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Basic

§ 9.C:  Printing PostScript Documents

PostScript files are text files containing programs written in the PostScript language. That langauage tells those printers able to understand it exactly how to draw a page with typsetting quality. PostScript files are often produced as output from programs such as xmgr, Netscape, Maple, and LaTex.

It is customary, and advised, to use the .ps extenders for PostScript files.

We will use the command multips to generate a PostScript file. This command puts multiple pages of text or PostScript format onto one page. (The enscript command discussed in the last section put multiple text pages onto one physical page.) The number of rows and columns of logical pages placed on a single physical page is controlled by the row and column options -r and -c. The default is two rows and two columns:

You type multips followed by the names of all the files you want printed, in this case the two files sample.doc and plotoutfile.ps. The output pages start at the right column, go down, and continue, column by column, to the left. The redirection symbol > places the output in the indicated file, out.ps.

Now that we have a PostScript file, let's look at it:

Notice that the file starts with the phrase %!PS-Adobe-1.0. This tells the printer this is a PostScript document. Notice too that the document is really long; the printer is being told how to draw and place every curve and every symbol on the page. If you send this document to a printer or printer queue meant for text (a line printer), you will get pages and pages of these PostScript commands as output. Too much paper has passed through text printers in this way.

To see what a PostScript file (graphics and all) will really look like, without wasting yet more paper, use the ghostview previewer: