10179-3 (pbk.) $16.95 Library # QA76.73 .P67 P68 1985 PostScript language tutorial and cookbook is the most common tutorial book on PostScript. It provides an easy, informal introduction to the PostScript language and graphics primitives. The cookbook is a collection of programs that are offered as examples of PostScript usage. These samples have been chosen both as illustrations of the functional range of PostScript and as useful ingredients for inclusion in application packages. Code Examples: $ 15 from the developer support hotline. Free from the Adobe mail server (see Section 6, ``About Adobe''). PostScript programmer's reference guide : featuring PhoenixPage. Author Holzgang, David A. Publisher Glenview, IL : Scott, Foresman, c1989 Description x, 486 p. : ill. ; 23 cm. ISBN 0-673-38574-4 $24.95 Library # QA76.73 .P67 H64 1989 An authoritative guide for programmers, developers, or anyone who wants to get the most out of PostScript. It offers clear instructions, a complete language reference section, and a cookbook of hands-on sample routines. (avail for $ 20 extra on disk) ... It includes complete information on PhoenixPage/PS, Phoenix Technologies' fully PostScript-compatible language. Programming the display PostScript system with NeXTSTEP. [The Purple Book] Author Adobe Systems Incorporated ; [author Ken Fromm] Publisher Reading, MA : Addison-Wesley, c1992 Description xxvii, 380 p. ill. ; 22 cm. ISBN 0-201-58135-3 $26.95 ($34.95) Library # QA76.73 .P67 P76 1991 Written for the NeXT programming environment; however, much of the information it contains applies to all Display PostScript developers. The book explains the language extensions commonly used within applications, describes many of the key aspects of the PostScript language imaging model, and provides a framework for creating Display PostScript language applications. Programming the Display PostScript System with X. Author: Adobe Systems Inc. Publisher: Addison-Wesley Cost: $ 26.95 Written specifically for developers using the X Window System. It is intended to help X application developers improve quality, optimize performance, and minimize development cost. Featuring a Programming Guide with advice on how to write robust, efficient Display PostScript applications, the book also contains a new Toolkit manual and the standard Display PostScript reference manuals. Programming the LaserWriter (Macintosh inside out series) Author Holzgang, David A. Publisher Reading, MA : Addison-Wesley, c1991 Description xxv, 439 p. ill. ; 23 cm. ISBN 0-201-57068-8 $24.95 Library # TK7887.7 .H65 1991 Rapid reference guide to System 7, the LaserWriter Family, and Hypercard. (Business One Irwin rapid reference series) Author Fraase, Michael Publisher Homewood, IL : Business One Irwin, c1993 Description xx, 282 p. : ill. ; 22 cm. ISBN 1556239025 $24.95 Library # QA76.76 .O63 F375 1993 Real world PostScript : techniques from PostScript professionals. [The Orange Book] Author Roth, Stephen F., editor Publisher Reading, MA : Addison-Wesley, c1988. Description xiv, 383 p. [4] p. of plates : ill. (some col.) ; 24 cm. ISBN 0-201-06663-7 (pbk.) $22.95 Library # Z286 .D47 R4 1988 A collection of articles dealing with ``real world'' PostScript language issues and specific applications such as font creation, color separation, kerning, halftoning, various other topics. It contains a text formatter written in PostScript, and concentrates on doing very sophisticated things with fonts and dictionaries. Short overview of chapters: PostScript As A Design Tool; PostScript As A Programming Language; Writing Device Independent PostScript; Kerning, Tracking And Letterspacing, Precise Character Bounding Boxes; Building Fonts; Building Smart Fonts; Font Encoding Vector Compatibility; Building A PostScript Typeface; PostScript Color Operations; PostScript Color Separations; A Spread From Graphic Perspective; A PostScript Four-Color Poster; Graphing And Typesetting With PostScript; The Evolution Of A Complex Geometric Logo Running PostScript from MS-DOS. 1st ed. Author Glover, Gary Publisher Blue Ridge Summit, PA : Windcrest, c1989. Description ix, 209 p. : ill. ; 28 cm. ISBN 0-8306-2998-X $21.60 Library # QA76.73 .P67 G56 1989 Provides a good and brief introduction to PostScript and has lots of useful information on printing PostScript from PCs. Taking advantage of PostScript. Author Sherman, John F. Publisher Dubuque, IA : Wm. C. Brown Publishers, c1992 Description ix, 326 p. : ill. ; 28 cm. ISBN 0-697-14032-6 Library # QA76.73 .P67 S54 1992 Graphically and visually oriented and includes a section on PostScript Level 2. | Terminal Buch, PostScript Fonts und Programmiertechnik | Author Thomas Merz | Publisher R. Oldenburg Verlag, Munchen, Germany | ISBN 3-486-21674-0 Thinking in PostScript. Author Reid, Glenn C. Publisher Reading, MA : Addison-Wesley, c1990 Description xiii, 221 p. : ill. ; 24 cm. ISBN 0-201-52372-8 $22.95 ($29.95 Can.) Library # QA76.73 .P67 R46 1990 Guide to developing programming techniques and to learning how to use the PostScript tool kit. In this book you can find some useful techniques even if you think of yourself as an expert PS programmer. It overlaps very little with existing material. You can find there numerous practical examples in all areas of PS language programming, including the Display PS system. In this volume you will also find: (a) never-before- published information on the PS language (b) useful algorithms for loops, conditionals, and I/O (c) detailed coverage of files, strings, and dictionaries (d) simple and elegant programming techniques The books comes recommended by many. There are also exercises after each Chapter with the results at the end of the book. You can really find examples how to define new useful operators or procedures which you cannot find in the Adobe books. To get the examples from the book for free, send email to the author, glenn@rightbrain.com. Understanding PostScript. 3rd ed. Author Holzgang, David A. Publisher San Francisco : Sybex, c1992 Description xxxiii, 515 p. : ill. 23 cm. "For PostScript levels 1 & 2"--Cover p. [1] ISBN 0-7821-1059-2 $29.95 Library # QA76.73 .P67 H65 1992 Understanding PostScript Programming. 2nd ed. Author Holzgang, David A. Publisher San Francisco : Sybex, 1988 Description xxxii, 472 p. : ill. ; 23 cm. ISBN 0-89588-566-2 Library # QA76.73 .P67 H65 1988 The Verbum book of PostScript illustration. 1st ed. (The Verbum electronic art & design series.) Author Gosney, Michael ; Linnea Dayton, Janet Ashford Publisher Redwood City, CA : M&T Books, 1990 Description vii, 213 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 28 cm. ISBN 1-55851-089-3 $29.95 Library # QA76.73 .P67 G57 1990 Subject: 5.2 Publishers Most of the above books should be available in any big bookstore that has a computer section. Or contact the publishers: Addison-Wesley, Retail Sales Group, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., One Jacob Way, Reading, MA 01867, U.S.A. Phone 800-447-2226 or 617-944-3700, Fax 617-942-1117. Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 2200 Powell Street, Emeryville, California 94608 U.S.A. Phone (510) 601-4000 Adobe Press , Adobe Systems, Inc. 1585 Charleston Road, Mountain View, CA 94039, Phone 415-961-4400. Toll free 800-833-6687. Adobe Press is partially a misnomer, it is not a independent publishing unit but more like a customer or documentation service of Adobe Systems, Inc. The Red, Blue, Green, and Black Books can be purchased from Adobe Systems by calling toll free, 800-83-FONTS (800-833-6687). | Busn One Irvin | , Business 1 Irvin, Division of Richard D. Irvin, Inc. 1818 Ridge | Road, Homewood IL, 60430. Phone 708-798-6000. Toll free | 800-634-3966. Imprint: Pub. by Dow Jones (Dow Jones Books). Bantam , Bantam Books, Inc. Division of Bantam Doubleday Dell. 666 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10103. Phone 212-765-6500. Toll free 800-223-6834. Dow Jones Irvin See Busn One Irvin. Hayden Books, Imprint of Sams. M & T Bks, M & T Books. 501 Galveston Drive, Redwood City, CA 94063-4728. Phone 415-366-3600. Toll free 800-533-4372 ; 800-356-2002. Micro Publishing Press 21150 Hawthorne Boulevard, Suite 104, Torrance, California 90503 U.S.A. Phone 213-371-5787. Peachpit Press, 1085 Keith Ave., Berkeley, CA 94708, U.S.A. Phone 415-527-8555. Toll free 800-283-9444. Prentice Hall, Prentice Hall Press. Division of Simon Schuster, Inc. 15 Columbus Circle, New York, NY 10023. Phone 201-767-5937. Toll free 800-223-2348. Orders to: 200 Old Tappan Road, Old Tappan, NJ 07675. Sams, Division of Macmillan Computer Publishing. 11711 North College Avenue, Suite 140, Carmel, IN 46032. Phone 317-573-2500. Toll free 800-257-5755. Orders to Macmillan Computer Publishing, 8219 Northwest Boulevard, Indianapolis, IN 46278. Imprint: Hayden Books Scott, Foresman and Company, Subsidiary of HarperCollins Publishing Co. 1900 East Lake Avenue, Glenview, IL 60025. Phone 708-729-3000. | Sybex, Inc. | 2021 Challenger Drive, Alameda, CA 94501. Phone 415-523-8223. | Toll free 800-227-2346. Imprint: Sybex Computer Books TAB Books, Division of McGraw-Hill Inc. P.O. Box 40, Blue Ridge Summit, PA 17294-0850. Phone 717-794-2191. Toll free 800-822-8138 ; 800-233-1128. Imprint: Windcrest Books Windcrest Books Imprint of TAB Books. Van Nostrand Reinhold, Division of Thomson Publishing Corp. 115 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY, 10003. Phone 212-254-3232. Toll free 800-926-2664. Orders to: 7625 Empire Dr., Florence, KY 41022. Phone 606-525-6600 | Wm C Brown, | Brown, William C. Publishing. 2460 Kerper Boulevard, Dubuque, IA | 52001. Phone 319-588-1451. Toll free 800-338-5578. Subject: 6 About Adobe PostScript was created by Adobe Systems Incorporated, which offers information and sells programs pertaining to PostScript. Currently the only large PostScript company that I have information on is Adobe. I would be happy to include information about others. Subject: 6.1 How do I get in touch with Adobe? Adobe Systems Incorporated Main phone: +1-415-961-4400 1585 Charleston Road Main FAX: +1-415-961-3769 P.O. Box 7900 Mountain View, CA 94039-7900 If you want technical help using Adobe retail products (e.g. ATM, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Fonts): Adobe forum on CompuServe, call 1-408-986-6500 (for Macintosh) or 1-408-986-6530 (for Windows, Unix) Also use this number to report bugs in retail products. Adobe also has an automated tech support line, which will fax technical notes and product literature to you, and attempt to answer common questions via a menu-driven system. That number is 1-800-235-0078. For sales information on Adobe retail products (prices, catalogues, etc.), call +1-800-235-0078 (fax-back brochures) or +1-800-833-6687 (applications sales) The Developer's Hotline is +1-415-961-4111 (Voicemail) (note: members have priority, but they'll take questions from general public.) Also use this number for information about the ADA or Adobe SDK's. To suggest product enhancements, write or fax to ``Product Manger, product name' at address above. In Europe: Adobe Systems BV, Europlaza, Hoogoorddreef 51a, 1101 BE Amsterdam Z-O, NETHERLANDS. TEL +31-20-65-11-200. FAX +31-20-65-11-300. In the eastern United States: Adobe Sys. Inc., 24 New England Executive Park, Burlington MA 01803. TEL +1-617-273-2120. FAX +1-617-273-2336. In Japan: Adobe Systems Japan, Swiss Bank House, 4-1-8 Toranomon, Minato ku, Tokyo 105 JAPAN. TEL +81-3-3437-8950. FAX +81-3-3437-8968. Subject: 6.2 What can Adobe do for me? Adobe is just one of many companies producing products for PostScript, but it does produce a lot of the best. Adobe offers two resources for software developers. 1. Membership in the Adobe Developers Association (ADA) ( $ 195/year) 2. PostScript Language Software Development Kit (SDK) ( $ 500, $ 250 for ADA) The Developer's Association is Adobe's way of knowing who has a serious interest in technical information. Membership includes monthly technical newsletter, phone technical support, discounts on software and hardware. Membership is $ 195/year for each individual. The PostScript Language Software Development Kits collect all Adobe's technical literature for a given platform into a single package. There are four versions, for the Mac, MS-DOS/Windows, NeXTStep, and X/Windows. Each SDK is $ 500 list, $ 250 for ADA members. A selection of free technical documents is available from Adobe's file server and anonymous ftp archive (ftp.adobe.com). It includes specs (including the aforementioned EPS specification), some tech notes, sample programs, a large collection of AFM files and PPD files. For more information on the file server, send the one-word | message ``help'' to ps-file-server@adobe.com. These documents are | also available by mail, although they are not necessarily free; call the Developers Line and ask for the documents catalog. The contents of both ps-file-server and the ftp archive are nominally the same, although they are currently maintained on two separate machines. From postscript-request@cs.brown.edu Tue Feb 8 18:28:20 1994 Xref: dscomsa comp.lang.postscript:6827 comp.answers:3510 news.answers:13074 Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript,comp.answers,news.answers Path: dscomsa!news.dkrz.de!news.rrz.uni-hamburg.de!zib-berlin.de!netmbx.de!Germany.EU.net!EU.net!uunet!brunix!doorknob.cs.brown.edu!jgm From: Jonathan Monsarrat Subject: PostScript monthly FAQ v2.2 12-26-93 [07-10 of 11] Content-Type: text Message-ID: Followup-To: poster Summary: Useful facts about the PostScript graphics programming language Sender: news@cs.brown.edu Supersedes: Reply-To: postscript-request@cs.brown.edu (PostScript FAQ comments address) Organization: Brown University Department of Computer Science Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Mon, 24 Jan 1994 13:36:26 GMT Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu Expires: Fri, 25 Feb 1994 00:00:00 GMT Lines: 858 Archive-name: postscript/faq/part7-10 Last-modified: 1993/12/26 Version: 2.2 -- PostScript -- Answers to Questions (the comp.lang.postscript FAQ v2.2) Jon Monsarrat jgm@cs.brown.edu This FAQ is formatted as a digest. Most news readers can skip from one question to the next by pressing control-G. Changes since the last version are marked with a '|' in the table of contents and in the sections in the text-only format of the FAQ. Now that there is Linux and NetBSD and BSD 386 UNIX IBM PC (and clone) users can run any of the X-windows and UNIX programs in the utilities section. See comp.os.linux. Also, there is now GhostScript for the Macintosh. Many thanks to Dan Carrigan for reformatting the books and publishers section. The utilities index from the comp.sources.postscript FAQ will be posted in comp.lang.postscript now too. Please help fix the FAQ! All comments should be mailed to jgm@cs.brown.edu. My favorite way to receive a change suggestion is when it is accompanied by a section of the FAQ that is edited and mailed to me verbatim as an example. If you would like to contribute, please read the section ``about the FAQ'' first. Thank you! Books and programs are referred to by name only. See the book sections for book information, and the comp.sources.postscript FAQ for a full list of all PostScript related programs. I have archived a number of the small utilities in wilma.cs.brown.edu:pub/postscript. You can get the comp.sources.postscript FAQ from wilma.cs.brown.edu:pub/comp.sources.postscript. Related FAQs: comp.text, comp.text.tex, comp.fonts, comp.graphics, comp.sys.mac.apps, comp.sources.postscript. Subject: 7 Programming in PostScript Subject: 7.1 What is PostScript level 2? (See the Section 11, ``About PostScript 2''.) Subject: 7.2 Should I learn level 2 PostScript? Yes, because Level Two will soon become the standard. Application developers using PostScript need to become aware of the new capabilities and how to take advantage of them. There are many good books on PostScript 2. (See Section 5, ``Books''.) Subject: 7.3 Where can I find examples of PostScript code? Many other books on PostScript make example PostScript code available. ``Thinking in PostScript'', by Glenn Reid, is the only book I know of that allows its examples to be freely distributed. (See Section 5, ``Books''.) All the examples in ``the blue book'' are available from the Adobe file server (See Section 5, ``Books''.) See the question ``How can I browse through PostScript programs?'' in the comp.sources.postscript FAQ. Subject: 7.4 What is the physical size of the page? | This depends on what print medium you are using. Paper comes in a | number of standard sizes: | | | Paper Size Dimension (in points) | ------------------------------ --------------------- | Comm #10 Envelope 297 x 684 | C5 Envelope 461 x 648 | DL Envelope 312 x 624 | Folio 595 x 935 | Executive 522 x 756 | Letter 612 x 792 | Legal 612 x 1008 | Ledger 1224 x 792 | Tabloid 792 x 1224 | A0 2384 x 3370 | A1 1684 x 2384 | A2 1191 x 1684 | A3 842 x 1191 | A4 595 x 842 | A5 420 x 595 | A6 297 x 420 | A7 210 x 297 | A8 148 x 210 | A9 105 x 148 | B0 2920 x 4127 | B1 2064 x 2920 | B2 1460 x 2064 | B3 1032 x 1460 | B4 729 x 1032 | B5 516 x 729 | B6 363 x 516 | B7 258 x 363 | B8 181 x 258 | B9 127 x 181 | B10 91 x 127 | | To determine what print mediums are available, check the PPD file | for your printer, under the PageSize keyword. Subject: 7.5 What is the Imagable Area of the page | The initial clipping path gives you the size of the imagable area. | Use ``clippath pathbbox'' to get these coordinates. If you must | know the size of the device's imageable area, use the sequence | ``gsave initclip clippath pathbbox grestore'', but this will | prevent an enclosing application from using the clippath to achieve | some special effects (such as multiple pages per page). | | PPD files (see section 2 of the FAQ, printers) contain information | on what paper sizes, as well as the Imagable Area for each, | specific to each printer. A Postscript code fragment (called | ``?ImageableArea'') is described in a PPD file, which determines | the current Imageable Area for that printer. Subject: 7.6 Why can't I do a pathforall after a charpath ? (See Section 4, ``Fonts'', question ``Why are Adobe fonts hidden?''.) Subject: 7.7 How do I center a string of text around a point? Level 1 PostScript has two operators that can extract information about the metrics of characters: ``stringwidth'' and ``charpath''. The ``stringwidth'' operator returns the advance width of its string operand. This is the distance the current point would be moved by a ``show'' operation on the same string. ``stringwidth'' returns two numbers on the stack, representing the x and y components of the advance width. Usually the y component is zero because most fonts are displayed along a horizontal line, moving the current point only in the x direction. Also note that the ``stringwidth'' usually does not give an exact measure of the area of the page that will be touched by its operand. The letters can either project a little over the boundaries or fall a little within (leaving a touch of whitespace). If all that an application requires is horizontal centering of a long string of text, the result returned by ``stringwidth'' is sufficient. A common technique is x y moveto (string) dup stringwidth pop 2 div neg 0 rmoveto show (This code makes the assumption that the y component of advance width is irrelevant.) The ``charpath'' operator extracts the graphic shapes of its string operand and appends them to the current path in the graphic state. These shapes can then be processed by other PostScript operators. To get the actual size of the area touched by a character a simple approach is gsave newpath 0 0 moveto (X) false charpath flattenpath pathbbox grestore This code places four numbers on the stack, representing the coordinates of the lower left and upper right corners of the bounding box enclosing the character ``X'' rendered with the current point at (0,0). Leaving the flattenpath out will cause it to be less accurate, but it will take up less memory and be faster. There are two things to be careful about when using the code shown above: 1. There are severe limits on the size of the string operand, related to the limit on the number of elements in a graphic path. The PostScript Language Reference Manual recommends taking ``charpath''s one character at a time. 2. If user space is rotated or skewed with respect to device space, the result from ``pathbbox'' may be larger than expected; ``pathbbox'' returns a rectangle oriented along the user space coordinate axes, which fully encloses a (possibly smaller) rectangle oriented along the coordinate axes of device space. If user space is rotated at an integer multiple of 90 degrees these two rectangles will be the same, otherwise the rectangle in user space will be larger. So, to center text vertically one must get the bounding boxes of all the characters in the string to be displayed, find the minimum and maximum y coordinate values, and use half the distance between them to displace the text vertically. This still may not do a very good job, since this provides centering based on extrema, not on the optical center of the string (which is more related to a sort of ``center of mass'' of the text). If an application does this repeatedly, it would be wise to store the bounding boxes in an array indexed by character code, since ``charpath'' is a slow operation. Font metric information is available outside of a PostScript printer in font metrics files, available from the font vendor. A program generating PostScript output can obtain metrics from these files rather than extracting the metrics in the printer. Subject: 7.8 How can I concatenate two strings together? %% string1 string2 append string % Function: Concatenates two strings together. /append { 2 copy length exch length add % find the length of the new. string dup % string1 string2 string string 4 2 roll % string string string1 string2 2 index 0 3 index % string string string1 string2 string 0 string1 putinterval % stuff the first string in. % string string string1 string2 exch length exch putinterval } bind def Subject: 7.9 What do I do when I get stack overflow/underflow? These errors are among the most common in PostScript. When I get a stack overflow, that is usually a sign that a routine is leaving an object on the stack. If this routine gets called 2000 times, it leaves 2000 objects on the stack, which is too many. When I get a stack underflow, that is a sign that either: (A) one of the routines in the program doesn't work, and never has or (B) one of the routines in the program works, but expects to be called with some arguments left on the stack. There is no such thing as a PostScript debugger right now. For now, the best that you can do to debug your program is to put in lots of print statements. Learn to use the PostScript pstack command, and use an online interpreter so you don't have to run to the printer for each debugging cycle. Use an error handler to learn more about what exactly is happening when your program crashes. (see the comp.sources.postscript FAQ for a list of all PostScript related programs.) If your code has never worked yet (i.e. you are still writing it) then I find that it helps to put little comments in the margin about the state of the stack. Like this: Heart pathbbox % lowerx lowery upperx uppery exch 4 -1 roll % lowery uppery upperx lowerx I generally put these comments in originally, and then take them out when the program works. Maybe this is a bad practice, in case I ever want to go back and look at the code to modify it!! Subject: 7.10 How can I print in landscape mode? Landscape (the opposite of portrait) means that the page is turned on its side. You can redefine showpage in terms of the current definition of showpage. Do something like: /oldshowpage /showpage load def 90 rotate llx neg ury neg translate % for the first page /showpage { oldshowpage 90 rotate llx neg ury neg translate } def This won't work if the PostScript file you're editing uses initgraphics or grestoreall. Also note that the method described (redefining showpage) does not conform to the document structuring conventions. The Adobe recommended method involves performing the transformaton as part of the setup for each page. Subject: 8 Computer-specific PostScript This section describes PostScript information specific to a particular type of computer or operating system. Subject: 8.1 Sun Workstations What is NeWS? | NeWS (R.I.P.) was Sun Microsystems PostScript-based window system | for the Sun Workstation. NeWS was a project within Sun (started | around 1985) to create a window system to supplant SunView (a very | successful kernel-based window system). NeWS was a client-server | model window system (like X) but among many of NeWS novel features | was the use of PostScript as the language to describe the | appearance of objects on the screen. NeWS had many features in | common with Display PostScript, but NeWS predates Adobe Display | PostScript and was neither connected with Adobe Display PostScript | nor endorsed by Adobe. NeWS was not an Adobe product, nor was it a | Sun/Adobe joint venture. | | As of October 1992, Sun management signed a deal with Adobe to | adopt Display PostScript for the Sun. In 1993, Sun finally dropped | NeWS altogether. The Sun window system is supposed to start | shipping a Display PostScript environment in late 1993. And how does PostScript run on them? PostScript runs on NeWS, although NeWS was not a fully-compliant PostScript interpreter. There were incompatibilities between the NeWS PostScript interpreter and ``official'' PostScript interpreters as defined by Adobe and the Apple LaserWriter family of printers, such that many PostScript files which would print fine on a LaserWriter would not render under NeWS. The most critical incompatibility was lack of support for Adobe Type 1 fonts, Sun | having gone with their own font format known as F3. F3 fonts have | now gone the way of the zumbooruk and will be supplanted by Type 1 | fonts. Subject: 8.2 IBM PC You can find nenscript for OS/2 1.x--2.0 and MSDOS on ftp-os2.nmsu.edu in pub/uploads/nensc113.zip. There are rumors that Word Perfect and Microsoft Word don't produce ``clean'' PostScript that follows the DSC conventions (See Section 9, ``Encapsulated PostScript''). This means that a lot of PostScript utilities like Ghostview and psnup, etc., that require the DSC conventions, will not work on them. Creating a PostScript file from MS Word Install the LaserWriter driver that comes with Windows.In the printer setup, select a PostScript printer. Then click on the setup button to get that pop-up. Then clik the Options button. Then select the print to Encapsulated PostScript File. If you don't specify a file name, Word will prompt you for one when you tell it to print. When printing Microsoft Windows files that have been captured on a PC's LPT port, you mostly need to define two ctrl-d's in a row as well to remove all of them in the document: (\004\004) cvn {} def Subject: 8.3 Apple Macintosh For more details about printing with the Macintosh, read the comp.sys.mac.apps FAQ. How can I convert a PostScript file created with a UNIX program to the Mac? A way that is clumsy, but works, is this: 1. Display the UNIX-based PostScript file on screen 2. Use window dumping facility to get a bitmap file 3. Convert the above bitmap file to TIFF format and then export it to Adobe Illustrator on the Mac. The PostScript section of the FAQ for the Macintosh newsgroup comp.sys.mac.apps (maintained by Elliotte Harold) answers the following questions: * How do I make a PostScript file? * How do I print a PostScript file? * Why won't my PostScript file print on my mainframe's printer? Full documentation of this process provided with a utility called macps. * Why are my PostScript files so big? Subject: 9 Encapsulated PostScript Subject: 9.1 What is Encapsulated PostScript? Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) is a standard format for importing and exporting PostScript language files in all environments. It is usually a single page PostScript language program that describes an illustration. The purpose of the EPS file is to be included as an illustration in other PostScript language page descriptions. The EPS file can contain any combination of text, graphics, and images. An EPS file is the same as any other PostScript language page description, with some restrictions. EPS files can optionally contain a bitmapped image preview, so that systems that can't render PostScript directly can at least display a crude representation of what the graphic will look like. There are three preview formats: Mac (PICT), IBM (tiff), and a platform independent preview called EPSI. An EPS file must be a conforming file, that is, it must conform to the Adobe Document Structuring Conventions (DSC). At a minimum, it must include a header comment,%!PS-Adobe-3.0 EPSF-3.0, and a bounding box comment,%%BoundingBox: llx lly urx ury, that describes the bounds of the illustration. (The specification does not require the EPSF version, but many programs will reject a file that does not have it.) The EPS program must not use operators that initialize or permanently change the state of the machine in a manner that cannot be undone by the enclosing application's use of save and restore (eg. the operators starting with ``init'' like initgraphics). As a special case, the EPS program may use the showpage operator. The importing application is responsible for disabling the normal effects of showpage. The EPS program should make no environment-sensitive decisions (the importing application may be trying to attain some special effect, and the EPS program shouldn't screw this up), although it can use some device-dependent tricks to improve appearance such as a snap-to-pixel algorithm. The complete EPS specification is available from Adobe (see the section on Adobe). Read Appendix G (Document Structuring Conventions, V3.0) and Appendix H (Encapsulated PostScript File Format, V3.0) in the new PostScript red book: PostScript Language Reference Manual, Second Edition. An optional component of an EPS file is a ``preview'' image of the file's content. The preview image is a bitmapped representation of the image which may be displayed by programs using the EPS file without having to actually interpret the PostScript code. The recommended form for a preview image is ``Interchange'' format and is described fully in the ``red book'', second edition. Interchange format represents the image as a series of hex strings placed in the EPS file as PostScript comments. The entire file remains an ASCII file. That book contains all of the information that you need to fix your program to correctly output EPS. It is what I use for our software. A variation of EPS embeds the preview image and PostScript text in a binary file which contains a header and the preview image in either a TIFF or MetaFile format. The header defines where in the file each section (EPS, TIFF, or MetaFile) starts and ends. On the Macintosh, the preview is stored as a PICT in the file's resource fork. Subject: 9.2 What are EPSI and EPSF? EPSI is EPS with a device independent bitmap preview. EPSI is an all ASCII (no binary data or headers) version of EPS. EPSI provides for a hexadecimal encoded preview representation of the image that will be displayed or printed. EPSF is a version of EPS with a TIFF preview instead of a bitmap preview. Subject: 9.3 How do I convert PostScript to EPS? Use pstoepsi, or do it by hand. To convert from PostScript to EPS, one must guarantee that the PostScript file meets the above requirements. If the actual program conforms to the programming requirements, then one can simply add the required comments at the top of the file saying that the file is EPS and giving its BoundingBox dimensions. Optional comments include font usage (%%DocumentFonts: or%% DocumentNeededResources: font), EPSI preview comments (%% Begin(End)Preview:) extensions (%%Extensions:) and language level (%%LanguageLevel:). There are some operators that should not be used within an EPS file: banddevice cleardictstack copypage erasepage exitserver framedevice grestoreall initclip initgraphics initmatrix quit renderbands setglobal setpagedevice setshared startjob These also include operators from statusdict and userdict operators like legal, letter, a4, b5, etc. There are some operators that should be carefully used: nulldevice setgstate sethalftone setmatrix setscreen settransfer undefinefont To convert a PostScript file to EPS format, you must edit the file using a text editor or word processor to add lines that will define the file as an EPS-format file. 1. Using your normal method of printing, print the PostScript file to a PostScript printer. You can choose to view it on the screen instead, but keep in mind that all the below distance measurements assume that you are printing on a normal-sized piece of paper. NOTE: If the PostScript image does not get displayed properly, it probably will not work either once you have converted it to EPS format. Correct the PostScript program so that it works before you convert it to EPS format. 2. Use a tool (see below) to find the bounding box, which shows how much space the PostScript image occupies when printed. You specify the dimensions of the bounding box when you convert the PostScript file to EPS format. 3. If you don't have a bounding box tool, you can just use a ruler and draw one on your printout. With two horizontal lines and two vertical lines, draw a box around the image that includes the entire image while minimizing white space. This box represents your bounding box. You may want to leave a small amount of white space around the image as a precautionary measure against minor printing problems, such as paper stretching and paper skewing. 4. Measure distance ``a'' from the lower-left corner of the image to the left edge of the paper. 5. Write the measurement in points. If your ruler does not show points, calculate the total number of points: 1 inch = 72 points, 1 cm = 28.3 points, and 1 pica = 12 points. Designate this measurement as ``measurement a.'' 6. Measure distance ``b'' from the lower-left corner of the image to the bottom edge of the paper. Designate this measurement in points as ``measurement b.'' 7. Measure distance ``c'' from the upper-right corner of the image to the left edge of the paper. Designate this measurement in points as ``measurement c.'' 8. Measure distance ``d' from the upper-right corner of the image to the bottom edge of the paper. Designate this measurement in points as ``measurement d.'' 9. Using any text editor, open the PostScript file for editing. You'll see several lines of text. These lines are the PostScript description of the image. The lines at the top of the file are the header. 10. Add these lines to, or modify existing lines in, the header (the first group of lines in any PostScript file): %!Adobe-2.0 EPSF %%Creator: name %%CreationDate: date %%Title: filename %%BoundingBox: a b c d Note: Make sure that the first line in the file is ``% !Adobe-2.0 EPSF.'' Also, do not separate the header lines with a blank line space. The first blank line that PostScript encounters tells it that the the next line begins the body of the program. For ``name,'' type your name or initials. For ``date,'' type today's date using any format (for example, MM-DD-YY, MM/DD/YY, July 5, 1987, and so on). For ``filename,'' type the name of the PostScript file. After ``BoundingBox: ,'' type the measurements you took in steps 3, 4, 5, and 6, separating each with a space: ``a'' is the measurement from Step 3, ``b'' is the measurement from Step 4, ``c'' is the measurement from Step 5, and ``d'' is the measurement from Step 6. 11. Save the file in text-only format. If you are interested in learning how to further edit your PostScript files, these books are available at most bookstores: Understanding PostScript Programming and the green book. The Document Structuring Conventions (DSC), version 1.0, are discussed in Appendix C of the old red book. The new red book has a lot of information about Encapsulated PostScript. There will be a technical note available from Adobe called ``Guidelines for Specific Operators'' that will talk about why some operators are prohibited and how to use the others. Subject: 9.4 How do I get the bounding box of a PostScript picture? Use bbfig or epsinfo.ps. Or if you would rather construct the bounding box by hand, use Ghostview, which has a continuous readout of the mouse cursor in the default user coordinate system. You simply place the mouse in the corners of the figure and read off the coordinates. Subject: 10 About The Comp.Lang.PostScript FAQ (and Usenet Guide to PostScript) Subject: 10.1 The PostScript FAQ: What is it? The PostScript FAQ is a set of answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) that have appeared on the Usenet newsgroup comp.lang.postscript. It is broken into many useful sections. The Usenet Guide to PostScript is a larger set of help and answers to PostScript questions, plus a tutorial for new users. It is still in the process of being created. There is one file ``Exactly What Does a Transformation Matrix Do?'', that is definitely not part of the FAQ. Please send more! I need help writing and revising answers for common questions relating to PostScript. Almost all of the information in the documents has been written by kind volunteers. The answers will be published in either or both documents. A very long answer in the Usenet Guide may be summarized, referred to briefly, or not mentioned at all in the FAQ. Subject: 10.2 How to get the FAQ files The FAQ is available by anonymous ftp to wilma.cs.brown.edu:pub/comp.lang.postscript/ You can get it formatted in plain text ASCII, LaTeX, or PostScript. I would be happy to email a copy of the FAQ in any format to you if you do not have FTP. Subject: 10.3 How to write a FAQ answer I greatly appreciate your time and effort to help improve the quality of the FAQ. Thank you for being willing to contribute! * Please check to see if the topic is already in an FAQ. Perhaps you really mean to submit a revision to an existing section. * Start with a clear statement about what problem you are solving. * Write for novice users, in ``tutorial format'', even if the answer is meant for experienced programmers. * Be specific when you make references. * Be complete, and take the time to look over your draft and revise. * Answers should not be too wordy, unless you intend to write a long answer for the Usenet Guide and have a shorter summary or a pointer to the description placed in the FAQ. If you want to write the summary yourself, thanks! * Obviously, I cannot accept copyrighted material without permission. Don't write the FAQ by paraphrasing from a copyrighted book! Subject: 10.4 The FAQ can contain LaTeX and PostScript inserts The FAQ is actually written with LaTeX, so feel free to submit with that text formatting language. There is a PostScript version of the FAQ also, so feel free to send along PostScript pictures to include. Subject: 10.5 Revising the FAQ Suggestions and comments are welcomed. My favorite way of receiving a change suggestion is if you make a copy of the FAQ, edit the copy, and mail me the modification, or a context diff (include the version number). Subject: 10.6 How to submit new information If you know something that you think is worthwhile to be put in a FAQ, definitely send it to me! Don't hold back if your information is very specific. If there's too much information to post I will archive it at an ftp site and place a pointer to it in the FAQ. Subject: 10.7 How to add a program description to the FAQ index If the program is original, please send it to me, or tell me where I can get it. Please put your name and email address at the top of each file. Your program will be doubly useful if you clean up the program so that other people can use it as an example to learn. If the program was written by someone else, please send me just the title, description, and where to get it. I may already have it. For programs the FAQ needs to know: * What is the name of the program? * What does it claim to do, and does it do it well? Is it worth using? * Where is it available? What ftp sites can I get it from? * How much does it cost? Is it free? * What kinds of computers does it run on? * Who is the author and does the author give an email address? * Does it handle PostScript 2? * What packages does it rely on? If the program is a PostScript interpreter, then the FAQ also needs to know: * Does it let you go backwards one page? * Does it display the number of pages in the document? * Does it let you print PostScript to a non-PostScript printer? * What formats can it convert to? Subject: 10.8 How to add a book description to the FAQ For books the FAQ needs to know: * What is the name of the book or document? * What does it claim to do, and does it do it well? Is it worth using? * Can I get it on-line? * Who wrote it? Does the author give an email address? * Who is the publisher, and what is the copyright date? * Does the publisher list an address and phone number or fax number? * What is the ISBN number of the book? * What is the library call number of the book? * How much does the book cost? * Does it cover PostScript 2? * Are coding examples from the book available by email or anonymous ftp? * Do the authors sell the coding examples on a diskette? Subject: 10.9 Questions that need answers 1. Where are ftp sites that have PostScript freeware? 2. What vendors sell fonts for PostScript printers? Where are the free ftp sites for them? 3. Are there any free encapsulated PostScript converters? 4. What is the charter for comp.lang.postscript? 5. What questions should the FAQ have? 6. What book information is wrong or missing in the FAQ? 7. What program information is wrong or missing in the FAQ? 8. What ftp site have good examples of PostScript code?