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Epspdf and epspdftk User Guide
A multiplatform GUI- and command-line converter for [e]ps and pdf.
Siep Kroonenberg,
siepo at cybercomm dot nl
Overview
Epspdftk converts files between eps, pdf and general PostScript. The main
screen lets you open a file, select some options and convert the file.
When opening a file, epspdf tries to find out file type and, in the case
of a pdf file, the number of pages. This information is displayed in the
box in the upper half of the screen.
Viewing
The View button at the bottom of the screen calls an appropriate external
viewer. For Windows this is determined by the default Open command, for OS
X it is always Preview, and under Linux it is configurable; see below
under [1]The Configuration screen.
The View button is grayed if epspdf thinks that there is no previewer for
the current file; see [2]the epspdf main page for details.
Conversion options
Grayscaling: Simple color figures can be converted to grayscale.
Grayscaling will fail for bitmapped data and for advanced color models.
'Try harder to grayscale' will handle a few more cases, but may take
longer and still won't handle bitmaps.
Call for assistance: If a PostScript color expert is reading this: please
have a look at makegray.pro and see whether you can come up with something
that handles more color models.
Compute tight boundingbox: This option is only available if a single page
is converted.
Page selection: The only possibilities are selecting a single page or
selecting all pages. When converting to eps you are restricted to a single
page.
For general PostScript files, there is no quick way to determine the
number of pages, so the program won't check beforehand whether you picked
an existing page. If you picked a non-existent page, the program will
abort. If you don't like that, convert the entire document to pdf first -
which will be done behind the scenes anyhow.
Specifying options such as grayscaling or page selection may require
several roundtrips between PostScript or eps and pdf. If epspdf cannot use
pdftops then some combinations of options will not be available.
Converting
The Convert and save... button calls up a file save dialog, with
appropriate default extension. After a successful conversion, the result
becomes the new current file, so you can judge the result by pressing the
View button again.
The configuration screen
Epspdftk also has a configuration screen. The settings here are preserved
between sessions. Pay particular attention to 'Intended use' under PDF
CONVERSION. Choose 'prepress' for pdfs which are intended for commercial
printing. This option will try to embed all fonts, among other things.
More and more often, printshops insist on this. With luck, Ghostscript
fonts and system fonts will be used for fonts which were not originally
embedded.
Under Windows, this screen also lets you tell the program where to find
pdftops.exe. Under Linux, it lets you pick PostScript- and pdf previewers.
Adding standard fonts to an existing pdf
You can add standard fonts such as Times and Helvetica to an existing pdf:
first, convert to ps, with 'Convert all pages' selected. Then, make sure
that in the configuration screen 'Intended use' is set to prepress, then
convert back to pdf.
If this option is set to screen, then standard fonts will be removed
instead of added. This option may also affect the resolution of bitmaps.
Eps preview headers
Preview headers are quietly stripped from eps files. These preview headers
are used by e.g. desktop-publishing software to represent eps files on
screen without having to interpret the PostScript code itself. Epspdf
currently has no option to preserve or add them.
On-the-fly conversion
Daniel Becker wrote a LaTeX package epspdfconversion which converts eps
files on the fly to pdf, like Heiko Oberdiek's epstopdf package, but with
epspdf as backend. It can make use of the epspdf conversion options. Both
packages are available from [3]CTAN and included in TeX Live.
Exporting PostScript from Windows programs
Often, the only way to get EPS or PostScript from a Windows program is by
'printing' to a PostScript file. From some programs, you can print a
selection. A suitable driver which comes with Windows is Generic / MS
Publisher Imagesetter. Pay attention to the printer properties: avoid the
'Optimize for speed' setting and choose Outline for font downloading.
These options can be found under the Advanced button.
Other possibilities are the TpX and wmf2eps programs, which both have
options to write clipboard contents to an emf file. Wmf2eps uses a printer
driver in the background. For faithful conversion, pick wmf2eps; for
subsequent editing, choose TpX. Both programs are availbable from [4]CTAN.
Command-line use
Epspdf.rb, the library for epspdftk.rb, does double duty as command-line
version of epspdftk.rb. Type epspdf.rb -h for help. It shares
configuration settings with epspdftk.
Troubleshooting
Grayscaling fails
See above, under [5]Grayscaling. Epspdf is limited by what can be done by
the backend tools, i.e. Ghostscript and pdftops.
Part of the graphic gets cut off
I have seen this happen with eps files generated by printing landscape
PowerPoint slides to PostScript with the Encapsulated PostScript output
option. Using the Archive output option instead solved the problem. In
general, experiment a bit in generating your PostScript.
Mac OS X problems with epspdftk
Even though epspdftk is not an X11 program, you may still need some pieces
of X11 and the X11 SDK, which are optional installs of OS X.
Under Leopard, the window that is displayed during the conversion stays
blank. I have no idea why.
Resources for troubleshooting
Logfile. Epspdf and epspdftk maintain a log file. For Unix and Mac OS X it
is epspdf.log in your home directory. For Windows, it is epspdf.log or
epspdftl.log in your profile directory. The latter filename is used if
epspdf is embedded in TeX Live. This profile directory may be c:\Documents
and Settings\<your user name>. Otherwise, open a DOS box and type 'echo
%USERPROFILE%', which will produce this information.
This logfile lists all Ghostscript- and pdftops program calls plus error
information. 'EPCallError' is probably a program error. 'EPSystemError' is
more likely caused by a faulty file, but may be a program error as well.
Temporary files. The temporary files may give clues as well. They will be
deleted at the end of the session (for the command-line version, give a -d
parameter to keep the temporary files). The logfile can tell you which
temporary files have been created.
[6]Main page...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last revised: July 27, 2008
References
Visible links
1. http://tex.aanhet.net/epspdf/epspdf_UG.html#configure
2. http://tex.aanhet.net/epspdf/index.html#preview
3. http://www.tug.org/ctan.html
4. http://www.tug.org/ctan.html
5. http://tex.aanhet.net/epspdf/epspdf_UG.html#gray
6. http://tex.aanhet.net/epspdf/index.html
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