Problems with Postscript and Acrobat Files

What is a Postscript file?

Postscript is a language developed to communicate with printers. A Postscript file is a text file that can be viewed with any text editor and contains at the beginning lines such as:

How do I create a Postscript file?

• LaTeX:
  Authors using LaTeX under UNIX or Windows 95/98/NT need to run the dvips program to generate the Postscript file.
  
  
• Microsoft Word:
  To save a Word document as a Postscript file, first install and select a Postscript printer, and then from Microsoft Word choose print to a file. When you print to a file, Microsoft Word saves the file in the appropriate printer language.
  
  To print to a file:
  
  1. On the File menu, click Print.
  2. In the Name box, click the Postscript printer which will be used to generate the file.
  3. Select the Print to File check box, and then click OK.
  4. In the File name box, type a file name. If the file is saved with a .prn extension, rename it to a file with extension .ps.

I cannot print a Postscript file.

The printer is probably not a Postscript printer. Postscript files can only be printed to a Postscript printer. DeskJet printers typically do not understand Postscript. The printer might also not be a level 2 Postscript printer: most printers are level 2 compatible but not all.

I cannot view a Postscript file.

Authors can try to use Ghostview or other programs to view a Postscript file. Remember that the Postscript language was invented to communicate with printers, not to be displayed on a screen: Try to print the file instead of viewing it on the screen because what is seen on the screen might not look exactly as what is printed on paper. Also, older versions of programs such as Ghostview cannot open some legitimate Postscript files that will print just fine. Make sure to have the latest version of Ghostview/Ghostscript (Aladdin 5.10 or GNU 4.03 - http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost) because older versions such as the popular 1.5 have a number of incompatibilities. Ghostview works well with Postscript generated by LaTeX/dvips, but sometimes has problems with Postscript files generated with Adobe and Microsoft software.

What is a PDF Adobe Acrobat file?

The PDF format bas been created to overcome the portability problems of Postscript, to reduce the size of files, and to provide a better screen viewing experience. Because of these reasons, it has been the format of choice of previous ICASSP conferences to store the papers on CD-ROM.

I cannot open/view an Adobe Acrobat File.

Perhaps you are not using the latest version (3.0/3.01) he newest version can be installed from the ICASSP-98 or ICASSP-97 CD-ROM, or is can be downloaded for free from http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html. Sometimes the Acrobat Reader has trouble reading legitimate PDF files, in this case, you can try to open them with Ghostview (Aladdin 5.10 or GNU 4.03 - http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/).

My Adobe Acrobat (PDF) file prints incorrectly.

If using the Adobe Acrobat Reader to print under UNIX, make sure that the "Download Fonts Once" button is not checked; otherwise it may be that only the first page prints correctly.

Last Update:  October 4, 1998         Ingo Höntsch