fighting pstoedit
I wanted to convert text to curves in PostScript. The well-known tool to do it is pstoedit (alternatives are welcome). Unfortunately, it worked only partially.
This works:
$ pstoedit -f ps -dt test.eps flattened.ps
But this doesn't (I want 600 DPI, not the default 72 DPI):
$ pstoedit -f ps -dt -psarg "-r600x600" test.eps flattened.ps
Well, actually it works, but PostScript tools reject the file "flattened.ps":
Error: /typecheck in --restore--
Operand stack:
--nostringval-- 0 0 0 0 0
Execution stack:
%interp_exit .runexec2 --nostringval-- --nostringval--
--nostringval-- 2 %stopped_push --nostringval-- --no
stringval-- --nostringval-- false 1 %stopped_push
1889 1 3 %oparray_pop 1888 1 3 %oparray_pop
1872 1 3 %oparray_pop 1755 1 3 %oparray_pop
--nostringval-- %errorexec_pop .runexec2 --nostringval
-- --nostringval-- --nostringval-- 2 %stopped_push
--nostringval-- 1818 5 3 %oparray_pop --nostringva
l-- 1802 5 3 %oparray_pop --nostringval--
Dictionary stack:
--dict:1149/1684(ro)(G)-- --dict:0/20(G)-- --dict:78/200(L)--
Current allocation mode is local
GPL Ghostscript 8.62: Unrecoverable error, exit code 1
I tried a lot of approaches and tools. The best seems: filter the generated PostScript through the tool eps2eps three (!) times. Unfortunately, Adobe Illustrator ignores the bounding box of such EPS-files. Therefore, it's not a solution for me.
The final solution is a dirty hack:
* Download pstoedit source code.
* In the file "src/pstoedit.ph" change all "72" (except "72 pscover") to "600" (or any other desired DPI).
* Compile as usual.
* Use the custom version.
25 Sep 2009, update
On a older PC with an older "gs" (for example, 7.07.1), one has also to update and use "gs":
$ GS=.../ghostscript-8.63/opt/bin/gs .../pstoedit-3.45/opt/bin/pstoedit -f ps -dt input.eps outlined.eps