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From: domae@heat.nrtc.northrop.com (Terry Domae)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript
Subject: Re: PostScript to Encapsulated PostScript?
Message-ID: <7709@gremlin.nrtc.northrop.com>
Date: 7 Jun 90 21:06:41 GMT
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Reply-To: domae@heat.nrtc.northrop.com (Terry Domae)
Organization: Northrop Research & Technology Center, Palos Verdes, CA
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To: jeffe@eniac.seas.upenn.edu.UUCP
In-Reply-To: <25789@netnews.upenn.edu>
Cc: domae

As I understand the problem you need to somehow send your postscript to
a postscript engine (either a postscript laser printer or a postscript
interpreter), then receive the rasterized picture back from that engine.

If you want to do the former (send the output to a laser printer),
what you need to do is then somehow get the name of the Dict entry or
variable which contains the raster image, and write a postscript
routine to type it back to you.  The problem I have is that I can
find nobody who is willing to say anything about the specific internals
of the laserwriter's (specifically a way to get ahold of that
rasterized page).  In the postscript language definition, there are
ways to change the size and character of this raster memory but no way
to get a real handle on that buffer.

There are some commercial packages which will, on a macintosh, send
your postscript file to a laserwriter and get back the image and convert 
that image to EPS format for you.  That package is Smartart by Emerald City
Software (now an Adobe company).

The routine they use is a closly held secret.  But, I suppose you 
could monitor the appletalk and cut out the routine, but I'm sure this
violates your licence of the package.

There are also many postscript interpreters which you can get other
raster images from, but they won't always produce the same results
as your print engine (different fonts, version of postscript, ...).

Terry Domae
Northrop Research and Technology Center

Terry Domae