This tip is reproduced here from Jim Land's now-vanished site, http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/5682/postscript.html.

PS to EPS

In May 2001, Francesco Spada posted to the newsgroup comp.lang.postscript:

How can I convert a PS file into an EPS file?

John Deubert (www.acumentraining.com) replied:


It's actually pretty simple, subject to some restrictions on the PostScript file, itself:

1. Make the first line of the PostScript file the following:

%!PS-Adobe-3.0 EPSF-3.0

2. Look among the lines at the beginning of the PostScript file (right after your "%!PS..." line. You should see a series of lines that start with "%%". If there is not already a line among these that starts with "%%BoundingBox", then you will need to add this line among the other %% lines:

%%BoundingBox: xll yll xur yur

The "xll yll xur yur" above are stand-ins for four numbers, these being the x and y coordinates of the lower-left and upper-right corners of the bounding box of the EPS graphic. (That is, the lowest x & y and the highest x & y for the drawing on the page.) These are all measured in PostScript units (i.e., 1/72-inch) from the PostScript origin (i.e., the lower-left corner of the page). The restrictions:

There are some restrictions on the original PostScript that you are converting to EPS:

1. It must be a one-page document.

2. It should make no reference to page size, duplex printing, or anything else that has to do with the printing of the document.

3. It shouldn't do other odd stuff, like erase the page, initialize the graphic state, etc. (Most PostScript output doesn't do this, but some does.

Your biggest problem will probably be with restriction 2, since this is a legitimate and, often, necessary thing when creating a PostScript output file.

One last note: the instructions above will give you an EPS file with no screen preview. When you import it into another application, you'll probably get just a gray box on the screen. It will print correctly, however.