NAME

  a2ping.pl  --  convert  between  PS,  EPS  and PDF and other page description
  formats

SYNOPSIS

   a2ping.pl [--]help
   a2ping.pl [--]doc
   a2ping.pl [options] <inputfile> [[outformat:] outputfile]

DESCRIPTION

  a2ping is a UNIX command line utility written  in  Perl  that  converts  many
  raster  image  and  vector  graphics  formats  to  EPS  or PDF and other page
  description formats. Accepted input file formats are: PS  (PostScript),  EPS,
  PDF,  PNG,  JPEG,  TIFF,  PNM,  BMP, GIF, LBM, XPM, PCX, TGA. Accepted output
  formats are: EPS, PCL5, PDF, PDF1, PBM, PGM, PPM,  PS,  markedEPS,  markedPS,
  PNG,  XWD, BMP, TIFF, JPEG, GIF, XPM.  a2ping delegates the low-level work to
  Ghostscript (GS), pdftops and sam2p. a2ping fixes many  glitches  during  the
  EPS  to  EPS  conversion,  so  its output is often more compatible and better
  embeddable than its input.

  Without  the  "--below"  option,  it  is  guarenteed  to  start  at  the  0,0
  coordinate. "--below", "--hires" and "-v" are recommended options.

  The  page  size  is set exactly corresponding to the BoundingBox.  This means
  that when Ghostscript renders it, the result needs no cropping, and  the  PDF
  MediaBox is correct.

  If  the  bounding box is not right, of course, you have problems. If you feed
  crap in, you get crap. But you can supply the --bboxfrom=compute-gs option to
  make GS recompute the bounding box.

  The  name  of the input file doesn't matter -- a2ping detects the file format
  based on the first few bytes of the file. The name of the output file matters
  if  outformat  is  missing  from  the command line: then the extension of the
  output file determines the FileFormat (outformat).

EXTERNAL PROGRAMS

  The internal file format of a2ping.pl is PS/EPS.  Everything  read  is  first
  converted  to  PS  or EPS, then processed by a2ping.pl, then converted to the
  output format.

  To analyse the bounding box and other properties of non-EPS PS files (and EPS
  files with option --bboxfrom other than =guess), GS is used. Converting PS to
  EPS involves this analysis.

  To write PDF files, GS is used.

  To read PDF files, pdftops from the xpdf package is used.

  Sampled input formats are PNG, JPEG, TIFF, PNM, BMP, GIF, LBM, XPM,  PCX  and
  TGA.  To  read  sampled input formats, sam2p is used. sam2p is a raster image
  converter written in C++ by the author of a2ping.pl.

  Extra output formats are PNG, XWD, BMP, TIFF, JPEG, GIF  and  XPM.  To  write
  extra output formats, sam2p and GS are used.

  PNM  output  formats are PGM, PGM and PPM. To write PNM output formats, GS is
  used.

OPTIONS

   General Options
  -h, --help
    Show a summary of the usage

  --doc
    Show the man page

  -v, --(no)verbose
    Show progress and debug messages (default: no)

   Options for the Bounding box
  --(no)hires
    Use HiResBoundingBox in the input file, if present (default: yes)

  --(no)exact
    Use ExactBoundingBox in the input file, if present (default: no)

  --(no)keepoldmediabox
    keep only old, [0 0]-based MediaBox in PDF (default: no)

  --bboxfrom=adsc|compute-gs|guess|pagesize
    Method for determining the BoundingBox  (default: guess)

  --(no)below
    Allow page content below and left of the origin (default: no)

   Options for graphics and fonts
  --(no)compress
    use compression                   (default: best)

  --(no)antialias
    render  shades  at  outlines.   Possible  values:  (=scale3yes  =no   =yes)
    (default: scale3no)

  --(no)lossy
    allow lossy image filters (EPS->PDF) (default: yes)

  --papersize=unchanged|force-unknown|600bpx5cm
    (default: default) (bp)

  --threshold=
    min color for 1 in 8->1 bit conv  (default: 128)

   Options for debugging and changing internals
  --(no)tmpunlink
    Unlink  temporary  files (default: yes).  Use --notmpunklink if you want to
    inspect intermediate files.

  --gs-cmd=path
    path to Ghostscript program (default: gs or gswin32c)

  --gs-ccmd=path
    path to Ghostscript for BoundingBox calculation (default: gs or gswin32c)

  --gsextra=GS_ARGS
    Pass extra arguments to gs

  --extra=
    Pass extra arguments to external program (i.e pdftops)

TIPS AND TRICKS

  • If your EPS contains a wrong bounding  box,  you  can  fix  it  by  running
    "a2ping.pl -v --bboxfrom=compute-gs thefile.eps --"

  • You  can  specify  -  as  inputfile  to  get stdin and as outputfile to get
    stdout. This works even for PDF files (which  must  be  seekable),  because
    a2ping copies them to a temporary file automatically.

  • If  inputfile and outputfile are the same, a2ping copies the inputfile to a
    temporary location first. However, this usage is recommended only if  there
    is  a  backup of the file to be restored in case a2ping doesn't produce the
    desired result.

  • If you specify -- as outputfile, it will be the same as inputfile.

  • a2ping respects --Duplex for FileFormat PCL5, even though GS doesn't.

  • If you have an incompatible PS that GS can read  but  your  printer  cannot
    print, just run "a2ping.pl foo.ps PDF: - | a2ping.pl - PS: foo.ps"

  • If  you  have  a PS coming from Win32 (often with extension ".prn"), run it
    through a2ping. It will remove the resolution changes and the progress text
    printed to the terminal (which confuses gv(1) and makes some filters in the
    print queue emit incorrect output).

  • a2ping does antialiasing (--antialias=scale3no) of glyphs and  curves  when
    emitting  a sampled image (FileFormats such as PGM and PPM).  This improves
    readability of the glyphs. =yes instructs GS to do  internal  antialiasing,
    but  it  usually  doesn't  improve  much.  =scale3no  turns off GS internal
    antialiasing, but makes it render everything 3x3 as big, and then scales it
    back   down.   =scale3no   turns  on  both  3x3  scaling  and  GS  internal
    antialiasing, which results in thicker lines and worse quality in general.

  • When creating a PBM file, antialiasing usually doesn't improve the quality,
    so  it  is  switched off by default. But if you set --antialias=scale3no or
    --antialias=scale3yes, GS  will  render  a  PGM  file,  and  the  value  of
    --threshold determines the minimum intensity for white in the final PBM.

  • If  you  need  a bigger sampled output file, specify a larger --Resolution.
    The default is --Resolution=72. If your sampled output file is going to  be
    really  big,  you  should  specify  --AntiAlias=yes  instead of the default
    --AntiAlias=scale3no to speed up conversion.

  • To make sure fonts are included in a  PDF  file  generated  from  eps,  use
    --gsextra='-dEmbedAllFonts=true -dPDFSETTINGS=/printer'.

MISC

  • Doesn't depend on the filename or extension of the input file.

  • Conversion from EPS to PDF: fixes glitches etc., calls gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite

  • Conversion  from  EPS  to  EPS:  fixes various glitches, moves (llx,lly) to
    (0,0), removes binary junk from the beginning of the EPS etc.

  • Conversion from PDF to PDF: keeps the file intact

  • Conversion from PDF to EPS: calls pdftops -eps (of the xpdf package)

  • Conversion from PS to EPS: keeps 1st page only, removes setpagedevice etc.

AUTHORS

  The author of a2ping is Peter Szabo <pts@fazekas.hu>.

  a2ping is inspired by and historically based  on  the  epstopdf  Perl  script
  modified by Thomas Esser, Sept. 1998, but his modifications have been removed
  from a2ping, and also a2ping and epstopdf do not share common  code  anymore.
  epstopdf  is  written  by  Sebastian  Rahtz,  for  Elsevier Science. epstopdf
  contained extra tricks from Hans Hagen's texutil.

  a2ping contains contributions from several people, see the  file  HISTORY.txt
  for details. Thank you all for contributing!