pstoedit

pstoedit is an open source and free software project that allows Linux users to convert PostScript (PS) and Portable Document Format (PDF) documents that contain text or graphics into numerous other vector/graphics file formats. It runs entirely from the command-line interface through a terminal emulator application.

Supports a wide range of file formats

The application is quite simple, but it supports a wide range of file formats, including Mathematica, Tgif .obj format, Java 1 or Java 2 applets, .fig format for Xfig, RPL (Real3D), gnuplot, Flattened PostScript (with or without Bezier curves), RIB (RenderMan), DXF (CAD exchange format), Tcl/Tk, OS/2 meta files, PPTX format for PowerPoint and LaTeX2e picture.

In addition, the LWO (LightWave 3D), Idraw format, HPGL, Windows Meta Files (WMF), PIC format for groff and troff, AI (Adobe Illustrator), Kontour, VTK format for ParaView, SWF, MetaPost format for LaTeX and TeX, Enhanced Windows Meta Files (EMF), Skencil, CNC G code, GNU Metafile (libplot and plotutils) and PDF (Adobe's Portable Document Format).

Supports additional file formats through plugins

The software supports additional file formats, including MIF (Maker Intermediate Format), SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), CGM (Computer Graphics Metafile), enhanced EMF (Windows Meta Files) and RTF (Rich Text Format) through plugins.

It’s a multi-platform application written in C++

pstoedit is a multi-platform application that has been written entirely in the C++ programming language. It runs on GNU/Linux and Microsoft Windows operating systems, supporting both 32-bit and 64-bit instruction set architectures.

Availability and system requirements

On GNU/Linux, the program is available for download as source archive, which means that the user must configure and compile it prior to installation. It can also be easily installed from the default software repositories of your Linux distribution. Keep in mind though, that the GhostScript package it required for the application to work properly.

What is new in this release:

• some code improvements as suggested by Coverity. See current Coverity status here: https://scan.coverity.com/projects/498
• removed the -DBUGGYGPP compile flag since now g++ can compile the code without it. The former work-arounds are still there but will be removed later.
• enabled more warnings when compiling with g++ and fixed some resulting warnings.
• changed the autoconf part to better support the inclusion of libzip for the pptx driver.
• included a lot of documentation corrections contributed by Peter Dyballa. Many thanks!
• using non case sensitive comparison when determining the target format from the file suffix.
• using more STL classes instead of older private replacements (string and vector). In this context also some hard coded limits were removed.
• fixed an assertion violation when using -ssp and a closepath occurred.
• added the dump of the font name for the DXF format.
• prototype of a "simulate fill" option for emulating filling by stroking. This is based on fillpoly.c from the hp2xx project. Thanks also to Gary Langthorne for pointing out this option. This is still kind of experimental.

What is new in version 3.62:

• new backend generating PowerPoint pptx files contributed by Scott Pakin. Big thanks!!! This backend uses the zip library http://www.nih.at/libzip/ .
• improved handling of composite fonts, especially those having FMapType other than 2
• fixed a bug in detecting rectangles.
• improved bounding box tracing in case of text (but it is still not perfect).
• changed the creation of filenames when using the -split option. Related to that there is new option -pagenumberformat. See manual for more details.
• fixed a bug in passing generic libplot arguments to the libplot drivers.
• improved support for 64-bit systems related the integration of pstoedit to gsview.
• include a version info resource in pstoedit's windows exe and DLLs.
• include a work-around for a Hurd specific problem with dlclose.

What is new in version 3.61:

• fixed a bug in handling of -page option
• improved support for 64-bit systems related to different version of ghostscript
• added some features for supporting the LaOS project (http://www.laoslaser.org/)

What is new in version 3.50:

• added an option (-gs) to specify the full path to GhostScript (under Windows - either the .exe or the DLL). This can be used by portable applications to direct pstoedit to use a specific GhostScript version.
• Stanislav Brabec contributed several improvements to the PCB driver. See http://www.penguin.cz/~utx/pstoedit-pcb/ on how these can be useful.
• Scott Pakin submitted several improvements to the mpost driver and the font substitution mechanism.
• new driver for .vtk files e.g. for ParaView - http://www.paraview.org/ - but this is still a very basic version. Thanks to Mitesh Patel for initiating and testing.
• new driver for cairo (http://cairographics.org/ ) contributed by Dan McMahill. This driver generates C-code which can be compiled and linked against the cairo libraries. See the contrib/cairo directory for an example.
• several improvements on the DXF driver as suggested and sponsored by Markus Meyer.
• because pstoedit may write its output to stdout, all output written by GhostScript to stdout is now redirected to stderr in order to avoid mixed output.
• added a -q option to suppress the initial startup message of pstoedit. This can by useful when being called via a pipe, e.g. from inkscape. However, note that this does not suppress all output written to stderr - see also note above.
• John Bowman fixed a number of problems related to clipping and image support for the Asymptote backend.
• fixed a compilation problem with g++ V4.x.
• new driver for gcode (.ngc files) (tested with emc see http://linuxcnc.org). Contributed by Lawrence Glaister.
• some adaptations for newer versions of libming
• fixed a line width problem for xfig format.
• corrected the broken pstoedit.m4 - thanks to Ian Abbott
• some minor code beautifying.

Requirements:

• GraphicsMagick