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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC
"-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<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="#rubytk">Ruby/Tk</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="#releases">Releases</a></li>
<li><a href="epspdf.pdf">User Manual</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>
<li>Support for TeX Live and MiKTeX</li>
</ul>
<p>Epspdf has been created with TeX in mind. For TeX and its
derivatives, 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 converting text back to PostScript. 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>
<p>Starting with the 2008 edition, epspdf is included in TeX Live as
an optional package, complete with wrappers epspdf and
epspdftk which can be called from the command-line without further
ado.</p>
<h2><a name="prerequisites"/>Prerequisites</h2>
<p>These are the required and optional prerequisites, which will be
checked for when epspdf starts:</p>
<ul>
<li>Ghostscript</li>
<li>pdftops from the xpdf suite, strongly recommended for better
pdf to PostScript conversions</li>
<li>Ruby 1.8.<i>x</i> or 1.9.<i>x</i></li>
<li>Tcl/Tk is only required for the GUI interface. The version (8.4
or 8.5) must be supported by your Ruby.</li>
<li>Optional: viewers for PostScript and pdf</li>
</ul>
<p>You may not have to install all of these yourself.</p>
<h3>Linux</h3>
<p>On a current Linux distribution you can almost certainly install
everything from your distribution's package repositories. Ruby's Tk
bindings may be in a separate package, with a name such as
libtcltk-ruby. As to PostScript- and pdf viewers: epspdf tests for
several popular viewers, but the configuration screen also lets you
specify viewers manually.</p>
<h3>Mac OS X (Tiger and Leopard)</h3>
<p>Ruby, Tcl/Tk and Ruby/Tk are already part of Tiger and
Leopard.</p>
<p>Ghostscript is included in MacTeX, but is also available via
e.g. MacPorts.</p>
<p>You can get pdftops from MacPorts as part of either Poppler or
xpdf. Another source
is <a href="http://users.phg-online.de/tk/MOSXS/">http://users.phg-online.de/tk/MOSXS/</a>. If
you want to compile xpdf it yourself, which is not hard, you can
ignore warnings about X, Motif or FreeType not being found since
these missing libraries won't affect the compilation of pdftops.</p>
<h3>Mac OS X Snow Leopard</h3>
<p>For Ghostscript and pdftops, see above.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, in Snow Leopard Ruby's Tk bindings went missing,
so the GUI interface won't work with the built-in Ruby;
see <a href="#rubytk">below</a>. If you compile Ruby yourself
from <a href="http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/downloads/">source</a>
you get the Tk interface automatically. Call <tt>configure</tt>
with a <tt>--enable-pthread</tt> option.</p>
<p>Snow Leopard's built-in Ruby is fine for command-line use and
on-the-fly conversions.</p>
<h3>Windows (Windows 2000 and later)</h3>
<p>By itself, Windows lacks any of the prerequisites of
epspdf. However, a TeX installation may fill some of the gaps, and
there is a special Windows installer which includes a partial Ruby
installation. See the table below:</p>
<table id="prereq">
<thead><tr><th class="fcol">TeX
distribution</th><th>Installer</th><th>Zipfile</th></tr></thead>
<tfoot>
<tr><td colspan="3"><b><a name="tlnote"
class="fineprint"> (1)</a></b> MikTeX and TeX Live ≥ 2008 include a
hidden Ghostscript which is always installed, and which epspdf
knows how to find. Caveat: although older versions of TeX Live
include a Ghostscript installer, it is not impossible to install an
older TeX Live without Ghostscript, in which case you have to
provide a Ghostscript yourself.</td></tr>
<tr><td colspan="3"><b><a name="tlzipnote"
class="fineprint"> (2)</a></b> With TeX Live ≥ 2008, you are
better off installing the TeX Live package, which also gives you
wrappers for epspdf and epspdftk for use on the command-line and
for on-the-fly conversions. You still need to
install Ruby 1.8 and Tcl/Tk.</td></tr>
</tfoot>
<tr><th class="fcol">TeX Live<a href="#tlnote">(1)</a></th><td>No additional
requirements</td> <td>Ruby, Tcl/Tk<a href="#tlzipnote">(2)</a></td></tr>
<tr><th class="fcol">MiKTeX</th><td>Pdftops (optional)</td> <td>Pdftops
(optional); Ruby 1.8, Tcl/Tk(optional)</td></tr>
<tr><th class="fcol">Other/None</th><td>Ghostscript, pdftops (optional)</td>
<td>Ghostscript; pdftops(optional), Ruby 1.8, Tcl/Tk
(optional)</td></tr>
</table>
<h3>URLs for the prerequisites</h3>
<dl>
<dt>Ghostscript and GSview (<a
href="http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/">http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/</a>)</dt>
<dd>Contains sources and Windows binaries. The Windows binaries
come with standard GUI Windows setup programs.</dd>
<dt>XPDF (<a
href="http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/">http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/</a>)</dt>
<dd> Sources and Windows binaries. The Windows binaries are
packaged into a zipfile, which has to be manually unpacked. The
Configure screen of epspdftk lets you browse for the chosen
location. You have to do this only once. </dd>
<dt>XPDF, Mac OS X binaries (<a
href="http://users.phg-online.de/tk/MOSXS/">http://users.phg-online.de/tk/MOSXS/</a>)</dt>
<dd>These are universal binaries.</dd>
<dt>TeX Live (<a
href="http://www.tug.org/texlive/">http://www.tug.org/texlive/</a>)</dt>
<dd>TeX Live ≥ 2008 includes pdftops, Ghostscript and
optionally epspdf.</dd>
<dt>MacTeX (<a
href="http://www.tug.org/mactex/">http://www.tug.org/mactex/</a>)</dt>
<dd>MacTeX is based on TeX Live. Its set of add-ons includes
Ghostscript, and can be downloaded separately.</dd>
<dt>The MacPorts Project (<a
href="http://www.macports.org/">http://www.macports.org/</a>)</dt>
<dd>MacTeX has Poppler- and xpdf packages either of which include
pdftops.</dd>
<dt>Ruby one-click installer for Windows (<a
href="http://rubyforge.org/projects/rubyinstaller/">
http://rubyforge.org/projects/rubyinstaller/</a>)</dt> <dd>Current
versions (1.8.4 and later) require Tcl/Tk to be separately
installed.</dd>
<dt>Old releases of Ruby one-click installer (<a
href="http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=167">
http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=167</a>)</dt> <dd>Versions
prior to 1.8.4 include Tcl/Tk.</dd>
<dt>Ruby source code (<a
href="http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/downloads/">http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/downloads/</a>)</dt><dd>For
those people who prefer to roll their own...</dd>
<dt>ActiveTcl from ActiveState (<a
href="http://activestate.com/Products/ActiveTcl/">
http://activestate.com/Products/ActiveTcl/</a></dt> <dd>
Version 8.4 is the safer bet.</dd>
</dl>
<h3><a name="rubytk">Ruby's Tk interface library</a></h3>
<p>At the moment, the Ruby Tk interface is not as readily available
as it has been: at some time during the 8.4 cycle, the Windows
Ruby one-click installer dropped Tcl/Tk, and aimed instead to hook
up to any already-installed Tcl/Tk. As to Ruby 1.9: at the moment
I know of no easy-to-use installer on Windows which includes a Tk
interface library. On Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) the Ruby Tk
interface library also went missing, although both Ruby and Tcl/Tk
are still included.</p>
<p>I am working on a pure Tcl/Tk interface, <i>i.e.</i>a Tcl/Tk
script which calls epspdf as a program, not as a library, but I
can give no ETA. This will eliminate dependence on a Ruby/Tk
interface library.</p>
<h2><a name="install"/>Installation</h2>
<p>First make sure that the prerequisites are met. Then:</p>
<h3>TeX Live ≥ 2008</h3>
<p>Use TeX Live's package manager tlmgr for installation.</p>
<h3>Windows setup program</h3>
<p>Download the <a href="epspdf.0.4.3.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.0.4.3.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>
"<path_to_ruby.exe>" "<path_to_epspdf.rb>" %*
</pre>
<p>Similarly for epspdftk. With such a batchfile, the caller has to
take care of quoting:</p>
<pre>
epspdf "my file.eps" "my file.pdf"
</pre>
<p>Epspdf[tk] has been tested with Windows 2000, Windows XP and
Windows 7.</p>
<h3>Unix/Linux</h3>
<p>Download the <a href="epspdf.0.4.3.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 create a shell script
<tt>epspdf</tt> such as</p>
<pre>
#!/bin/sh
<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>You can install as for Unix/Linux. Here, too, all files should be
in the same directory.</p>
<p>There is also a compressed disk image epspdf.x.x.x.dmg.gz which
wraps epspdftk into a Max OS X <q>app</q>. Double-click once to
expand, a second time to mount, then drag epspdftk.app to the
Applications folder. The current version has been created and tested
with Leopard. As pointed out <a href="#rubytk">above</a>, under Snow
Leopard the GUI program epspdftk will not work without a third-party
Ruby/Tk.</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 programs for PostScript and
pdf. If you have TeX Live 2008 or later then you can assign <TeX
Live root>\bin\win32\psv.bat as previewer for .ps- and .eps
files. For Windows only, there is an additional <q>View
with...</q> button to select a viewer yourself.</p>
<h3>Unix/Linux</h3>
<p>Supported PostScript viewers include evince, gv, gsview and
okular. These are also listed as pdf viewers. Additional pdf viewers
are xpdf, gpdf, epdfview and acroread/Adobe Reader. You can also
specify a previewer manually in the configuration screen; see the <a
href="epspdf.pdf"> user manual.</a>.</p>
<h3>Mac OS X</h3>
<p>Epspdftk will always use the default pdf viewer under OS X,
usually Preview or Adobe Reader.</p>
<h2><a name="files"/>Files</h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="epspdf.0.4.3.tgz">epspdf.0.4.3.tgz</a> preferred for Unix
and Mac OS X; GUI fails under OS X Snow Leopard with built-in Ruby</li>
<li><a href="epspdf.0.4.3.zip">epspdf.0.4.3.zip</a> preferred for
Windows</li>
<li><a href="epspdf.0.4.3.exe">epspdf.0.4.3.exe</a> Windows setup
program, including Ruby/Tk subset</li>
<li><a href="epspdftk.0.4.3.dmg.gz">epspdftk.0.4.3.dmg.gz</a>;
built and tested on Leopard</li>
</ul>
<h3>Older releases</h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http:/tex.aanhet.net/epspdf/epspdftk.0.4.2.dmg.gz">epspdftk.0.4.2.dmg.gz</a>;
tested on Tiger and Leopard</li>
<li><a href="http:/tex.aanhet.net/epspdf/epspdf.0.3.0.tgz">epspdf.0.3.0.tgz</a>
for Unix and Mac OS X</li>
<li><a href="http:/tex.aanhet.net/epspdf/epspdf.0.3.0.zip">epspdf.0.3.0.zip</a>
for Windows</li>
<li><a href="http:/tex.aanhet.net/epspdf/epspdf.0.3.0.exe">epspdf.0.3.0.exe</a>
Windows setup program</li>
<li><a href="http:/tex.aanhet.net/epspdf/epspdf.0.2.12.tgz">epspdf.0.2.12.tgz</a>
for Unix, including Mac OS X</li>
<li><a href="http:/tex.aanhet.net/epspdf/epspdf.0.2.12.zip">epspdf.0.2.12.zip</a>
for Windows</li>
<li><a href="http:/tex.aanhet.net/epspdf/epspdf.0.2.12.exe">epspdf.0.2.12.exe</a>
Windows setup program</li>
<li><a href="http:/tex.aanhet.net/epspdf/epspdf.0.2.01.tgz">epspdf.0.2.01.tgz</a>
for Unix
and Mac OS X</li>
<li><a href="http:/tex.aanhet.net/epspdf/epspdf.0.2.01.zip">epspdf.0.2.01.zip</a>
for Windows</li>
<li><a href="http:/tex.aanhet.net/epspdf/epspdf.0.2.exe">epspdf.0.2.exe</a>,
Windows setup program</li>
<li><a href="http:/tex.aanhet.net/epspdf/epspdf_app.0.2.01.zip">epspdf_app.0.2.01.zip</a>
Mac OS X applet for starting epspdftk.rb</li>
</ul>
<h2><a name="releases"/>Releases</h2>
<dl><dt>0.4.3</dt><dd>Current version. Fixes for compatibility with
Ruby 1.9 and, under Windows, for newer Ghostscript
versions. Documentation updates.</dd>
<dt>0.4.2</dt><dd>More liberal documentation
license. Slight documentation updates.</dd>
<dt>0.4.1</dt><dd>Documentation: added section on
bitmaps. Windows setup program: added missing Tcl/Tk
licenses. Mac: double-clickable epspdftk.app with included
epspdftk replaces double-clickable epspdf.app add-on.</dd>
<dt>0.4.0</dt><dd>Optionally uses hires boundingbox. Faster startup
due to simpler testing of prerequisites. Grayscaling: support for
HSB color model, although I yet have to encounter a PostScript
file using this. Manual converted to texinfo format. Windows: new
<q>View with...</q> button; support for MikTeX's built-in
Ghostscript; streamlined Ruby subset, with Tcl/Tk compiled from
source.</dd>
<dt>0.3.0</dt><dd>Under Windows, now recognizes whether it is
embedded in TeX Live 2008 and then can use ghostscript/pdftops
from TeX Live. Also added TeX Live wrapper scripts. Uninstaller
for Windows setup program. Bug fixes: now accepts non-numerical
version strings for pdftops. No longer checks for viewers under
Mac OS X.</dd>
<dt>0.2.12</dt><dd>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. Epspdf.app is now packaged
separately, 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>
<hr/>
<p class="fineprint">Last revised: Januari 27, 2010</p>
</body></html>
|
