12 Transforming PDF into EPSF
This chapter describes our "pdftoeps" command line tool that lets you transform incoming PDF files into EPSF. Using the tool requires EtherShare OPI 2.1.
EPSF files can be generated by different applications (e.g. FreeHand or Photoshop), and they can be different in structure. One purpose of "pdftoeps" is to allow you to stick to PDF as file exchange format and to use the program to generate from the incoming PDF files, EPSF files that are all homogeneous in structure. Additionally, you can use "pdftoeps" if you receive PDF files and have in your company an EPSF-only environment.
"pdftoeps" allows you to transform several files at a time. The program usage is:
pdftoeps [options] pdffiles... destination
where options can be:
-h Help
-v Verbose
-m Mac EPSF
-p PC EPSF
-r <dpi> EPS resolution
-c <colorspace> EPS color space
-R <dpi> Screen preview resolution
-C <colorspace> Screen preview color space
displays the help text for the "pdftoeps" program.
displays activity reports during PDF to EPSF transformation.
produces Macintosh EPSF files (see also
A 6: "Glossary" and option
-p below).
generates cross-platform EPSF files (opposite of option
-m above). If neither of the two options is specified, the default depends on the location of the selected PDF files and on whether this location is a Macintosh volume or not. If the volume settings on the respective volume are set to cross-platform EPSF, the resulting files will be cross-platform.
sets resolution in dpi used for the printable preview of EPSF files. This parameter requires a floating point value as e.g. 72.0. If you do not specify
-r the resolutions of the elements of the PDF input file will be used.
defines color space used for the printable part of the EPSF file. The parameter requires a string value as e.g. "CMYK". For valid strings, see table
1 below. If you do not specify
-c the default from the OPI Server will be used.
sets resolution in dpi used for the screen preview of EPSF files. This parameter requires a floating point value as e.g. 72.0. If you do not specify
-R the default from the OPI Server will be used.
defines color space used for the screen preview of the EPSF file. The parameter requires a string value as e.g. "Grayscale". For valid strings, see table
1 below. If you do not specify
-C the default (RGB) will be used.
Table 1: List of EPSF color spaces
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All options of the "pdftoeps" tool are optional. However, you should specify parameters like
-m or
-p explicitly whenever you are not sure about the defaults that are currently valid.
Note that for all "pdftoeps" options, the parameters and values
must be separated by a blank (see example below).
After the options you have to specify one or more files to convert and a destination file (if converting a single file) or a destination directory (if converting several files). The destination can contain a complete UNIX path name.
pdftoeps -m -c CMYK -C RGB file1 file2 /user/tmp
Pre-separated PDF documents
The "pdftoeps" program recognizes pre-separated PDF documents. It generates DCS files with default (depending on server settings) composite previews which are raster based with a maximum resolution of 150 dpi.
The DCS files are DCS 1 or DCS 2-style multifile images. The plate file suffices for CMYK will be .C, .M, .Y, and .K. Spot color plate files will be assigned other suffices, namely letters so far unused in alphabetical order. The suffix does not have any relation to the name of the spot color.
