On 16/03/01 at 6.40 Laura Conrad wrote:
>>>>>> "Frank" == Frank Nordberg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
>
> Frank> That's why most people today seem to use GhostScript, a
> Frank> free postscript reader available for all major
> Frank> platforms.
>
>Which is also what I did; ps2pdf is part of the ghostscript package.
>
> Frank> The problem for most Windows and MAcintosh users is to get
> Frank> postscript files in the first place (I understand
> Frank> postscript is more or less standard in the Linux/Unix
> Frank> environment).
>
>I don't know much about Macintosh, and only a little bit more about
>windows, but what you do in general is install the driver for a
>postscript printer (such as the applewriter), and then use a "print to
>file" option from your application. I believe Windows will name the
>file something other than .ps, but it is in fact a postscript file,
>which the ghostscript program will know what to do with.
>
I posted the following text to this mailing list about six month ago (26/10/00):
Maybe we should mention that - at least under Windows - you do not need a
poscript printer to produce PostScript output (and that's true for EPS as
well).
The trick is having the drivers, and let Windows save to file the printer
output. You end up with a file called *.prn, that you can rename (*.ps or
*.eps, according to what you selected in the printer properties), and then
easily handle with Gosthscript.
Encore users already know this - that's the way Encore used to export to
EPS -, but this can be done with any Windows program, even abc2win
(especially it, I guess!).
If you wish to spend half an hour to configure it, try Free PDF: saves time
if what you actually look for are PDF files. Have a look at the web page
http://www.webxd.com/zipguy/freepdf.htm, and after that have a look at the
forum too - there is some debate about the best poscript printer drivers (I
vote for the Adobe Poscript Printers with the Distiller PPD files, that
handles colour images and let you define the dimensions of the sheet you are
going to print).
I should probably add that:
First: Free PDF is still the easiest free way to obtain PDF files, but the PostScript
ones got deleted in the process, so anybody interested in storing both the .PS and the
.PDF files is suggested to simply install the Adobe postscript drivers and use
therefore Ghostscript.
Second: Free PDF is actually 'complex', rather than 'difficult', to install. Any
Windows novice should get the hang of it in half an hour or so, if he only follows
carefully the instructions supplied on the web site. Anybody who has been able to make
use under Windows of the main abc native softwares will actually find installing Free
PDF quite relaxing!
Third: there are other software to produce PDF files, which are cheaper than the Adobe
Acrobat, but aren't freeware. You'll find a couple of links in the Free PDF web site.
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