Fixing PostScript Problems
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## Fixing PostScript Problems

This section teaches you how to recognize and fix problems in your PostScript files. Read about

- “Recognizing Unstructured PostScript.”

- “Correcting Unstructured PostScript.”

| Note: If you open a document and ShowPS replaces the text with single letters (for example, all T's and H's), then your document contains Type 3 fonts which ShowPS does not recognize. To fix this problem, use the `filterps.fixT3` utility. See “Correcting Unstructured PostScript” for details. The `filterps.fixT3` utility will fix this Type 3 font problem in both structured and unstructured documents.

### Recognizing Unstructured PostScript

Adobe ShowPS allows you to preview structured and unstructured documents.

- A structured PostScript language document contains Document Structuring Convention (DSC) comments. ShowPS needs this information to let you go to individual pages, and print or add bookmarks to those pages.

- An unstructured PostScript document lacks the information needed to recognize individual pages. You can use a filter program to correct this problem.

#### Checking Your Document

To determine whether your document is structured or unstructured:

1. Open the file in ShowPS.

2. Make sure “Ignore Comments” is not checked in the Options menu. If it is selected (has a red checkmark), click on “Ignore Comments” to deselect it (the red checkmark disappears), and choose “Reopen” from the File menu.

3. Look at the Page box, underneath the File menu item.

   - If the Page box appears with page x of y (where x and y are page numbers), then your document is structured. You can mark pages for viewing and printing, and go to specific pages.

     Figure 3. Page Numbers in a Structured Document

   - If the Page box appears with page x only, then your document is unstructured. You will need to apply a filter to your file if you'd like to mark pages for viewing and printing, and to go to specific pages. See “Correcting Unstructured PostScript.”

     Figure 4. Page Numbers in an Unstructured Document

#### Looking for Other Differences

- When you view a structured document, you can page forward and backward and select individual pages.

- When you view an unstructured document, you can only page forward and return to the first page.

- ShowPS displays a trailing blank page at the end of each unstructured document.

### Correcting Unstructured PostScript

The `filterps` utility corrects the incorrect structure of some documents. For details on checking your PostScript document's structure, see “Recognizing Unstructured PostScript.”

Run `filterps` from the command line, giving the input filename and, optionally, the output filename as arguments:

    filterps oldfile [newfile]

- If you issue the command with the input filename only, `filterps` replaces oldfile with newfile.

- If you specify newfile as an argument, `filterps` converts oldfile and writes to newfile. The original file remains intact.

| Note: To fix a Type 3 font problem in your document (your document appears with single letters instead of readable text), use `filterps.fixT3` instead of `filterps`.

The filterps program goes through the following steps:

1. It determines the application that generated the file, and checks whether a conversion routine exists for files generated by that application.

2. If no conversion routine exists, it prints a message to the terminal window.

3. If a conversion routine exists, it prints information about the conversion that is taking place to the terminal window, converts the file to a valid PostScript language file, and writes the corrected file.

You can invoke `filterps` with the `-help` option to get a summary of the command line syntax and a listing of available filters.

    filterps -help

The `filterps` utility can currently filter documents generated by the following programs:

- FrameMaker™ publishing software from Frame Technology Corporation, version 2.0 and 3.0.

- Asterix™, a collection of document creation applications from Applix™, Inc.

- `ditroff` (device independent troff), a troff-like utility that is sold and licensed by AT&T Information Systems, either alone or in the Documenter's Workbench package.

- `dvi2ps`, a utility that converts TeX™ documents into PostScript language documents.

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