Printing encapsulated postscript

[L. Peter Deutsch]

> Whenever I try to print a .eps file, I get no output from ghostscript. This
> happens with version 4.03 and version 5.50.

The same thing will (or at least may) happen with an Adobe PostScript
printer. EPS files do not have a 'showpage' (end-of-page) command, which is
what causes the page data to be transmitted to the printer. With
Ghostscript version 5.50 and later, you can add the switch
-c showpage
at the end of the command line to force the page to be transmitted (but if
the file is a real self-contained PostScript file and not an EPS file, you
will get an extra blank page at the end).

EPS files show up on the display because Ghostscript transmits the data to
the display incrementally. Ghostscript can't do this for printers. If
you'd like more of an explanation, please e-mail me privately.

--

L. Peter Deutsch | Aladdin Enterprises :::: gh...@aladdin.com
203 Santa Margarita Ave. | tel. +1-650-322-0103 (AM only); fax +1-650-322-1734
Menlo Park, CA 94025 | http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/index.html

[Bob Boehmer]

Whenever I try to print a .eps file, I get no output from ghostscript. This
happens with version 4.03 and version 5.50.

I am running Solaris 2.4.

To debug it I tried to send the output to a file instead of using it in a
print filter. If I try:
gs -q -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=laserjet -sOutputFile=xxx x.eps

I end up with a file xxx that contains the sequence ESC-E and nothing else.

laserjet _is_ compiled into gs and x.eps is a valid file.

If I just run gs x.eps I get a nice X-window display of the file. I get the
same results with any .eps file I try including ridt91.eps (which came with
the ghostscript 5.50 source).

Regular postscript files print fine.

Thanks for any help.

If you respond by email, remove the "cruft" from my email address.

[George White]

On Wed, 29 Sep 1999, L. Peter Deutsch wrote:

> > Whenever I try to print a .eps file, I get no output from ghostscript. This
> > happens with version 4.03 and version 5.50.
>

> The same thing will (or at least may) happen with an Adobe PostScript
> printer. EPS files do not have a 'showpage' (end-of-page) command, which is
> what causes the page data to be transmitted to the printer. With
> Ghostscript version 5.50 and later, you can add the switch
> -c showpage
> at the end of the command line to force the page to be transmitted (but if
> the file is a real self-contained PostScript file and not an EPS file, you
> will get an extra blank page at the end).
>
> EPS files show up on the display because Ghostscript transmits the data to
> the display incrementally. Ghostscript can't do this for printers. If
> you'd like more of an explanation, please e-mail me privately.
>
> --
>
> L. Peter Deutsch | Aladdin Enterprises :::: gh...@aladdin.com
> 203 Santa Margarita Ave. | tel. +1-650-322-0103 (AM only); fax +1-650-322-1734
> Menlo Park, CA 94025 | http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/index.html

EPS files can (and often do) have showpage. I often print EPS files to
check things that may not be visible on-screen, so having showpage is
a convenience.

From Red Book, p. 719

The showpage operator is permitted in EPS files because it is
present in so many PostScript language files. [...] The application
importing the EPS file is reponsible for redefining showpage.

--
George White <aa...@chebucto.ns.ca> Halifax, Nova Scotia

[L. Peter Deutsch]

> EPS files can (and often do) have showpage. I often print EPS files to
> check things that may not be visible on-screen, so having showpage is
> a convenience.

FWIW, they also often redefine showpage as a no-op.