Postscript, JustText and EPS

[flash3433]

This is a great place with great help.

I've been using a beta program for the Mac since 1985 called JustText. It converts coded text to ps. When I want to insert a bunch of text in a document, I just strip the text's ps header and footer, save it and use the

{inHardDisk:directory:filename.ps}

command and it inserts the formatted text just where I want it.

Now it seems it must be almost as easy to do the same procedure to insert an EPS file, say a graphic created in Illustrator, but I've not been able to figure it (my formal postscript is limited, mostly learned from watching what JustText does).

I would be most appreciative if I could be walked through what I need to do to such an EPS file so it could likewise be inserted where needed.

Using a mac, Sys 9 and LW 8.

Thanks.

 

[tgreer]

I suggest first searching the forum for keywords "EPS" and "form". There are many posts. If you still have questions after reading them through, let me know.



Thomas D. Greer

http://www.tgreer.com

Providing PostScript & PDF
Training, Development & Consulting

 

[flash3433]

Thanks.

Sad to say, that's what I already did.

I could not even understand the concept of "forms".

I read several threads and excitedly referred to the Adobe site for their input you suggested.

I couldn't make sense of it. Math major, graduate degree, programmer. Go figure.

 

[tgreer]

No problem, that's what Tek-Tips is for. We'll just take it step by step.

First, you can't just insert an EPS file "where you want it". I don't know about the "JustText" program, but imagine it has a fairly strict template... what I'm saying is I can't speak to that program, only to PostScript and EPS in general.

Have you been to my website? There is a discussion of EPS files there, and various ways to use them.

Let me ask, does the EPS need to be embedded in your program, or can you refer to an EPS on disk?

Asked another way, is the final PostScript going to be processed by a device somewhere, or are you going to run it through Distiller or GhostScript on your own computer?



Thomas D. Greer

http://www.tgreer.com

Providing PostScript & PDF
Training, Development & Consulting

 

[flash3433]

I'm reading through some articles on your site.

One question (with no answer after 15 minutes of Google searching):

What is "variable data printing"? What does that mean?

 

[tgreer]

It's an awful term coined by a very smart man in the printing industry.

I don't know where to start, it's such an oxymoron.

Traditional printing on traditional presses is ONE image, LOTS of times. Because you have one set of films, one set of printing plates, and you run them over and over and over.

That stinks if you are printing say a financial report for investors, and would really like to have a pie-chart on page 47 that shows ONE SPECIFIC INVESTOR'S data.

That's variable data printing, if you will. Or "one-to-one marketing", another buzzword.

The advent of digital presses is enabling in this regard. Because they don't use film or plates, but rather a digital image. And it doesn't matter a bit (that's a pun) to the press whether digital page 2 is the same or different than digital page 3.

But that's a different mind-set to the stodgy old printing industry. You mean, I have to merge a database with a page layout? I can't do that!... so there's a lot of talk about "variable data printing" software that does some sort of data merge or templating. Guess what? When all is said and done and the user clicks "go", the program outputs PostScript.

Now, we're programmers, right? So we know that a single program can produce different output based upon the input. Fundamental concept, right? And what the heck is "variable data"? If it isn't variable, it's not data. We call that a "label". So it's a term that defeats itself in its very explanation. And hopefully you're not just "printing data", but using that data to typeset a document or execute a design.

That's what the PostScript language is for, and so that's what I do: teach commercial/digital printers how to program in the language that has been driving their industry for 20 years, but that they never bothered to learn.



Thomas D. Greer

http://www.tgreer.com

Providing PostScript & PDF
Training, Development & Consulting