EPS and PostScript Files

EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) is the older way of passing artwork and dielines between programs; a PostScript file is a page ready for a printer or RIP. Import either with File › Import › Import… (files ending .eps, .ps, .epsf or .epsi), and save them with File › Export › Export…, choosing EPS Files or PostScript Files.

Import

ParametrIQ CAD runs the PostScript program, as a printer would, and keeps what it draws: lines, curves, text and images, with their spot colours, layers and stroke widths. EPS files with a preview picture at the front (from Windows programs) are read too, as are EPS files saved by Illustrator 3 to 8. Of a PostScript file with several pages, the first is read, unless you choose another with Page in the import options; the other import options are those for PDF.

Each line goes on a layer by its spot colour, its layer or its colour, exactly as for PDF.

Clipping paths (clip, eoclip, rectclip, undone by grestore and initclip) are applied as they are for PDF: what they hide is cut away.

Export

Both are written the same way as a PDF:

• Die-making layers are spot colours named after the layer, with the comments separation software needs, so the dieline prints on a plate of its own (unless Dielines as spot colours is off). Other layers are written in their print colours.
• Layers are marked so that Acrobat Distiller turns them into PDF layers.
• Line widths are kept; lines without one are 0.5 pt.
• Text is written in the standard fonts, with accented letters, or as outlines with Text as outlines.
• Images are embedded.
• Magnifiers: what a magnifier's callout shows is cut to the callout with a clipping path.

The difference is what the file is for:

• EPS is a graphic to place in another document: it has a bounding box (the drawing and its margin, 18 pt unless you give another) and no page set-up.
• PostScript is a page to print: the page is the size of the drawing, or the page size you choose in the export options (see File Formats).