Provided by: epstool_3.09-2_amd64 
NAME
epstool - Edit preview images and fix bounding boxes in EPS files.
SYNOPSIS
epstool command [ options ] inputfile outputfile
DESCRIPTION
epstool is a utility to create or extract preview images in EPS files. It can also calculate optimal
bounding boxes.
EPS (Encapsulated PostScript Format)
EPS is a specialised form of a PostScript file that complies with the Document Structuring Conventions
(DSC) and is intended to be embedded inside another PostScript file. An EPS file must contain a special
first line that identifies it as an EPS file (e.g. %!PS-Adobe-3.0 EPSF-3.0) and it must contain a
%%BoundingBox: line. The EPS file only draws within the rectangle defined by the bounding box. The
PostScript code must avoid using PostScript operators that would interfere with the embedding. These
include operators with global effects such as changing the page size and changing the half tone screen.
PREVIEWS
EPS files may contain a preview to be used by programs that can't interpret the PostScript code. There
are three ways to add a preview to an EPS file.
Interchange
This preview is included within PostScript comments in a section marked %%BeginPreview: /
%%EndPreview. The actual image data is stored in hexadecimal format. This format is most commonly
used on Unix.
DOS EPS
The preview is a TIFF or Windows Metafile. A DOS EPS file has a 30 byte binary header which gives
offsets and lengths for the PostScript, TIFF and Windows Metafile sections. You can't send a DOS
EPS file directly to a printer - you have to remove the binary header and preview first. This
format is most commonly used on MS-Windows.
PICT The preview is in PICT format stored in the resource fork of the file. This format is most
commonly used on the Macinstosh. Epstool provides limited support for this format.
COMMANDS (one only):
-t4, --add-tiff4-preview
Add a TIFF 4 preview. The preview is monochrome and is intended for use with old programs that
won't read TIFF6, such as Word Perfect 5.1 for DOS.
-t6u, --add-tiff6u-preview
Add a TIFF 6 uncompressed preview. See --add-tiff6p-preview for how to add a greyscale or
monochrome preview.
-t6p, --add-tiff6p-preview
Add a TIFF 6 preview compressed with packbits (simple run length encoding). The preview will
normally be full colour, but you can make it greyscale by adding the option --device bmpgray or
--device pgmraw, or monochrome using --device bmpmono or --device pbmraw.
-tg, --add-tiff-preview
Add a TIFF preview using ghostscript to generate the TIFF file. You must specify a suitable TIFF
device using --device. If you want a compressed monochrome image, you might use --device tiffg3.
-i, --add-interchange-preview
Add a monochrome interchange preview.
-w, --add-metafile-preview
Add a Windows Metafile (WMF) preview. The metafile will contain a bitmap, not vector information.
The preview will normally be full colour. See --add-tiff6p-preview for how to add a greyscale or
monochrome preview.
--add-pict-preview
Add a Mac PICT preview. EPSF files with PICT previews can generally be used only on Mac
computers. The preview will be full colour. The AppleSingle and MacBinary formats will contain
the EPSF and the preview. The AppleDouble or Resource format will contain the preview only and
needs to accompany the original EPSF file. To specify the file format use --mac-single,
--mac-double, --mac-binary or --mac-rsrc.
--add-user-preview filename
Add a user supplied image as a preview. The image can be a Windows bitmap, a PBMPLUS file, a TIFF
image or a Windows Metafile. Window bitmaps and PBMPLUS files will be converted to TIFF6
compressed with packbits. TIFF and Windows Metafile images will be added unchanged.
--bitmap
Create a bitmap of the area within the EPS bounding box. The bitmap type must be specified with
--device. If processing a DCS 2.0 file, the separation can be specified with --page-number.
--copy Copy the EPS file. This is generally used with the --bbox option to update the bounding box.
--dcs2-multi
Convert DCS 2.0 separations to multiple files. See DCS 2.0. If the output name is out.eps, then
the separations would be named out.eps.Cyan etc.
--dcs2-single
Convert DCS 2.0 separations to a single file. See DCS 2.0.
--dcs2-report
Write the separation names, lengths and CMYK values to standard output. This can be used to
identify if a DCS 2.0 file is missing the composite page or preview.
--dump Display some information about the file type and DSC comments.
-p, --extract-postscript
Extract the PostScript section from a DOS EPS file.
-v, --extract-preview
Extract the preview section from a DOS EPS file.
-h, --help
Display a summary of the epstool commands and options.
--test-eps
Partially test if a file complies with the EPSF specification.
OPTIONS
-b, --bbox
Calculate the bounding box using the ghostscript bbox device and update in the EPS file.
--combine-separations filename
Combine the separations of the input DCS 2.0 file with those of this file. It is an error if the
bounding boxes do not match or they contain separations with the same name. This option must be
used with --dcs2-multi or --dcs2-single. The composite page may later need to be updated with
--replace-composite.
--combine-tolerance pts
When using --combine-separations, allow the bounding boxes to vary by up to pts points. The
default is 0 so the bounding boxes must match exactly.
--custom-colours filename
When using --replace-composite on a DCS 2.0 file, use the colours specified in this file in
preference to those specified in the composite page.
-d, --debug
Be more verbose about progress. Do not remove temporary files.
--device name
Specify a ghostscript device to be used when creating the preview or bitmap. For
--add-tiff-preview this must be one of the ghostscript tiff devices (e.g. tiffg3, tiff24nc). For
any other preview, it must be one of the bmp or pbmplus devices (e.g. bmpgray, bmp16m, pgmraw,
ppmraw). For bitmap output (--bitmap) it can be any ghostscript bitmap device.
--doseps-reverse
When writing a DOS EPS file (TIFF or WMF preview), the default is to write the PostScript before
the preview. Using --doseps-reverse puts the preview before the PostScript section, which is
required by some buggy programs. Either order is correct.
--dpi resolution
Set the resolution of the preview or bitmap. The default is 72 dpi.
--dpi-render resolution
Render at a higher resolution set by --dpi-render , then downsample to the resolution set by
--dpi. This works when adding a preview image or using --replace-composite , but not when using
--bitmap. This improves the preview quality when the original contains a pre-rendered image and
--dpi-render is set to match the original target printer.
--ignore-information
Ignore information messages from the DSC parser. Use at your own risk. These messages usually
indicate that something is wrong with an EPS file, but that most EPS handlers probably won't care.
An example is a line with more than 255 characters.
--ignore-warnings
Ignore warnings from the DSC parser. Use at your own risk. These messages are usually about
faults in the DSC comments that are recoverable by epstool, but may confuse other EPS handlers.
An example is a bounding box that incorrectly uses floating point numbers instead of integer.
--ignore-errors
Ignore warnings from the DSC parser. Use at your own risk. You really should fix the EPS file
first.
--gs command
Specify the name the ghostscript program. On Unix the default is gs. On Windows, epstool will
check the registry for installed versions of ghostscript and use the latest, otherwise it will use
gswin32c.exe.
--gs-args arguments
Specify additional Ghostscript arguments. This might be used to select anti-aliasing with
"-dTextAlphaBits=4 -dGraphicsAlphaBits=4"
--output filename
Specify the output file (instead of using the second file parameter). Using the filename - causes
epstool to write to standard output, which requires the use of --quiet.
--mac-binary
When adding a PICT preview, use the MacBinary I format. for the Mac
--mac-double
When adding a PICT preview, use the AppleDouble format for the Mac.
--mac-rsrc
When adding a PICT preview, use the Resource format for the Mac.
--mac-single
When adding a PICT preview, use the AppleSingle format for the Mac.
--missing-separations
When writing a DCS 2.0 file, epstool will normally fail if a separation is missing. When this
option is used, it will remove references to missing separations when writing the file.
--page-number page
When creating a bitmap with --device from a DCS 2.0 file, page specifies the separation to be
used. Page 1 is the composite and page 2 is the first separation. Use --dcs2-report to get the
list of separations.
--quiet
Try to run without writing to standard output.
--rename-separation oldname newname
When copying a DCS 2.0 file with --dcs2-multi or --dcs2-single, rename separation with oldname to
newname. This option implies --missing-separations. It is assumed that the new name is just an
alias for the same colour and that the CMYK or RGB values for the separation are not changed.
This option may be used multiple times. This must be used if the input file incorrectly has two
separations of the same name.
--replace-composite
Some DCS 2.0 files do not have an image in the composite page. This option replaces the composite
page with a CMYK image derived from the separations. This option must be used with --dcs2-multi or
--dcs2-single. See also the options --dpi and --custom-colours.
MACINTOSH
The Macintosh does not use a flat file system. Each file can have a data fork and a resource fork. EPSF
files have the PostScript in the data fork, and optionally have a preview in the resource fork as a PICT
image. In addition, file type is obtained from the finder info rather than a file extension. File types
use a four character code such as "EPSF" or "PICT". When Macintosh files are copied to a foreign file
system, the resource fork may be left behind. Alternatives to retain the resource fork are to package
the finder data, data fork and resource fork in a single MacBinary or AppleSingle file, or to put the
data fork in a flat file and the finder info and resource fork in an AppleDouble file. The Mac OSX
finder will handle AppleDouble files automatically when copying files to and from a foreign file system.
When copying test.eps to a foreign file system, the data fork would be written as test.eps and the finder
info and resource fork to the AppleDouble file ._test.eps or .AppleDouble/test.eps.
Epstool can read MacBinary and AppleSingle files. It can write MacBinary I, AppleSingle, AppleDouble or
Resource files. Files written by epstool will have type EPSF and creator MSWD. When adding a preview to
test.eps, it is suggested that you create the MacBinary file test.eps.bin. On a Macintosh computer you
then need to extract it with StuffIt Expander. Another alternative is to write the AppleDouble file to
._test.eps then copy both files to a file system accessible to a Mac computer.
If the output file name starts with . then AppleDouble will be assumed, otherwise if it ends with .as
then AppleSingle will be assumed, otherwise if it ends with .rsrc or /rsrc then Resource will be assumed,
otherwise MacBinary will be assumed. When writing a MacBinary file, it is recommended that you end the
filename in .bin. To force the file type, use --mac-single, --mac-double, --mac-binary or --mac-rsrc.
On Mac OS X you can access a file's resource fork from command line tools by appending /rsrc to the
original file name. The easiest way to add a preview to the file test.eps on Mac OS X is to let epstool
write in --mac-rsrc format to test.eps/rsrc (see Examples).
DESKTOP COLOR SEPARATIONS (DCS 2.0)
The Desktop Color Separation (DCS) image file format contains a low resolution preview, a main file with
the full resolution composite image, and colour separations with full resolution separated plates. The
separations will typically contain Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black and possibly spot colours. There are two
versions of DCS 2.0.
Multiple File
The main file contains %%PlateFile: (name) EPS Local filename comments which give the filenames of
the separation plates. The main file may contain a low resolution DOS EPS preview. The
separation files do not contain previews.
Single File
This is an abuse of the EPS specification. The single file contains the main file and the
separations concatenated together, which makes the DSC comments incorrect. The main file
specifies the byte offsets to the separations using %%PlateFile: (name) EPS #offset size. The
single file may then be placed inside a DOS EPS file with a low resolution preview. By default,
epstool writes single file DCS 2.0.
Epstool can add previews to single and multiple file DCS 2.0. It can split single file DCS 2.0 into
multiple files and vice versa. This allows a single file DCS 2.0 to be split, the composite image
replaced, a new preview created, and then be recombined into a single file.
Some DCS 2.0 files do not have an image in the composite page. To determine if the composite page does
not contain an image, use --dcs2-report and look to see if the composite section is very short. Using
--dcs2-single --replace-composite replaces the composite page with the headers of the original composite
page and a body containing a CMYK image derived from the separations. Set the resolution of the CMYK
image using --dpi.
When replacing the composite page with a CMYK image using --replace-composite, the --custom-colours
option is useful for dealing with DCS 2.0 files that have incorrect CMYK colours, for example specifying
that the varnish layer is grey. Each line of the CMYK colours file is formatted like a DSC
%%CMYKCustomColor: or %%RGBCustomColor: line, as shown in the example below.
%%CMYKCustomColor: 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 Varnish
%%CMYKCustomColor: 1.00 0.68 0.00 0.12 (Dark Blue)
%%RGBCustomColor: 0.5 0.0 0.0 (Dark Red)
DCS2 files should not have two separations with the same name. Epstool will not allow a DCS2 output file
to have duplicate separation names. Use --rename-separation to resolve this.
EXAMPLES
Add colour preview (24bit/pixel) to EPS file
epstool -t6p tiger.eps output.eps
Add TIFF (G3 Fax) preview to tiger.eps.
epstool --add-tiff-preview --device tiffg3 tiger.eps output.eps
Any GS TIFF device can be used, e.g. tiffg4, tiffpack
Extract TIFF preview from tiger.eps
epstool -v tiger.eps tiger.tif
Fix incorrect %%BoundingBox then add TIFF4 preview.
epstool --bbox -t4 golfer.eps output.eps
Adjust the BoundingBox of an existing EPS file, but don't add a preview:
epstool --copy --bbox input.eps output.eps
Add user supplied Windows Metafile to EPS file.
epstool --add-user-preview logo.wmf logo.eps output.eps
Typically used when an application can export EPS and WMF separately but can't export EPS with WMF
preview.
Add a PICT preview and write an AppleDouble file.
epstool --add-pict-preview --mac-double tiger.eps ._tiger.eps
To be used by a Mac, both tiger.eps and ._tiger.eps need to be on a foreign file system accessible to the
Mac.
Add a PICT preview, overwriting the existing resources.
epstool --add-pict-preview --mac-rsrc tiger.eps tiger.eps/rsrc
On Mac OS X you can access a file's resource fork from command line tools by appending "/rsrc" to the
file's original name.
NOTES
When adding a WMF preview to an EPS file using -add-user-preview filename, the placeable metafile header
is removed from the metafile as it is put into the EPS file. When extracting a WMF preview from an EPS
file, a placeable metafile header is created from the EPS BoundingBox information. This placeable
metafile header assumes that the WMF has its origin at (0,0), which might not be correct.
When epstool is creating a TIFF or WMF preview, it will convert palette colour images into 24-bit/pixel.
The environment variable TEMP should point to a writeable directory for temporary files. If not defined,
/tmp will be used for Unix and the current directory will be used for other platforms.
AUTHOR
epstool was written by Russell Lang <gsview@ghostgum.com.au>
This man page was contributed by Martin Pitt <martin@piware.de> for the Debian GNU/Linux system (but may
be used by others).