EPS printing problems

Hi, all,

I can't seem to print EPS files generated from matplotlib on my printer, a Minolta Magicolor 2200. I think this is very specific to my setup but would be happy for suggestions. My initial guess is that MPL is generating Postscript Level 3 and my printer only supports Level 2, but I'm open to other ideas.

Steve Walton

Hello Stephen,

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On Thu, Apr 14, 2005 at 04:16:49PM -0700, Stephen Walton wrote:

I can't seem to print EPS files generated from matplotlib on my printer,
a Minolta Magicolor 2200. I think this is very specific to my setup but
would be happy for suggestions. My initial guess is that MPL is
generating Postscript Level 3 and my printer only supports Level 2, but
I'm open to other ideas.

Last I checked the PostScript backend used only PostScript level 2.
You could try to produce a standalone .ps file instead of an
.eps file. Maybe this works better?

All the best,
Jochen
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Jochen Voss wrote:

Last I checked the PostScript backend used only PostScript level 2.

What I really meant was that the PostScript file produced by MPL starts with '%!PS-Adobe-3.0', which I thought meant Postscript level 3. Changing the 3.0 to 2.0 by hand still doesn't allow it to print. dvips output files print fine on this printer, and they start with '%!PS-Adobe-2.0'.

You could try to produce a standalone .ps file instead of an
.eps file. Maybe this works better?

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm afraid this didn't help. The workaround I found was to do a dvipdf on the LaTeX file which included the MPL doc, read it with Acrobat Reader, and tell acroread to print it at Postscript level 1. Normally acroread can print at level 2 to this printer, but asking acroread to print at level 3 gets an error page from the printer telling you to use level 2.

Best,
Steve

Hi Stephen,

What I really meant was that the PostScript file produced by MPL starts
with '%!PS-Adobe-3.0', which I thought meant Postscript level 3.
Changing the 3.0 to 2.0 by hand still doesn't allow it to print. dvips
output files print fine on this printer, and they start with
'%!PS-Adobe-2.0'.

Confusingly enough there are two kinds of version numbers involved, here.
There is the PostScript language level, which can be 1, 2, or 3.
Additionally there is something called DSC (Document structuring
conventions), which gives additional information in PostScript comments
(lines starting with a percent sign). This DSC thing allows PostScript
viewers to go back to the previous page, allows to print single pages
from a PostScript file, etc. DSC also comes in several versions.

The "%!PS-Adobe-3.0" indicated that the document confirms to DSC version 3.
This does not imply anything for the PostScript language level. Since
all DSC stuff is most probably ignored by the Printer, it should not
cause any problems.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm afraid this didn't help. The
workaround I found was to do a dvipdf on the LaTeX file which included
the MPL doc, read it with Acrobat Reader, and tell acroread to print it
at Postscript level 1.

GhostScript has also a converting-fancy-PostScript-into-simple-PostScript
functionality which might come in handy here.

All the best,
Jochen

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On Fri, Apr 15, 2005 at 10:01:30AM -0700, Stephen Walton wrote:
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