Processing Postscript Files

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 11 May 2001 2:41 am

I have a bunch of effect unit schematics I downloaded fromt he web. However, they are in older .PS (Postscript 2) format. Nothing I have will display them. I have MSWord 2000 and it will import EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) but it won't recognize the older PS2 files.

Does anyone have something that will display the older PS files??

Steve Feldman · Post by **Steve Feldman** » 11 May 2001 5:03 am

Jack - I commonly write graphics files to other formats using a cheap (~$30.00) program called Firehand that was created to archive and display graphics files. You can get this from their website (I don't have the address off-hand), and I believe there is a 30-day free trial period.

It's a good program, though, and invaluable to me in my work.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 11 May 2001 6:50 am

Steve, thanks but it didn't work. I downloaded the evaluation copy. I went to the folder the .ps files were in and it would not display any of them. It would display the other graphic formats but not ps.

Back to the drawing board....

John Kavanagh · Post by **John Kavanagh** » 11 May 2001 10:59 am

Have you tried "Ghostview"? I downloaded the free version about two years ago and use it as my default viewer. It seems able to read lots of different formats; I think some of the .ps files I have are old ones.

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 11 May 2001 1:19 pm

I tried to download Ghostview but couldn't get it to download. I keep getting routed to a server that I didn't have permission to access when I try to download the windows version.

Everett Cox · Post by **Everett Cox** » 11 May 2001 1:29 pm

Jack-- Try http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/doc/AFPL/6.50/New-user.htm#Previewers

and/or

http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/gsview/

Look's like you might try AFPL Ghostscript 6.50 and GSview 3.6, together. The first is the interpreter, the second is a user interface. There is documentation, forums, etc available at the site(s).

--Everett

Everett Cox · Post by **Everett Cox** » 11 May 2001 1:53 pm

Jack-- at http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/doc/AFPL/get650.htm

Scrolling down, to about the middle of the page, they have links to download both files for Windows. I proceeded to download them with no problem. --Everett

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 12 May 2001 2:53 am

Everett. Got it! Thanks for the last link.

I had tried downloading it, from the links I got in an I.E. search but it wouldn't work.

Everett Cox · Post by **Everett Cox** » 12 May 2001 7:45 am

Jack-- The URL in my last post works for me. If you wish, I'll download both files and send them to you. --Everett

Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 12 May 2001 10:13 am

Everett, the links worked OK. I've got the files, as I said in my last post.

Bobby Lee · Post by **Bobby Lee** » 12 May 2001 11:48 am

The PDF format is basically a wrapper around PostScript primitives. Have you tried opening it with Adobe Acrobat? I've never done this, but it wouldn't surprise me if it worked.

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Jack Stoner · Post by **Jack Stoner** » 12 May 2001 1:49 pm

b0b, the PS files I have are PS version 2. Acrobat reader (V4 or 5) won't handle them. Maybe the full blown retail version will but the free reader won't.

I downloaded the Ghostviewer and finally got to view the files. I had to print them out and scan the ones I wanted in a more useable format (jpg) as the Ghostviewer doesn't have a graphics converter in it. It has an option to save as EPS but all it does is change the first line in the postscript to look like an eps script and the eps format importers in Word2000 and Adobe Photoshop do not recognize the eps format.

I can now dump the ps files since I was able to look at all of them and print/convert the ones I wanted.