EPS to PDF, Any new developments?

[Abooneh]

There have been many complaints about the way Word vX (and I think XP)
messes up eps embedded pictures in the PDF conversion (see below for
example). Any new developments or fixes?

WMF/EMF have not worked for me.

Thanks, Abooneh.

Reference
----------
From: Elliott Roper ([email protected])
Subject: EPS pictures and PDF
View: Complete Thread (7 articles)
Original Format
Newsgroups: microsoft.public.mac.office.word
Date: 2002-02-19 08:24:42 PST

I don't know whether this is a Word v.X thing or not. I could sure use
some advice.

I have a letterhead done in Macromedia Freehand 8.0.1b

....
I get around that by saving the selection in Freehand as a Macintosh
eps file, then inserting the file as a picture in Word. The result
prints perfectly, but looks a little manky on screen at high
magnifications with the Beziers straightlined a little. I don't mind
that too much. Word documents are meant for printing.

However, when printing to PDF, the resulting PDF displays on screen
using the ugly bitmap eps preview in both Apple's PDF Preview program
and in Acrobat Reader. Strangely, it too prints perfectly.

I guess there might be a better import format than Macintosh eps, but
I'm at a loss to know what to try. It sure would be nice to have good
looking PDFs on screen. I was so pleased to find that Word v.X embeds
fonts in PDF. It is a pity that it seems to be telling the PDF to show
the bitmap preview when the postscript is sitting there begging to be
used.

 

[Corentin Cras-Méneur]

There have been many complaints about the way Word vX (and I think XP)
messes up eps embedded pictures in the PDF conversion (see below for
example). Any new developments or fixes?

WMF/EMF have not worked for me.

Thanks, Abooneh.

You might be able to use GStill to do that:
http://www.helsinki.fi/~norri/gstill/

You will first need to install the ghostscript interpreter from the gimp
print web site:
http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/MacOSX.php3

Through thsi solution, you should be able to save to .ps from any
application and then use GStill to flash the .ps file to pdf with the
settings that best suit you. I haven't tried it yet, but it should do
the trick.


Corentin

 

[Abooneh]

Thanks for the reply John.

I was under the impression that the postscript output generated by
Word X includes the figure preview and not the original eps. In that
case, how would the full version of Acrobat help out?

BTW, I do have the full version of Acrobat.

I suggest to you that purchasing the next version of Word will be the best
solution.

Will do.

Was this a Microsoft bug? Funny interactions with the OS X printing?
Other?

-Abooneh.

 

[Abooneh]

Thanks Corentin. This one seems to be a problem while generating the
postscript (Word X, OS X, ...) not with the ps->pdf conversion.

-Abooneh.

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word]]

Hi Abooneh:

The figure preview bug in Word was supposedly fixed with Service Release
10.1.2. However, the fix did not appear to have succeeded for all printer
drivers.

If the fix has succeeded with your printer driver, and you then print to
file, and then convert that file with Acrobat, you should retain your EPS
information.

If the pictures are WMF or EMF, then the information should be passed on in
any case.

Now: That's *MY* understanding of the situation. I could be wrong.

Cheers

This responds to microsoft.public.mac.office.word on 8 Jul 2003 10:00:53
-0700, (e-mail address removed) (Abooneh):

Thanks for the reply John.

I was under the impression that the postscript output generated by
Word X includes the figure preview and not the original eps. In that
case, how would the full version of Acrobat help out?

BTW, I do have the full version of Acrobat.


Will do.

Was this a Microsoft bug? Funny interactions with the OS X printing?
Other?

-Abooneh.

Please post all comments to the newsgroup to maintain the thread.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. GMT + 10 Hrs
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]