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-- PostScript --
Answers to Questions
(the comp.lang.postscript FAQ v2.4)
Allen Braunsdorf
postscript-faq@cc.purdue.edu
This FAQ is formatted as a digest.
Most news readers can skip from one question
to the next by pressing control-G. GNUs uses
C-c C-n to skip to the next question.
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 any of comp.os.linux.{
admin,development,help,misc}. 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
postscript@cc.purdue.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?
2.14 Can I tell if my printer is color or black/white?
3 Formats and Conversions
3.1 How can I convert PostScript to some other graphics format?
3.2 How can I convert PostScript to a bitmap or pixmap?
3.3 How can I convert HPGL to PostScript?
3.4 How can I convert DVI to PostScript?
3.5 How can I convert HP Laserjet language (PCL) to PostScript?
3.6 How can I convert TeX PK format font to PostScript?
3.7 How do I embed PostScript into troff?
3.8 How do I embed PostScript into LaTeX or TeX?
3.9 How can I convert an image to PostScript?
3.10 How can I convert ASCII text to PostScript?
3.11 How can I convert PostScript to ASCII?
3.12 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
8.4 NEXTSTEP
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
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?
1 General Questions
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.
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''.)
You could use the program pspages posted to
comp.sources.postscript, volume 2, issue 5, by Kevin Grover.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2 Printers
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.
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.
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' <original.ps >odd.ps
pstops '2:1U@1(1w,1h)' <original.ps >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.
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''.
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.
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.
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''.
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. This definition does not cause all 004 characters to be
consumed, it just prevents an "undefined" error if you try to
execute one.
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?).
According to the PRINTERS.WRI file that is included with MS Windows
3.x and up, you can place a line
CtrlD=0
in the WIN.INI sections for any postscript printers for which you
wish to supress the Control-D generation. This usually works as
long as you're using a specific printer, i.e. Apple LaserWriter,
QMS820, etc ] . However if you use the generic ``PostScript
printer'' driver, it does not work. There is a freeware program
called ctrld that will let users select if a given ps driver should
output control-D's or not. It can be found at ftp.cica.indiana.edu
in the file ftp/pub/pc/win3/misc/ctrld10.zip.
The shareware package WLPRSPL (an LPR spooler for Windows) includes
a convenient utility program for listing the relevant printers and
turning the option off or on.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
2.14 Can I tell if my printer is color or black/white?
If you tried testing for the presence of ``colorimage'', your
application will fail on PostScript level 2 printers. Several
applications make this mistake, simply testing for the presence of
a color operator (``colorimage'', ``setcmykcolor'', etc.). This is
not sufficient -- some level 1 PostScript black and white devices
and all level 2 devices include the color operators.
However, before you do this, you should ask yourself *why* you want
to know. There are really two reasons an application might care
about the color capabilities of a printer.
1. To determine if the printer will accept PostScript language
programs using the color extensions (colorimage, setcmykcolor,
etc.)
2. To determine if the printer, as currently configured, will
actually produce color output. This is what processcolors tells
you.
These are entirely different questions, and developers should make
sure they are asking the right one. (1) is a language compatibility
question, similar to the issue of Level 1 versus Level 2 (see red
book, appendices A and D). (2) is a device dependent query, which
is essentially independent of (1).
In particular, it makes sense to ask (2) only if the application
intends to take different actions depending on the outcome. For
example, a CAD application might paint objects with stipple
patterns on a monochrome device but true color on a color device.
Or a prepress application might want to query and/or change the
many Level 2 page device parameters dealing with production of
separations (see PostScript Language Supplement for version 2012 or
greater).
On the other hand, if an application is not going to do such
things, it should ask only question (1). If the printer will accept
the color extensions, the application should sent it color output,
whether or not the printer will actually produce color. That way,
the PostScript language file captures the application's intent, and
color will be produced if the file is later diverted to a color
printer.
Some times it's sensible to make such a test, though. For example,
an application might want to display red and green on a color
device, but a varying fill pattern on a black and white device
since red and green are difficult to distinguish when rendered as
gray.
In ``statusdict'', the ``processcolors'' operator, if present,
returns the number of device colors. Black and white level 2
devices I have tested (TI microLaser Turbo, Apple LaserWriter IIg)
omit ``processcolors''. Level 2 Color devices (such as the
Tektronix Phaser III PXi) include it, and it returns the number of
device colors.
So, on both level 1 and level 2, the correct technique is to test
for the presence of ``processcolors'' in ``statusdict'' and assume
black and white if it is not present. If it is present, execute it
and test the result for a ``1'', indicating black and white.
% returns true for black & white, false otherwise
/black-and-white-device
{ statusdict begin
/processcolors where
{ pop processcolors } { 1 } ifelse
end
1 eq
} def
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.
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 or Tailor.
3.2 How can I convert PostScript to a bitmap or pixmap?
Use Ghostscript, and build the devices under gs pbmraw, pbm.dev,
etc. (See devs.mak under the sources for gs) The following converts
file.ps in file.ppm:
gs -sDEVICE=ppmraw -sOutputFile=file.ppm file.ps
Or try using the Ghostscript tools ps2image.ps or pstoppm.ps. Or
use the NETPBM tool pstopnm. Netpbm (a descendant of the PBMPLUS
utilities) can then convert that image into whatever format you
want.
You can also use the ImageMagick-tools program ``convert''. Try
ftp.x.org in contrib/ImageMagick.tar.Z.
If you have the new xv installed, it can now read PostScript files,
and it stores them to any format.
3.3 How can I convert HPGL to PostScript?
Use hp2ps.
3.4 How can I convert DVI to PostScript?
Use dvips.
3.5 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.
3.6 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.
3.7 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.
3.8 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.
3.9 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 with the X Window System, 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 Window System would be to use the
PPM, PGM and PBM utilities in the X11R4 and X11R5 distributions.
3.10 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.
3.11 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.
3.12 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.
4 Fonts
This section answers questions about fonts as they pertain to
PostScript. See the comp.fonts FAQ for more information about
fonts.
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''.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. Toll-free sales: (800)
232-7625. International: (916) 672-0244. FAX: (916) 672-1103.
E-mail: info@bearrock.com.
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.
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.
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''.
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.
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.
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.
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, and to Jon Monsarrat who built it from there.
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.
2.3 07-07-94 Incorporated early '94 comments and suggestions.
2.4 03-04-95 Mostly changed references to maintainer (ab).
This FAQ is copyright (C) 1995 by Allen Braunsdorf. 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.
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