[comp.lang.postscript] GEM EPS --> Illustrator

marmar@mtk.UUCP (Mark Martino) (10/24/89)

Can anyone out there tell me how to use Adobe Illustrator to open EPS files
created in GEM Artline?  If it can't be done, can anyone explain why not?

Our documentation department got a few hundred EPS files from an outside
contractor.  The contractor used GEM Artline to create them.  These
files can be used successfully in Aldus Pagemaker, but cannot be opened
in Adobe Illustrator.

Our graphic artist wrote to Adobe about what we could do to make this
possible. They said that it could not be done.  In the meantime, I was
fooling around with their headers and prologues, but I couldn't make any
progress.

Thanks for any ideas.

freak@cbnewsc.ATT.COM (c.e.malloy..iii) (10/26/89)

> Can anyone out there tell me how to use Adobe Illustrator to open EPS
> files created in GEM Artline?  If it can't be done, can anyone explain
> why not?

Without going home and finding Artline and reloading it and check
I cannot be sure, but...

Most of the problems that I have found with programs that save a file
as EPS, save with a bit-mapped image that Adobe Illustrator cannot
understand.  If I remember correctly, Artline save with a CGM bit-mapped
image.  If you can save the file without a bit-mapped image, it should
work.  You said that you got these file from another source.  You might
try asking them if they could save a few files without the image as a
test.  Or you could find someone with Artline that might help you.

Clancy Malloy
AT&T Bell Labs
att!ihlpa!cem

jeynes@adobe.COM (Ross A. Jeynes) (10/28/89)

In article <4096@cbnewsc.ATT.COM> cem@ihlpa.ATT.COM 8Clancy Malloy) writes:
>> Can anyone out there tell me how to use Adobe Illustrator to open EPS
>> files created in GEM Artline?  If it can't be done, can anyone explain
>> why not?
>
>Most of the problems that I have found with programs that save a file
>as EPS, save with a bit-mapped image that Adobe Illustrator cannot
>understand.  If I remember correctly, Artline save with a CGM bit-mapped

The problem here is that Illustrator does not read arbitrary PostScript 
language files.  Illustrator recognizes a script which is composed of the
procedures defined in the Illustrator prolog.  The ability to interpret
an arbitrary PostScript file would require a full PostScript interpreter,
which isn't really practical for a single application given current limits 
on CPU, memory, and so on in today's personal computers.

The specification for the files that Illustrator does recognize is available
from the Adobe file server.  This may help if you wanted to (for instance) 
build a utility that converts GEM Artline EPS output into Illustrator-compatible
files.  (If you are unfamilliar with the server, send a mail message containing
the word "help" to ps-file-server@adobe.com.) 

I hope this helps.


Ross Jeynes              
Developer Support                                   jeynes@adobe.com
Adobe Systems Incorporated                 {sun|decwrl}!adobe!jeynes