Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!oliveb!apple!Apple.COM!lsr
From: lsr@Apple.COM (Larry Rosenstein)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: importing postscript files onto mac for annotation purposes
Message-ID: <1799@internal.Apple.COM>
Date: 11 May 89 22:58:33 GMT
References: <3589@udccvax1.acs.udel.EDU>
Sender: usenet@Apple.COM
Distribution: usa
Organization: Objects-R-Us,  Apple Computer, Inc.
Lines: 53

In article <3589@udccvax1.acs.udel.EDU> gilmore@vax1.acs.udel.EDU (Scott 
Gilmore) writes:
> What I need to know is if there are any programs on the Mac that can 
import
> these postscript files (at full resolution) and let me annotate them.  I 
have
> read that Adobe Illustrator can import them, but I've heard that it cuts 
the
> resolution down to 72dpi.  Is this true?  What other options are there?

Illustrator 88 will import an Encapsulated Postscript file.  When 
previewing, it will display the associated picture (72 dpi) or a gray box 
if none.  When printed, however, it uses the actual Postscript.  You can 
apply Illustrator's transformations, and the resulting output will be 
transformed as well.

There is an article on AppleLink describing how to convert plain 
Postscript into Encapsulated Postscript.  This is a Pagemaker Technical 
Note from Aldus.  A summary of the process is:

(1) Print the Postscript.
(2) Measure the bounding box of the image in points (72 points = 1 inch).
(3) Add the following to the start of the Postscript file:

%!Adobe-2.0 EPSF
%%Creator: <your name>
%%CreationDate: <a date>
%%Title: <a title>
%%BoundingBox: <left> <bottom> <right> <top>

where <left>, <bottom>, etc. are the distances you measured.  This is with 
the coordinate system origin at the lower left corner of the page.  For 
example <left> is the distance from the left edge of the page to the left 
edge of the image, and <right> is the distance from the left edge of the 
page to the right edge of the image.

(4) Save the file as text-only.

You will then be able to import this into Illustrator using its Place 
command.  You can then transform the imported image and add annotations.  
When you preview the image, you will see a grey rectangle for the imported 
data (unless you manually add a picture to the file).

I tried this with a simple Postscript program and it worked for me.  You 
have to be sure that the Postscript doesn't contain any of the operators 
that are not allowed in EPS files (e.g., initgraphics, exitserver, etc.).


Larry Rosenstein, Apple Computer, Inc.
Object Specialist

Internet: lsr@Apple.com   UUCP: {nsc, sun}!apple!lsr
AppleLink: Rosenstein1