The configuration options for 'Postscript level 2' or 'Postscript level 3' are common to both formats.
| • | Choose a Postscript output format from the Options|Configuration dialog (f8) then click the Options... button on the 'General' page, or
Choose a Postscript format from the File|Export dialog (Ctrl E) – see PostScript file export – then click Postscript options... |
| • | Click Apply to accept the 'Options' page configuration.
 EscapeE resumes displaying the 'General' page or
the Export dialog. |
| 1. | If you would like to reduce the document size, select Use data compression. EscapeE applies a suitable compression method (e.g. Flate) to the document. You may also opt to apply JPEG compression to any images in the document, see JPEG compression options. |
| 2. | If you would like to store text as longer phrases (to improve searching) select Combine text strings together, see Text options. |
| o | Render all but text as graphic, and also |
| • | Include text as well as graphic |
See Text options.
| 4. | Select Include TrueType fonts to include any TrueType font downloaded in the original PCL file in the exported PDF file. Using TrueType (i.e. scalable outline) fonts usually results in better appearance than bitmapped fonts, but may have adverse effects on the file size if only a few characters from a font are used. If this box is not checked then by default such fonts are converted to bitmap fonts.
Very big documents and forms often use a large proportion of the characters in a font; in these cases, efficiency may be improved by selecting Load fonts first, particularly if your driver builds up the font incrementally page by page (e.g. MS Windows). It is best to de-select this option for short documents or those with large fonts (e.g. Chinese) which take a long time to load. |
| 5. | To reduce the size of the exported PostScript file, you may specify when to substitute fonts in the original document with Standard Adobe fonts. |
| o | If you choose to use substitute fonts Instead of bitmap fonts, Instead of downloaded TrueType fonts or Always, ensure that such fonts in the document are using the Windows character set, otherwise characters may be wrongly attributed. |
| o | The If substitute font given option will only omit the download font if it is recognized as having a known substitute, so is more reliable: see also Substitute fonts. |
| 6. | Set the Resolution for line drawing and images and for text positioning: 600dpi or 300dpi. |
| 7. | Assign each of the numbered PCL Output Bins used by the document a PostScript name. PostScript bin names may be letters, numbers or a mixture of both. |
| 8. | Assign each of the numbered PCL Input Trays used by the document a PostScript Name or number. (The entry for tray 0 applies in the case where no PCL tray has been selected.) You may select a standard paper Size from the drop-down box or leave this blank and fill in the paper Height and Width (in inches) yourself.
When exporting to a 'production' printer, it is useful to specify the Weight (in grams), Color and Media-Type attributes as well.
If exporting to a smaller printer which uses numbered trays, just give the tray a number instead of a name (and leave the other attributes blank).
See also Notes below. |
| o | To remove a tray definition from the list, click Delete. |
| o | To remove all the tray definitions from the list, click Delete all. |
| 9. | Select Keep original element order if the document has ordered opaque elements (e.g. shading) to overwrite text or lines. |
| 10. | The Omit blank pages option may be ticked as required – for example when exporting a document which is to be viewed on screen (not printed) from a duplex original. |
| 11. | Further options may be set up from other pages of the Configuration dialog: |
| o | There is a specialist option for setting-up a "Preamble" (see Preamble and PJL options). Click Preamble... to open an edit pane and enter the code required. |
In addition, when you have finished setting up the options, you may also choose to create a Shortcut icon that uses all the options you have set by clicking Shortcut... (see Shortcuts - the easy way to construct a command line) or click the Save button to retain these settings after you close the program.
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PostScript files include a DSC (Document Structuring Convention) header which specifies the input trays and output bins to be used when the document is printed. The trays may be identified by index number or by attributes (media size, color, type, weight). When EscapeE reads a PS file, it uses the information in the DSC header to assign existing PCL tray names to the specified trays (see step 7 above). If no match can be found for a specified tray, EscapeE creates a new one automatically. For example, a tray identified by attributes might be named PSTRAY12, whereas a tray identified by index number might be named 12. The numbers may not correspond to the physical layout of trays so check the printer's .PPD file (or use 'TRAYS.PS', obtainable from RedTitan) to ensure that the correct tray is selected in the 'Configuration' dialog.
The output is sent to a bin that has a number and a name. Note that the names may be longer than eight characters, may contain spaces and are case-sensitive. For production printers the output document must be created with a PostScript DSC header. This must specify the attributes of the paper stock – the size, weight, color and type of the paper associated with each named tray. A document will not normally be printed until all its specified media requirements are met – be careful not to set up a long list of trays that result in a media list that cannot be actually configured on the printer. If different documents require different tray configurations then you should save each separately and only apply them to the appropriate one.
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The tray/bin selection specified in the PCL data can be overridden using /TRAY and /BIN. Note that this is still the PCL tray/bin number so it may be necessary to define the equivalent Postscript tray/bin using the 'Configuration' dialog. Select the 'Printer' tab to set up the default tray and bin – see Configuring the printer defaults.
Xerox-made PostScript printer files begin with several lines of "XRX" commands, in addition to the DSC header. When EscapeE reads such files, any lines which start with %XRX commands are stored in a field named RT_XRX. (These commands are used to define job characteristics such as accounting, stapling, trays, duplexing etc.)
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Links
PostScript file export
