\pard\tx960\tx1920\tx2880\tx3840\tx4800\tx5760\tx6720\tx7680\tx8640\tx9600\f0\b0\i0\ul0\fs28 PostScript TIFF Macintosh EPS\
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Q: Is there REALLY compatibility between Mac PostScript or TIFF and NeXT PostScript or TIFF?\
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A: Detailed Q&A follows.\
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\i 1. Is there a way to have postscript files generated on the Mac useable on the cube, (and if so) what applications are recommended? (Each time I try, I run into bounding box errors. The only way I can seem to get files to work is to generate them in either Illustrator or Freehand and add a showpage command at the end. This still does not result in support in applications.)\
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*Sigh*. Unfortunately, there is no one-word answer to this question. The shortest answer is "Yes; however, many Mac- or PC-generated PostScript files contain bugs that have to be worked around." In practice, the only thing we've tried where this works 100% is with Illustrator files (we haven't tried it with Freehand, that may work too).\
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For a more definitive answer, you need to distinguish between the two kinds of "PostScript files" you see from other computers. First, there are Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) files. These are illustrations intended to be included in some other document. Secondly, there is a literal copy of what would normally be sent to the printer (this is what you get by using the amazing command-f, or command-k keys on a Mac). These will be called spooled PostScript files.\
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These files are intended for different ends. EPS files are intended to be illustrations with some fixed size; they are intended to be Imported into some other program. Illustrator files are EPS files. We don't recall ever having had a problem with a Mac program that actually claimed to export EPS files. You export the file from the Mac program, ftp it to the NeXT machine using ASCII mode in the FTP program, and then use the "Place Graphic..." command in WriteNow, the "Import..." command in FrameMaker, or dragging it in in Draw to put the EPS file into your NeXT document. We also have had a perfect record with EPS files being exported from Icon or Scene on the NeXT machine. Again, be sure to use ASCII mode when doing the file transfer from Mac or PC to NeXT (this changes the CR of other computers into the Unix newline).\
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Spooled PostScript files are much harder to use. You should, in theory, be able to bring them all up on the NeXT machine using Preview (you may have to click Open Anyway a couple times), and you should be able to print them all using the lpr command from the shell (someday, you'll just print them from Preview; however, printing from the Preview program is somewhat buggy in 1.0; it usually produces extra blank pages). Note that you cannot use the Place Graphic... or Import... commands on a spooled PostScript file; those are intended for EPS files. If that was what the person wanted to do, they need to convert a spooled file to an EPS file; see below.\
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If you have a Mac spooled PS file and it doesn't print/Preview, but gives you the error\
%%[Error: undefined; OffendingCommand: md]%%\
then the file was probably generated the wrong way on the Macintosh. Many people have learned to generate Mac PS files by holding down the feature-f key when printing. This produces a PostScript file that does not have the PostScript procedures used by the Macintosh included. In order to generate the correct PostScript file, they should hold down feature-k when printing.\
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If you've done this, and the file still won't print with lpr or won't Preview on the NeXT machine, then it's probably due to some dependency of the file on LaserWriter-specific options. The only way to work around these is to open up the PostScript file in Edit and try to fix it. If you don't want to try that, then there's no way to make it work. If you do want to try that, here's a quick hack which fixes a few files: look for a line in the file that says\
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serverdict begin 0 exitserver\
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If you find it, remove it or comment it out (you can comment it out by putting a % as the first character). Other problems require more PostScript expertise to find and eliminate. We've received a lot of PostScript files as bug reports, and basically they all come down to some bug in the PostScript generated by the application. The bugs vary, and in future version we'll work around more of them, but there is no complete solution to this problem. Adobe continues to try to educate developers as to how to generate clean PostScript files; and we actually are setting a pretty good example in the PS generated by the AppKit.\
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\b Converting PS files to EPS files.
\b0 Sometimes, people want to do this (for example, they have a Mac application which does not allow Save As.. EPS, so they use command-k to generate a PS file, but what they want on the NeXT machine is to use that file as a EPS file and Import... it into their Frame document). Step One: Try just renaming the file to end in .eps instead of .ps, see if it works. Be forewarned, it probably won't (save your document before trying!), but occasionally this does the trick. Step Two: Open up the file in Edit, and add the line \
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%%BoundingBox: 0 0 612 792\
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near the beginning of the file (say, as the fouth or fifth line) and Save As... to a file whose name ends in .eps. Now try to Import... it (again: save your document before attempting the Import...!). This should cause the PostScript to appear as a huge (page-size) illustration. If so, you can tune the numbers on that line to try and make the illustration the right size. If this doesn't work, see NextAnswer postscript.481, which contains further details.\
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\i 2. Can I use Adobe postscript fonts I purchased for the Mac and port them over to the cube, and if so, how?\
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\i0 The answer to this question is, in practice, no.
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3. TIFF seems to be supported upwardly from the Mac. Can I go the other way?\
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\i0 The situation in exporting TIFF files from the NeXT machine to the Mac is that you can make it work, but due to some shortcomings in our TIFF formats not everything works.\
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Here is how to make it work: Save your TIFF file on the NeXT machine with
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\i0 alpha channel. Also, you probably want to make sure you leave 8 pixels or so of white space around the edges (keep reading). Now transfer the file to the Mac. Depending on what you use to transfer, you need to make sure you use BINARY mode, and you need to set the file type on the Mac end to TIFF.\
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Now open up the TIFF file in Digital Darkroom on the Mac side. It should come up correctly except for a shift (the whole image will be shifted over -- this is why you left some whitespace). You're there.\
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The NeXT-generated TIFF file will not be opened by Image Studio (they don't support 2 bits/pixel TIFF files in their current release). PhotoShop will open the file, but it won't look right. We know about the bugs that cause 1) PhotoShop to not open the file, 2) the pixel shift to occur when Digital Darkroom opens the file, and 3) prevent you from transferring TIFF Files with alpha. These will be corrected in a future release.
