EPS - Export

Encapsulated Postscript (EPS) is postscript page description format much like a standard postscript data stream used to communicate to most printers. As the name indicates it is encapsulated in a file for archive and interchange applications. It is a printed page description format--not a bitmap format.

EPS files are commonly used to include graphic illustrations as part of larger documents. This format is frequently used for print media and electronic prepress applications. Rendering the information is complex and doesn't apply easily to a computer display or web graphic rendering. In fact when an EPS file is viewed on display screen (rather than a postscript printing device) the image is most likely derived from a self contained bitmap preview image. The EPS file format allows for inclusion of a bitmap image for convenient preview or thumbnail representations.

The middle popup menu provides a selection to export just the visible graphics and text, or the entire drawing.

Use the right most popup menu to chose a background option. You may choose no background, white or black and whether to include the Grid in the output.

The Color Space popup is used to convert all colors on the drawing to a single color space, CMYK, RGB, ect. If the selection Various is chosen, the color format of each color used remains as defined.

The LaTeX psfrag check box is for support of psfrag use with the exported file. Psfrag is a special method of replacing place holder characters with LaTeX typset text. With the newer version of the EPS format that is generated by EazyDraw and OS X, it is necessary to "patch" the exported file with an invisible marker string to facilite support for this place holder mapping. This box should only be checked if the psfrag support is needed.

Use the save button to execute the save action after all parameter selections are made.

Use the "Add Thumbnail Preview" button to install a custom icon for the exported file. The custom icon will be a small image of the exported drawing or graphics. If this button is not checked the OS X Finder will install an icon in accordance with the system settings and applications available on your system.

In some cases it is necessary to map all colors to a single color space to allow the EPS file to be opened on other systems. If you are not able to open the EPS file on anther system or with another application, selecting a particular single color space may aleviate the problem. This is caused by limitations with the receiving applications EPS capability or known problems with multiple color space support present with older versions of the EPS file format.

EPS with CMYK color mapping is frequently used when submitting a drawing electronicly for printed press use. Professional printers normally require CMYK. The popup color space menu can be used to convenienlty satisfy this requirement. In most cases RGB will be the color space used for computer drawing, this is the space rendered on the computer monitor. CMYK will result in different hues and colors, but these slight differences then result in a truer color on high quality printing presses. CMYK for personal use is now much more prevelant with home use photo quality printers. Mapping to CMYK may provide improved appearance when printing drawings to a photo-quality printer on high quality paper.

Color spaces are explained in more detail on the manual entry for Color Space Management on the Layers drawer. It is possible to control the color space used for individual layers - on the Layers drawer.

If the psfrag check box in used, an text string comprising of the sequence of ASCII characters from decimal 33 to decimal 126 is inserted as the first graphic of the drawing. This text string is drawn with the background color (usually white) to make it invisible. Inclusion of this string forces a traditional one-to-one mapping of the traditional ASCII characters out of the more expansive set of unicode characters.