PostScript - EPS bounding box and colors

Author

EPS bounding box and colors

Mark Asbach

2005-05-31, 8:58 pm

Hi PostScript experts,

my question is partially address by parallel post, but not fully, so
please allow me to start a new thread:

I've got an EPS odyssee behind me and there's no end to frustration -
probably because of lacking knowledge on my side. It started with wrong
colors in an EPS file: We exported a drawing from VectorWorks (a
Macintosh CAD package) to EPS. The embedded preview looks as expected,
but when printed from Postscript-savvy software, imported with Photoshop
Elements 2.0, or converted to PDF with Apple's Preview.app, the colors
are very different. They look dull, dark, definitely wrong.

It took me by surprise that if converted to PDF with Ghostscript
ps2pdf13, the colors are correct. Unfortunately, the ghostscript tools
don't honour the size and origin of the drawing but put it on an A4 page
(or whatever I specify). I can push the file through eps2eps and then
all colors are fine with Photoshop, etc., but this also introduces a
wrong sized EPS file (adding huge white areas to left and top).

One after another I tried various tools like ps2eps, epstool, epstopdf
and the -dEPSCrop option of Ghostscript. Unfortunately, while most tries
led to correct colors, there was not one that preserved the correct
dimensions. In addition some of the tools (including eps2eps) seem to
replace embedded vector fonts with bitmap counterparts.

What to do now? I need the file converted to some vector format (EPS
with PICT Preview is best for my needs, but PDF is okay, too) with
correct colors, original size and original fonts.

Any hints on where to look or what to try next are appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Mark

Helge Blischke

2005-06-01, 9:03 am

Mark Asbach wrote:
>
> Hi PostScript experts,
>
> my question is partially address by parallel post, but not fully, so
> please allow me to start a new thread:
>
> I've got an EPS odyssee behind me and there's no end to frustration -
> probably because of lacking knowledge on my side. It started with wrong
> colors in an EPS file: We exported a drawing from VectorWorks (a
> Macintosh CAD package) to EPS. The embedded preview looks as expected,
> but when printed from Postscript-savvy software, imported with Photoshop
> Elements 2.0, or converted to PDF with Apple's Preview.app, the colors
> are very different. They look dull, dark, definitely wrong.
>
> It took me by surprise that if converted to PDF with Ghostscript
> ps2pdf13, the colors are correct. Unfortunately, the ghostscript tools
> don't honour the size and origin of the drawing but put it on an A4 page
> (or whatever I specify). I can push the file through eps2eps and then
> all colors are fine with Photoshop, etc., but this also introduces a
> wrong sized EPS file (adding huge white areas to left and top).
>
> One after another I tried various tools like ps2eps, epstool, epstopdf
> and the -dEPSCrop option of Ghostscript. Unfortunately, while most tries
> led to correct colors, there was not one that preserved the correct
> dimensions. In addition some of the tools (including eps2eps) seem to
> replace embedded vector fonts with bitmap counterparts.
>
> What to do now? I need the file converted to some vector format (EPS
> with PICT Preview is best for my needs, but PDF is okay, too) with
> correct colors, original size and original fonts.
>
> Any hints on where to look or what to try next are appreciated.
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Mark

Before fiddling around with Ghostscript and its derivatives, review the
color management preferences of e.g. your printing setup, Photoshop,
etc.
Those tools use to apply some color profile by default, and sometimes it
is tedious to switch off the color management, what probably is what you
need.

Helge

--
Helge Blischke
Softwareentwicklung
SRZ Berlin | Firmengruppe besscom
http://www.srz.de

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