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From: perry@ccssrv.UUCP (Perry Hutchison)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: PS page counter
Message-ID: <817@ccssrv.UUCP>
Date: 11 Nov 89 02:46:26 GMT
References: <1consult@physc1.byu.edu>
Reply-To: perry@ccssrv.UUCP (Perry Hutchison)
Organization: Control-C Software, Inc., Beaverton, OR
Lines: 19

In article <1consult@physc1.byu.edu> consult@physc1.byu.edu writes:

> I am looking for a (simple?) algorithm to count pages in a postscript file.

This is becoming a frequently-asked question in this group.

Trying to do this by inspection is a lot like trying to estimate the
size of a C program's output by examining the source code.  (PostScript
is very much a programming language.)  To do this reliably on the host
system, you would have to write a PostScript interpreter.

For accounting purposes (as opposed to setting print queue priority based
on job size), an after-the-fact count may be acceptable.  It has the
advantages of being relatively simple to implement and also fairly secure.

The LaserWriter (and presumably most other PostScript printers) have a
host-readable counter which shows how many pages have ever been printed by
this printer.  You can read that counter before and after each job, and
charge accordingly.