Print to File (PS)

I am having this exact same problem. I've read a few sites which suggest printing to a "localhost" printer, however when I print to this printer, it says it can't find the printer or the printer is busy. when trying to create a CMYK pdf from quark, printing to a pdf "save as pdf" creates an RGB file with ICC profiles.
working in a prepress department at a newspaper press, this doesn't work at all! if someone out there has created a virtual printer, or a script or perhaps even a fix for this, i would love to hear!

to create a ps file look for the pdf tab in the print window. It gives the option of "save pdf as postscript"

You have many choices in creating a pdf. Go to the 'page set-up' under the file menu and when choosing your printer choose Adobe PDF and then the page size etc. When you Print then choose adobe pdf from the list of printers. Below it you will have various driver options and you can adjust the pdf to suit your needs. Once you have set up your options you can save them as a preset.

Better then is to create a Post script file from Quark and distill it using Acrobat Distiller. This gives you the same control as creating a PDF from Quark, but many of the Quark options that are greyed out when creating a pdf are available for a PS file.

I have many Word files containing business logos in the form of embedded PostScript code (no graphics, just text in the PostScript language). Word merely passes on this text into the PostScript file that the printer driver sends to the printer or saves on the disk. This feature has worked since at least 1992. In Mac OS X 10.4, it does not work any more.

Apparently the 10.4 printer driver always converts the Word file to a PDF file, and then converts that PDF file to a PostScript file that it sends to the printer or saves on the disk. But a PDF file cannot include embedded PostScript code, so the embedded PostScript code gets ignored entirely.

Apple should either: (1) restore the Output Options to the File > Print dialog box, or (2) fix the Word to PDF conversion so that it interprets the embedded PostScript code and puts the results into the PDF file, or (3) make the printer driver convert from Word file to PostScript directly (like it used to do) and skip the conversion to PDF unless specifically asked to generate a PDF file. I would prefer (3).

Richard, would you please post your issue in the Tiger OS X Feedback area - that's the one Apple employees read.

The Save to PS function has not changed in Tiger; it does the same thing it did in Panther, Apple just renamed the function and moved it. So you have #3 in Tiger.

If you want I can take a look at one of your docs and try and see what is going on. If you want to e-mail me one of these files (rblancha@mac.com) I'll give it a try.

I had already sent an e-mail to "support@apple.com" with several attachments illustrating the problem. Now I have also added a posting to Mac OS X Feedback" as well. Thanks for the suggestion.

@rbi: the colors of the "Save PDF to PS" PS File are definitely different than the "Save to File" PS in Panther (see other similar threads)

I noticed that use said you are using 10.4.1, if you are maybe updating to 10.4.2 will help.

I did download 10.4.2 and it made no difference. Apparently the 10.4 printer driver has a major design defect -- it just does not work for files that contain embedded PostScript code. I think this is because it converts the file from Word format to PDF and then converts the PDF to PostScript which is sent to the printer or saved on the disk. The embedded PostScript code gets lost because there is no way to represent embedded PostScript code in a PDF. Anyway, the embedded PostScript code is completely ignored and I cannot print thousands of files I have used since 1992. Until Apple fixes this problem, I have reverted to using the old version of Word in the Classic environment, where my files still print just fine.

" it just does not work for files that contain embedded PostScript code"

Unless the code is wrapped as EPS.

Encapsulated Postscript (EPS) is not the same as Postscript Code (PS). The postscript Richard is speaking about is Printer PS code, not encapsulated Postscript. The two are for completely different uses. Most printers that require RIPS to convert PS into 1 or 8 bit Tifs, will not work with EPS files.

Please explain to us how to wrap Printer PS into an EPS file!!!

Richard, perhaps the issue is more an acrobat issue than anything else. Try setting your acrobat and/or distiller prefs for Pdf 1.5 compatibility. Perhaps older compatibility doesn't support what you are trying to accomplish. Acrobat 6.03 Professional or newer should be able to understand all the PS code you are trying to convert. I do hundreds of pdf's daily from all types of applications, (Print to PS/Distiller) and haven't had many problems. The newer version of Acrobat is 100% PS level 3 compliant.

"Please explain to us how to wrap Printer PS into an EPS file!!!"

Add the required EPS header comments:

%!PS-Adobe-3.0 EPSF-3.0
%%Title: (Sample EPS)
%%CreationDate: (8/3/05) (2:33 AM)
%%BoundingBox: 0 0 205 45
%%EndComments

and then mark then end of the document with:

%%EOF

Once you have done this the resulting EPS file can be placed into Cocoa applications. In these cases Mac OS X will convert the PostScript to PDF. The result will then be printable to both PostScript and raster printers.

Word will also allow the resulting EPS file to be placed into a document though with Word it will only print to a PostScript printer.

The difference between PostScript code and EPS code is simply that an EPS file places certain minimal limitations upon the PostScript. The EPS file may also include an optional bitmap preview. Here's a good EPS description:

http://www-h.eng.cam.ac.uk/help/tpl/graphics/postscript.html

Well, this is fine, except opening hundreds (or thousands) of PS files to make them EPS files by adding code, might take just a little too long!

He doesn't have PS files, he has PostScript snippets in Word documents using Word's PostScript format.

If someone has hundreds of PS files then they can use Tiger's pstopdf tool to automate the conversion to PDF. One can also open PostScript files in Preview and save the results as PDF.