Ubuntu Manpage: purifyeps - make an Encapsulated PostScript file work with both dvips and pdflatex

NAME

       purifyeps - make an Encapsulated PostScript file work with both dvips and pdflatex

SYNOPSIS

       purifyeps --help

       purifyeps --version

       purifyeps [--fontmap=.fmp file] [.eps input file [.eps output file]]

       purifyeps --make-man[=filename] [--section=section]

       purifyeps --make-ps-man[=filename] [--section=section]

DESCRIPTION

While pdflatex has a number of nice features, its primary shortcoming relative to standard
latex+dvips is that it is unable to read ordinary Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) files, the
most common graphics format in the LaTeX world. pdflatex can read only the following
types of graphics files:

PDF Most people who use pdflatex convert their documents to PDF using a utility such as
epstopdf. This works well and preserves the vector nature of the original EPS.
Unfortunately, dvips does not read PDF, so two versions of the graphic must be
maintained if the document is to be processed with both latex+dvips and pdflatex.

PNG PNG is a bitmap format and therefore scales poorly. Also, dvips does not read PNG, so
two versions of the graphic must be maintained if the document is to be processed with
both latex+dvips and pdflatex.

JPEG
JPEG is a bitmap format and therefore scales poorly. Also, dvips does not read JPEG,
so two versions of the graphic must be maintained if the document is to be processed
with both latex+dvips and pdflatex.

MPS This is probably the least-used pdflatex-compatible graphics format. MPS is actually
a stylized version of EPS that MetaPost outputs. Like PDF, MPS is a vector format and
remains as such when imported into a pdflatex document. Also like PDF, dvips does not
read MPS, so two versions of the graphic must be maintained if the document is to be
processed with both latex+dvips and pdflatex.

The insight behind purifyeps is that there are only a few, small differences between MPS
and EPS and that a file can be converted into a format that matches both the MPS and EPS
specifications simultaneously. purifyeps inputs an EPS file, uses pstoedit's "mpost"
filter to convert the file to MetaPost (.mp), runs mpost on the file to convert it to MPS,
and finally performs some touchups on the result to convert the file back to EPS, while
preserving its ability to be parsed by pdflatex.

OPTIONS

       --help
           Display "Usage" and "Options" from the purifyeps documentation.

       -V, --version
           Display the purifyeps version number, copyright, and license.

       --fontmap=.fmp file
           Specify the name of a file that tells purifyeps how to map from TeX font names to
           PostScript font names.  [Default: mpost.fmp]

       --make-man [=filename]] [--section=section]
           Automatically create a Unix man page for purifyeps.  section specifies the section
           [default: 1 (User Commands)].  filename defaults to purifyeps.1 or an analogous
           filename if section is specified.

       --make-ps-man [=filename]] [--section=section]
           Automatically create a PostScript version of the purifyeps documentation.  The
           documentation is formatted like a Unix man page.  section specifies the section
           [default: 1 (User Commands)].  filename defaults to purifyeps.ps.

       In normal operation (i.e., when not run with "--help", "--make-man", or "--make-ps-man"),
       purifyeps takes the name of an input file and output file.  The same filename can safely
       be used for both files.  If the output filename is omitted, output will go to the standard
       output device.  If the input filename is omitted, purifyeps will read from the standard
       input device.

EXAMPLES

       Create a PostScript version of the purifyeps documentation, but call it happydoc.ps
       instead of the default, purifyeps.ps:

           purifyeps --make-ps-man=happydoc.ps

       Create a Unix man page for purifyeps (in the usual roff format), but indicate that it
       belongs in section "LOCAL" instead of the default of section 1:

           purifyeps --make-man --section=LOCAL

       Purify sample.eps (mpost.fmp is in the current directory):

           purifyeps sample.eps sample.eps

       Purify sample.eps (mpost.fmp is in a different location):

           purifyeps --fontmap=/usr/share/pstoedit/mpost.fmp sample.eps sample.eps

       Rename the purified version while purifying:

           purifyeps sample.eps sample-pure.eps

       Do the same, but in a Unix pipeline:

           cat sample.eps | purifyeps > sample-pure.eps

       When you run purifyeps, you should see the output from both pstoedit and mpost, followed
       by a success message from purifyeps:

           % cat sample.eps | purifyeps > sample-pure.eps
           pstoedit: version 3.30 / DLL interface 107 (build Mar 14 2002) :
           Copyright (C) 1993 - 2001 Wolfgang Glunz
           Interpreter finished. Return status 0
           This is MetaPost, Version 0.641 (Web2C 7.3.1)
           (/tmp/purifyeps-jdeGPkh9.mp [1] )
           1 output file written: purifyeps-jdeGPkh9.1
           Transcript written on purifyeps-jdeGPkh9.log.

           File seems to have been purified successfully.

FILES

       mpost.fmp
           File containing mappings between TeX and PostScript font names.  See "NOTES" for a
           description of this file's contents.

BUGS

       Error reporting could definitely stand to be improved.  Error messages produced by
       pstoedit and mpost are sometimes silently ignored.  Also, errors sometimes cause purifyeps
       to leave temporary files (purifyeps-#####) lying around.

       purifyeps is subject to all of the limitations that affect pstoedit and especially the
       "mpost" backend to pstoedit.  As a result, purifyeps ignores certain PostScript
       constructs, such as nonuniformly scaled text.

NOTES

purifyeps needs a file that tells it how to map from TeX font names to PostScript font
names. This file must contain two, space-separated columns. The first lists a PostScript
font name, and the second lists the TeX equivalent. Blank lines and lines that start with
"%" are ignored. The following is a sample .fmp file:

% This is a sample font map for purifyeps.
Times-Bold ptmb
Times-Italic ptmri
Times-Roman ptmr
Helvetica phvr
Helvetica-Bold phvb
Helvetica-Oblique phvro
Courier pcrr
Courier-Bold pcrb
Courier-Oblique pcrro

Note that this is exactly the same format that pstoedit uses. By default, purifyeps looks
in the current directory for a font map called mpost.fmp. The "--fontmap" command-line
option tells purifyeps to use a different font map, which will typically be the mpost.fmp
file that comes with pstoedit.

Once you create purified EPS files with purifyeps, you need to instruct pdflatex to use
them. The pdfLaTeX configuration of the "graphics" and "graphicx" packages (pdftex.def)
normally ignores .eps files. Putting the following LaTeX code in your document's preamble
tells pdflatex that all .eps files are in MPS format:

% Tell pdfLaTeX that all .eps files were produced by MetaPost.
\usepackage{graphicx} % or graphics
\usepackage{ifpdf}
\ifpdf
\DeclareGraphicsRule{.eps}{mps}{*}{}
\makeatletter
\g@addto@macro\Gin@extensions{,.eps}
\makeatother
\fi

AUTHOR

       Scott Pakin, scott+peps@pakin.org