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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<head>

<link rel="stylesheet" href="default.css" type="text/css"/>

<title>Epspdf and epspdftk</title>

</head><body>

<h1 class="display">Epspdf and epspdftk</h1>

<p class="display">A multiplatform GUI- and command-line converter
for [e]ps and pdf.</p>

<p class="display"><i>Siep Kroonenberg,<br/><tt>siepo at cybercomm
dot nl</tt></i></p>

<p><a href="http://tex.aanhet.net/epspdf/">Current online version of
this page</a></p>

<h2>Table of Contents</h2>

<ul>
<li><a href="#features">Features</a></li>
<li><a href="#prerequisites">Prerequisites</a></li>
<li><a href="#install">Installation</a></li>
<li><a href="#preview">Preview programs</a></li>
<li><a href="#files">Files</a></li>
<li><a href="#supporting">Supporting software</a></li>
<li><a href="#releases">Releases</a></li>
<li><a href="#todo">To do</a></li>
<li><a href="epspdf_UG.html">User Guide</a></li>
</ul>

<h2><a name="features"/>Features</h2>

<ul>
<li>Distiller</li>
<li>Works both for documents and for graphics</li>
<li>Single-page selection</li>
<li>Also converts from pdf back to PostScript and eps</li>
<li>Removal of preview headers from eps files</li>
<li>Cropping extra whitespace</li>
<li>Grayscaling (sometimes)</li>
<li>GUI- and command-line version</li>
<li>GUI-configurable preferences</li>
<li>Multiplatform: works unchanged on Windows, Unix/Linux and Mac OS X</li>
</ul>

<p>Epspdf has been created with TeX users in mind. For them, eps and
pdf are the preferred graphics formats.</p>

<p>Ghostscript can convert PostScript to pdf. However, few people
are prepared to deal with the ghostscript command-line. Several
command-line utilities try to help out, e.g. epstopdf, a2ping, and
the convert utility from ImageMagick. But for most users this is
still not good enough.</p>

<p>Epspdftk adds a GUI, with buttons to select options and with
dialogs for opening and saving files.</p>

<p>A lot more can be done if you can round-trip between PostScript
and pdf. Although Ghostscript can go from pdf to PostScript, pdftops
does a much better job. This opens several new possibilities:
grayscaling and computing a better boundingbox for either eps- or pdf
graphics, and page selection from multipage PostScript- and pdf
documents. Epspdf will use pdftops if it can find it, and silently
does whatever back-and-forth conversions are necessary.</p>

<p>The command-line program epspdf is written in Ruby. Epspdftk,
its GUI companion, in Ruby/Tk.</p>

<h2><a name="prerequisites"/>Prerequisites</h2>

<h3>Windows with setup progrogam</h3>

<p>Download Ghostscript and GSview from the <a
href="http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/">Ghostscript site.</a>
Ghostscript and GSview each come with a standard Windows setup
program.</p>

<p>You can get pdftops as part of the xpdf suite from the <a
href="http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/">xpdf site.</a> Download the
zipfile with Windows binaries and unpack it in a location of your
choice. The Configure screen of epspdftk lets you browse for this
location. You only have to do this once. Xpdf itself is not in this
zip file.</p>

<p>The necessary Ruby components are already included in the setup
program.</p>

<h3>Windows zipfile with separately installed Ruby</h3>

<p>For Ghostscript, GSview and the xpdf suite, see above.</p>

<p>You can get a <a
href="http://rubyforge.org/projects/rubyinstaller/">one-click Ruby
installer</a> from <a href="http://rubyforge.org/">Rubyforge.</a>
For Ruby version 1.8.4 and later you have to download and install
Tcl/Tk separately, in the form of <a
href="http://activestate.com/Products/ActiveTcl/">ActiveTcl.</a> If
you are only interested in the command-line version then you can
leave out ActiveTcl.</p>

<h3>Unix/Linux</h3>

<p>You need Ghostscript, preferably xpdf/pdftops, Ruby (version at
least 1.8) and for GUI use also Ruby/Tk. These will almost certainly
be available as packages from your distribution.</p>

<h3>Mac OS X</h3>

<p>Ghostscript and xpdf are available via the <a
href="http://fink.sourceforge.net/">Fink Project</a>, in the Text
section.</p>

<p>If you don't (want to) use Fink, you can download and
install Gerben Wierda's i-Installer from the <a
href="http://ii2.sourceforge.net/">i-Installer Home Page</a> and
then use the i-Installer to download and install the Ghostscript
i-package.</p>

<p>There is
a <a
href="http://users.phg-online.de/tk/MOSXS/xpdf-tools-3.dmg">package</a>
for the xpdf suite
at <a
href="http://users.phg-online.de/tk/MOSXS/">http://users.phg-online.de/tk/MOSXS/.</a>
Or you can compile it yourself. You can download the source from
the <a href="http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/">xpdf site</a>. For
compilation, you need to have XCode installed, but nothing else, I
think, at least not under Tiger. You can safely omit the xpdf- and
pdftoppm components if configure says that they will not be compiled
because of missing libraries.</p>

<p>Ruby 1.8.2 and Ruby/Tk are part of Mac OS X Tiger. X11 needs to
be installed, although Ruby/Tk is <i>not</i> an X11 application. For
earlier versions of Mac OS X, you are on your own.</p>

<h2><a name="install"/>Installation</h2>

<h3>Windows with setup program</h3>

<p>Download the <a href="epspdf.0.2.12.exe">epspdftk setup
program.</a> You can run it in the usual way, by double-clicking. The
setup program will create entries in your start menu for epspdftk
and for the user manual.</p>

<h3>Windows zipfile</h3>

<p>Download the <a href="epspdf.0.2.12.zip">epspdf zip file</a>,
unpack it somewhere and create a shortcut for epspdftk.rbw. If you
plan to use the command-line version, put a batchfile in a directory
on your path with the line</p>

<pre>
"&lt;path_to_ruby.exe>" "&lt;path_to_epspdf.rb>" %1 %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9
</pre>

<p>Epspdf[tk] has been tested with Windows 2000 and Windows XP.</p>

<h3>Unix/Linux</h3>

<p>Download the <a href="epspdf.0.2.12.tgz">tar.gz archive</a> and
unpack it in some directory. All files should be in the same
directory; that is how they find each other. If you plan to use
epspdf.rb from the command-line, then you may want to create a shell
script <tt>epspdf</tt> such as</p>

<pre>
#!/bin/sh
&lt;path_to_epspdf>/epspdf.rb $*
</pre>

<p>and put it somewhere on your path.</p>

<p>You can do the same for epspdftk. The first command-line
parameter will be interpreted as startup directory for the file
browser.</p>

<h3>Mac OS X</h3>

<p>Install as for Unix/Linux. Here, too, all files should be in the
same directory.</p>

<p>You can try to start epspdftk.rb from the dock or by
doubleclicking. If that doesn't work out, give the <a
href="epspdf_app.0.2.01.zip">epspdf.app</a> applet a try. After
unpacking, move the file <tt>epspdf.app</tt> to the same directory
as the .rb files. The zipfile also includes this file in text format
(<tt>epspdf.applescript</tt>).</p>

<p>Epspdf mostly duplicates functionality of Preview. But having an
alternate conversion engine means that you can have another shot at
problem files.</p>

<h2><a name="preview"/>Preview programs</h2>

<h3>Windows</h3>

<p>Epspdftk will use the default Windows viewers for PostScript and
pdf. Without GSview, you probably won't be able to view PostScript
files.</p>

<h3>Unix/Linux</h3>

<p>Supported PostScript viewers include evince, gv, ggv and
kghostview. These are also listed as pdf viewers. Additional pdf
viewers are xpdf, gpdf and acroread/Adobe Reader. If you think that
I omitted a PostScript- or pdf viewer, let me know and I'll probably
add it in the next release.</p>

<h3>Mac OS X</h3>

<p>Epspdftk will always use Preview as viewer under OS X.</p>

<h2><a name="files"/>Files</h2>

<ul>
<li><a href="epspdf.0.2.12.tgz">epspdf.0.2.12.tgz</a> preferred for Unix
and Mac OS X</li>

<li><a href="epspdf.0.2.12.zip">epspdf.0.2.12.zip</a> preferred for
Windows</li>

<li><a href="epspdf.0.2.12.exe">epspdf.0.2.12.exe</a> Windows setup
  program, including Ruby/Tk subset</li>

<li><a href="epspdf_app.0.2.01.zip">epspdf_app.0.2.01.zip</a> Mac OS X
applet for starting epspdftk.rb</li>
</ul>

<h3>Older releases</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="epspdf.0.2.11.tgz">epspdf.0.2.11.tgz</a> for Unix
and Mac OS X</li>
<li><a href="epspdf.0.2.11.zip">epspdf.0.2.11.zip</a> for
Windows</li>
<li><a href="epspdf.0.2.11.exe">epspdf.0.2.11.exe</a> Windows setup
  program</li>
<li><a href="epspdf.0.2.01.tgz">epspdf.0.2.01.tgz</a> for Unix
 and Mac OS X</li>
<li><a href="epspdf.0.2.01.zip">epspdf.0.2.01.zip</a> for
 Windows</li>
<li><a href="epspdf.0.2.exe">epspdf.0.2.exe</a>, Windows setup
 program</li>
</ul>

<h2><a name="supporting"/>Supporting software</h2>

<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/">Ghostscript and
    GSview</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/">XPDF</a></li>
<li><a href="http://users.phg-online.de/tk/MOSXS/">OS X
  binary for xpdf/pdftops</a></li>
<li><a href="http://rubyforge.org/projects/rubyinstaller/">Ruby one-click
  installer</a></li>
<li><a href="http://ruby-lang.org/">Ruby Home Page</a></li>
<li><a
href="http://activestate.com/Products/ActiveTcl/">ActiveTcl</a></li>
</ul>

<h2><a name="releases"/>Releases</h2>

<dl>
<dt>0.2.12</dt><dd>Current version. Bug fixes: log rotation now
works. Under Windows, sometimes boundingboxes couldn't be
calculated. This was caused by double quotes within backquotes. This
is now avoided by using short filenames within backquotes. Minor
changes in user guide.</dd>

<dt>0.2.11</dt><dd> Minor fixes. Changes in documentation.</dd>

<dt>0.2.10</dt><dd>A computed boundingbox is now expanded by one
point in all directions. This should prevent too-tight
cropping. There is no interface for changing this amount; it can
only be changed by hand-editing the bb_spread
option in the .epspdfrc file or in the HKCU\software\epspdf registry
key.</dd> <dd>The File Open dialog remembers the last directory
visited (between calls, not between program
sessions).</dd><dd>Changes in documentation.</dd>

<dt>0.2.01</dt><dd>Fixes to the Applescript applet epspdf.app for
starting up epspdftk under Mac OS X. It picks up the terminal search
path and no longer requires correct settings in
$HOME/.MacOSX/environment.plist.</dd><dd>Epspdf.app is now <a
href="epspdf_app.0.2.01.zip">packaged separately</a>, under Mac OS
X, and now has an intact resource fork. It has been removed from the
other archives.</dd>

<dt>0.2</dt><dd>Original release</dd>
</dl>

<h2><a name="todo"/>To do</h2>

<ul>
<li>Artwork</li>
<li>GUI for some pdftops options</li>
<li>Proper help</li>
<li>Support for bitmapped formats (maybe)</li>
</ul>

<hr/>

<p class="fineprint">Last revised: November 20, 2006</p>
</body></html>