[comp.sys.mac.apps] Is there a PostScript Previewer for the mac?

bill@pslu1.psl.wisc.edu (Bill Roth) (04/04/91)

Well, is there?
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Bill Roth,  University of Wisconsin Physical Sciences Laboratory
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thompson@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Mark Thompson) (04/05/91)

There's at least one PostScript Previewer -- it's called Screen Previewer
 (as I recall), and is part of the Now Utilities package.  It works
 like a printer driver - put it in the System folder, Chooser it, and
 your printouts go to the screen instead of a printer.

This won't let you display outside PostScript files, but you can display
 anything that'll print from a Mac.

Mark Thompson
University of Illinois

time@ice.com (Tim Endres) (04/05/91)

In article <1991Apr5.065133.22324@m.cs.uiuc.edu>, thompson@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Mark Thompson) writes:
> There's at least one PostScript Previewer -- it's called Screen Previewer
>  (as I recall), and is part of the Now Utilities package.  It works
>  like a printer driver - put it in the System folder, Chooser it, and
>  your printouts go to the screen instead of a printer.
> 
> This won't let you display outside PostScript files, but you can display
>  anything that'll print from a Mac.

Then this is not a PostScript previewer. This is a QuickDraw Redrawer.
I have a PostScript Previewer based on the one written by goswell
many years ago. It works, but barely. It will take some time to get
it together, but if enough people reply, I will get it posted somehow.
I DO NOT have time to work on it, so someone might wish to take the
source and improve if possible.

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robertw@informix.com (Robert Weinberg) (04/06/91)

In article <1991Apr5.065133.22324@m.cs.uiuc.edu> thompson@m.cs.uiuc.edu (Mark Thompson) writes:
>There's at least one PostScript Previewer -- it's called Screen Previewer
> (as I recall), and is part of the Now Utilities package.  

Actually, I believe this displays a QuickDraw version of the file.

For instance, if you were to create PostScript code in WORD, this
would print out on a LaserWriter as a PostScript image, but not on
an ImageWriter, and would also not be previewable in this manner.
Any time you have a Mac program that cannot generate a QuickDraw
file useable by an ImageWriter, you will not be able to preview
it with one of these printer-intercept programs.

You need an actual PostScript interpreter. There are programs that get
feedback from your connected PS printer and put this back onto the
screen. One would also think that something like Freedom of the
Press, which interprets the PostScript output of Mac programs,
would be somehow useful in this regard.
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drz@po.CWRU.Edu (David R. Zinkin) (04/06/91)

The Now Utilities Screen Previewer can't normally preview PostScript,
it's true.  But if you have Freedom of Press (either the Regular or
Light version) and the Previewer, you can specify the Print Previewer
as the "output device" in Freedom of Press, and FOP will "print"
to the screen.

A member of our user group (CWRU MacMUG) asked me about PS previewing,
so I suggested this, and it's been working great!

 -- Dave

-- 
David Zinkin (drz@po.cwru.edu)           *  I hear, and I forget.
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