Xref: utzoo comp.lang.postscript:1719 comp.sys.mac:27618
Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!rutgers!psuvax1!vu-vlsi!swatsun!garth
From: garth@cs.swarthmore.edu (Garth Snyder)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.postscript,comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: Adobe Illustrator file format
Summary: Yup, it's real PostScript
Keywords: Adobe Illustrator
Message-ID: <2503@masada.cs.swarthmore.edu>
Date: 1 Mar 89 21:59:53 GMT
References: <11401@cgl.ucsf.EDU>
Reply-To: bpa!swatsun!garth (Garth Snyder)
Followup-To: comp.sys.mac
Distribution: usa
Organization: SUN Lab, Swarthmore College, PA
Lines: 34

[ Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur. ]

    In article <11401@cgl.ucsf.EDU> mday@zeno.mmwb.ucsf.edu writes:
    
    Does anyone have any information on the PostScript file format
    used by Adobe Illustrator?
    
    I have looked at some sample Illustrator files, but deducing the
    type of PostScript that Illustrator will swallow from a few sample
    files is not a trivial task.

The format Illustrator uses is just plain PostScript.  However, there
is a library that must first be loaded in order to interpret the
Illustrator output correctly.

You can get a copy of the library by printing a simple Illustrator
document and capturing the PostScript output to disk with the backdoor
F key trick.  Then just clip off everything at the end of the file
that relates to your specific document.  Voila.  Notice that saved
files are _identical_ to PostScript printing dumps minus the header
code.

Once you have the header, you can read it to find out what each one or
two-letter abbreviation does.  The Illustrator library is much more
readable than Apple's Laser Prep file, but still this is a non-trivial
undertaking.

Good luck!

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Garth Snyder                 UUCP: {bpa,liberty}!swatsun!garth
Swarthmore College     ARPA/CSNET: garth@cs.swarthmore.edu
Swarthmore, PA 19081         ALSO: garth@boulder.colorado.edu
--------------------