PS2EPSI(1)

💅 PS2EPSI — ok bestie, let's talk ✨

so this whole page is from the Ghostscript Tools corner of the manual, and it's all about a lil script called ps2epsi. one job. iconic behavior only. 🎀

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🌸 NAME 🌸

ps2epsi — generates conforming Encapsulated PostScript. that's it, that's the whole personality. 💖

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

ps2epsi infile.ps [ outfile.epsi ] (Unix)
ps2epsi infile.ps [ outfile.epi ] (DOS)

like. it takes your file, it gives you a file. two flavors depending on your whole OS situation. 🦋

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🫶 DESCRIPTION 🫶

okay so ps2epsi uses gs(1) to process a PostScript(tm) file and generate, as output, a brand new file that conforms to Adobe's Encapsulated PostScript Interchange (EPSI) format. no cap. 💫

and what even is EPSI, you ask? it's a special form of encapsulated PostScript (EPS) that adds — right at the beginning of the file, in the form of PostScript comments — a bitmapped version of the final displayed page. so it's giving "here's a sneak peek, glued to the front of your actual file." 📸

programs that understand EPSI (usually word processors or DTP programs) can use this bitmap to give a preview version on screen of the PostScript. the displayed quality is often not very good (e.g., low resolution, no colours 😭), but the final printed version uses the real PostScript, and thus has the normal PostScript quality. so it's lowkey a glow-up situation: ugly preview, gorgeous print. periodt. 👑

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💻 USAGE 💻

on Unix systems, invoke ps2epsi like this:

ps2epsi infile.ps [ outfile.epsi ]

where infile.ps is the input file and outfile.epsi is the resulting EPSI file. if the output filename is omitted, it is generated from the input filename. when a standard extension (.ps, .cps, .eps or .epsf) is used, it is replaced with the output extension .epsi. she just knows what you meant, bestie. 🧚

on DOS systems the command is:

ps2epsi infile.ps outfile.epi

where infile.ps is the original PostScript file, and outfile.epi is the name of the output file. (yes it's .epi here, not .epsi. we don't make the rules. 🙈)

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😬 LIMITATIONS 😬

not every PostScript file can be encapsulated successfully, because there are restrictions on what PostScript constructs a correct encapsulated file may contain. it's giving "not everyone gets into the club." 💀

ps2epsi does a little extra work to try to help encapsulation, and it automatically calculates the bounding box required for all encapsulated PostScript files, so most of the time it does a pretty good job. there are certain to be cases, however, where the encapsulation does not work because of the content of the original PostScript file. so like… she tries her best, but the vibes of your original file can absolutely ruin everything. 🫠

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🖥️ COMPATIBILITY 🖥️

the Framemaker DTP system is one application which understands EPSI files, and ps2epsi has been tested on a number of PostScript diagrams from a variety of sources, using Framemaker 3.0 on a Sun workstation. ✨

Framemaker on other platforms should be able to use these files, although I have not been able to test this. (ngl, a very honest moment from the author. we respect it. 🫶)

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📁 FILES 📁

• ps2epsi — Unix shell script
• ps2epsi.bat — DOS batch file
• ps2epsi.ps — the Ghostscript program which does the work

the last one is the main character, fr fr. the other two are just her outfit changes. 👑

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

• gs(1)

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📜 VERSION 📜

this document was last revised for Ghostscript version 10.04.0. however, the content may be obsolete, or inconsistent with ps2epsi.txt. so like, read with love and a tiny bit of suspicion. 🌈

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🎀 AUTHOR 🎀

George Cameron

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lowkey reminder: the preview bitmap might be crunchy and colourless but the print is the real deal. don't panic. 💅

and that's the whole page, bestie — you ate this. go encapsulate something. 🦋✨

Ghostscript version 10.04.0 · 18 Sept 2024 · mwah, catch you on the next manpage 💖