doc/help/spec-postscript.html

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   5         <title>Generating PostScript for CUPS</title>
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  12
  13   CUPS PostScript file specification for the Common UNIX Printing System (CUPS).
  14
  15   Copyright 2006 by Easy Software Products.
  16
  17   These coded instructions, statements, and computer programs are the
  18   property of Easy Software Products and are protected by Federal
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  22   at:
  23
  24       Attn: CUPS Licensing Information
  25       Easy Software Products
  26       44141 Airport View Drive, Suite 204
  27       Hollywood, Maryland 20636 USA
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  29       Voice: (301) 373-9600
  30       EMail: cups-info@cups.org
  31         WWW: http://www.cups.org
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  33
  34 <h2 class='title'><a name='INTRODUCTION'>Introduction</a></h2>
  35
  36 <p>This document describes how to generate PostScript output for
  37 CUPS and is largely based on the <a
  38 href="http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/ps/5001.DSC_Spec.pdf">
  39 Adobe TechNote #5001: PostScript Language Document Structuring
  40 Conventions Specification Version 3.0</a>. While CUPS can
  41 generally print any PostScript file, following the rules in the
  42 Adobe TechNote and this document will ensure that your PostScript
  43 output will work reliably.</p>
  44
  45 <blockquote><b>Note:</b> While PostScript is currently the
  46 defacto-standard print job file format/language for UNIX-based
  47 applications, it is slowly being phased out in favor of Adobe's
  48 Portable Document Format ("PDF") which offers many advantages
  49 over PostScript. MacOS X uses PDF as the primary print job file
  50 format, and we expect Linux to soon follow. Both PostScript and
  51 PDF are complex formats, and we highly recommend using high-level
  52 toolkits whenever possible.</blockquote>
  53
  54 <h3>Anatomy of a PostScript File</h3>
  55
  56 <p>PostScript files are ASCII text files starting with a header
  57 line (<tt>%!PS-Adobe-3.0</tt>) followed by a combination of
  58 comment lines starting with two percent signs (<tt>%%</tt>) and
  59 PostScript code lines. The lines themselves should not exceed 255
  60 characters to conform to the DSC. The following short PostScript
  61 file produces a box with a smiley face in it:</p>
  62
  63 <pre class="command">
  64 %!PS-Adobe-3.0
  65 %%BoundingBox: 36 36 576 756
  66 %%Pages: 1
  67 %%LanguageLevel: 2
  68 %%EndComments
  69 %%Page: (1) 1
  70 % Draw a black box around the page
  71 0 setgray
  72 1 setlinewidth
  73 36 36 540 720 rectstroke
  74
  75 % Draw a two inch blue circle in the middle of the page
  76 0 0 1 setrgbcolor
  77 306 396 144 0 360 arc closepath fill
  78
  79 % Draw two half inch yellow circles for eyes
  80 1 1 0 setrgbcolor
  81 252 432 36 0 360 arc closepath fill
  82 360 432 36 0 360 arc closepath fill
  83
  84 % Draw the smile
  85 1 setlinecap
  86 18 setlinewidth
  87 306 396 99 200 340 arc stroke
  88
  89 % Print it!
  90 showpage
  91 %%EOF
  92 </pre>
  93
  94 <div class="figure"><table summary="Sample PostScript File Output">
  95 <caption>Figure 1: <a name="FIGURE_1">Sample PostScript File Output</a></caption>
  96 <tr><td align="center"><img src="../images/smiley.jpg"
  97 width="445" height="570" alt="Sample PostScript File Output"></td></tr>
  98 </table></div>
  99
 100
 101 <h2>Embedding Printer Options</h2>
 102
 103
 104 <h2>Embedding Fonts and Text</h2>
 105
 106
 107 <h2>Embedding Images</h2>
 108
 109
 110 <blockquote><b>Note:</b> While some printers support arbitrary
 111 binary data in PostScript files, we do not recommend this
 112 practice because it does not work with all printers or
 113 interfaces. In most cases, the Base-85 encoding and compression
 114 filters can be used to embed images with very little, if any,
 115 increase in data size.</blockquote>
 116
 117
 118
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