A. MacRae - June, 1994
nxps2ai - a script to convert Postscript files to Adobe Illustrator v.3.0
files using DPS on NEXTSTEP machines.
REQUIREMENTS: "pft" as available under NEXTSTEP. According to the
"ps2ai.ps" documentation, a Level 2 Postscript device is normally
required, which also implies v.3.x of NEXTSTEP. I have not tested
whether it will _not_ work on v.2.x.
VERSION HISTORY:
<unnamed, initial release> - June 4, 1994
<unnamed, fixed release> - June 5, 1994 - initial archive was corrupted
(sigh)
0.5 - Due to a peculiarity not present in Ghostscript, but present in "pft",
the script file must append a "flush" command to flush the output from
the Window Server. This is required to properly terminate the file,
but Virtuoso is smart enough to ignore the problem if the file is
truncated prematurely (this is why I had not noticed - sigh). There
are still some interesting quirks between the Ghostscript output and
the DPS output, particularly a few extra state commands that are tossed
at the end of the output from DPS, immediately after the %%EndDocument.
This does not seem to be a problem for most readers, but looks ugly.
Personally, I would regard the necessity of the "flush" as a bug when
the "-s" option is used with "pft". If you send a file and immediately
exit, I think it is safe to assume the user wants all the output back
:-)
INSTALLATION:
- Put the file "ps2ai.ps" in a convenient location - e.g.,
/usr/local/lib.
- Make sure the PSPATH variable in the script "nxps2ai" corresponds to
that directory.
- Put the "nxps2ai" script wherever you want - e.g., /usr/local/bin.
USAGE:
nxps2ai file.ps [file].ai
- I am sure this could be adapted to handle stdin/stdout too, but it
has not been implemented.
REMARKS:
Based on "next.sh" by George White <gwhite@trevnx.bio.dfo.ca>, which
uses "ps2ai.ps" by Jason Olszewski <olszewsk@splash.princeton.edu>,
which is available at:
anonymous ftp: toby.princeton.edu /pub/olszewsk/ps2ai.ps
URL ftp://toby.princeton.edu/pub/olszewsk
You may want to check there to see if "ps2ai.ps" has been updated.
The version used here is 2.13 (April 1994).
I modified the original script (next.sh) to use "pft" to talk to
the DPS server instead of "Yap", so the program is entirely command-line, and can be used for batch processing of files (it is also faster). I also
added a "flush" command to get all the output from "pft". Note the
dependency on the initial header output by "pft", which was tested using
NEXTSTEP v.3.1. I doubt this will change, but if it does, you will have to
modify the "tail" command used in the "nxps2ai" script (see the script for
details). It would be nice for "pft" to have a "quiet" switch.
I really did not add much to George's script, and most of the work is
done by Jason's "ps2ai.ps", so they deserve much more credit than I.
Thanks guys, for making your work available.
You should read the document "ps2ai.doc" to read about the limitations
of the "ps2ai.ps" converter. I have tried it with a few files, and it seems
to work fine (but then, I said that with the initial release too :-)).
"aimaker.shar" includes a bunch of tools that can be used to supplement
"ps2ai.ps", but they have not yet been ported. Have at them.
No warranty expressed or implied (of course). The contributions I
have made (nxps2ai in part) can be distributed freely. For any restrictions
on the other material, see the respective files.
Please let me know if you make any improvements, and consider letting
the original authors know as well. In particular, Jason Olszewski maintains
contributions from other sources at the site mentioned above.
-Andrew
macrae@geo.ucalgary.ca
All trademarks are the property of their respective owners, but you knew
that anyway, right?
These are the contents of the former NiCE NeXT User Group NeXTSTEP/OpenStep software archive, currently hosted by Netfuture.ch.