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From: tcrowley@DIAMOND.BBN.COM ("Terry Crowley")
Newsgroups: comp.mail.multi-media
Subject: Re: PostScript as MMmail (new subject)
Message-ID: <9008151651.AA28788@jade.BBN.COM>
Date: 15 Aug 90 16:51:12 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Distribution: inet
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Lines: 33

I've found PostScript to be very portable.  The problems I've seen have
been due to programs that generate incorrectly structured postscript
and then run it through a page-reversal process, which generates a bad
postscript file.  Older versions of the transcript spooling software from
Adobe would automatically run files through the page reversal process
(because the early LaserWriters made things come out backwards).  The
following quote comes from the Adobe file server message on getting and
printing PostScript documents from their file server:

     PRINTING: Some of you are running old versions of TranScript (Unix 
     spooling product) and have old LaserWriters.  If you have PAGE REVERSAL 
     turned on in older versions of TranScript (prior to version 2.0, I 
     think), you will have problems with these documents.  The symptom of 
     this problem is the following error message (or no printout whatsoever):

     	%%[Error: undefined; OffendingComment: BEGINPAGE]%%

     If you see this error OR if nothing prints and your pages normally come
     out of the printer with the last page first, then ADD ONE LINE to the
     beginning of the PostScript file before you print it.  This line should
     contain just the two %! characters, and a carriage return.  The first
     two lines of the file would then look like this:

     	%!
     	%!PS-Adobe-2.1

You (Dave Crocker) may have been running into this problem frequently,
making it appear that their were significant portability problems.

At to Nathaniel's message, most Postscript print drivers that I'm aware
of don't generate references to external libraries.

Terry Crowley