Re: The Age-Old Illustrator-to-Frame Question (and Gripe)

["Thomas Michanek" <thomas.michanek@xxxxxxxxx>]

From: "Dov Isaacs" <isaacs@Adobe.COM>
> With regards to the "preview" of EPS ... that is a known limitation of
> virtually every publishing program around except InDesign. In order
> to fully and properly display the contents of an EPS file, the importing
> program must have a full PostScript 3 interpreter available within the
> program to parse and interpret what is in effect any general PostScript
> that could be in the imported EPS file.

Well... there's another way to solve it: Display PostScript (made by Adobe).
I know it's not developed further anymore, but it is a very nice solution.
I have DPS built into my SUN workstation, and I can see all EPS graphics
directly on-screen, without the need for a preview image (perhaps for the
exception of advanced Level 3 EPS graphics).
It's quite sensible actually: why require that every program would have
to include a PS interpreter, when the display software can do it for all
applications?

> EPS previews in most programs are considered to be FPO (for positioning
only).

The problem with this statement is that it's not made by the users...
In fact, quite a number of users today expect or require high-quality
vector graphics that they can see and annotate on-screen.
Why isn't it possible for Illustrator to include a higher-resolution
TIFF preview, or a WMF preview? AFAIK, there are no limitations in
the EPS preview format that would make this impossible. Of course,
the import filter for EPS in FM would have to be improved.

I understand all the technical background and reasoning behind the
current situation of AI, PDF and EPS files, but isn't time to start
making changes to support the requirements of today, instead of
forcing users to accept old, sub-standard implementations?


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Thomas Michanek, FrameMaker/UNIX/MIF expert
Technical Writer, Uppsala, Sweden
mailto:Thomas.Michanek@telia.com
http://go.to/framers/
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