EPS figures in Textures (&LaTeX) once more

External Since: Sep 30, 2003 Posts: 3

I am writing a paper using LaTeX and the Textures program in
Macintosh. I have problems with including EPS figures. This is a topic
that has been discussed A LOT but reading and trying out all kinds of
things made me confused especially bacause nothing sees to work. I
want to know what is the truth. Are EPS files (from Adobe Photoshop
Elements) not good for Latex at all as some websites suggest? Or is
there a simpler way or another postscript format that suits better?

Originally I used bitmap files and the \special command in Textures
and this worked fine but the picture files are huge and I need to be
able to convert my tex code to other LaTeX systems than just Textures.
Then I have tried the following 2 approaches:
(1) \usepackage{graphicx}.... ...
\includegraphics[width=3in]{mypicture.eps}

(2) \input BoxedEPS
\SetTexturesEPSFSpecial... ...\BoxedEPSF{mypicture.eps scaled 200}

(3) \special{postscriptfile mypicture.eps scaled 200}

Of these (1) is commonly used in LaTeX I think, and (2) is recommneded
for Textures. In each case the code goes through Textures without
errors. I have these packages included with my Textures. In (2) the
space that is left blank in the Textures typeset window suggests that
the shapes of the figures are taken into account and that the
EPS-figures were found.

I "print" my manuscript first to a postscript file and look at it in
Ghostview and then make a pdf file (my Textures lacks the automatic
pdf converter). This has worked fine without the figures and with the
bitmap figures. But these EPS files simply do not go through to the
final postscript output file - or at least do not show in Ghostview
(ps file created using the print (File menu) command by checking the
"print to file")! Any simple remedies?

Unfortunately I cannot print the ps file to a postscript printer. I
also tried all formats jpg, tif, png, pdf for the figures... no
success.

External Since: Oct 01, 2003 Posts: 1

l wrote:

> I am writing a paper using LaTeX and the Textures program in
> Macintosh. I have problems with including EPS figures.
....
> (1) \usepackage{graphicx}.... ...
> \includegraphics[width=3in]{mypicture.eps}

None of the other methods are remotely portable.

Tetures works fine with EPS files. If you have the uptodate version, it
even displays the PICT preview correctly.

> I "print" my manuscript first to a postscript file and look at it in
> Ghostview and then make a pdf file (my Textures lacks the automatic
> pdf converter). This has worked fine without the figures and with the
> bitmap figures. But these EPS files simply do not go through to the
> final postscript output file - or at least do not show in Ghostview
> (ps file created using the print (File menu) command by checking the
> "print to file")! Any simple remedies?

Maybe your EPS files are badly formed. I have had problems with the
bounding box and the PostScript not matching. Typically the BB says say
"100x100", but when you look at the PS all you get is bit of the corner (if
you are lucky) because their scaling is hopelessly wrong. This would
explain the apparent non-printing in GS. But you will get the CPU useage.

If you run GS from the commandline, and have a good binary file editor:
edit the PS to output strings to the console. This is good old fasioned
debugging technique. With lots of practice you can get PS to tell you lots
more info. (Read the Red Book).

> Unfortunately I cannot print the ps file to a postscript printer. I
> also tried all formats jpg, tif, png, pdf for the figures... no
> success.

Presumably you know that you can use GS as a filter in print queues. In
Windows and unix there are well established methods of using GS. How you do
it on your mac depends on your OS version. I believe in OS X the GS
integration is a doddle, because it is a unix inside. What it does is take
the PS that you send it and translate it to the printer codes for the
printer that you have attached. So I could have an HP4, so my PS gets
translated to HP-PCL and down to the printer. The only downside to this
route is that the PCL is more waffly than a good PCL driver would have
generated, so the page rate is a bit low. However it does give you PS
everywhere, this simplifies maintenance.

Eric.