Problems with imported EPS, PICT graphics

[Jim Liljegren]

I am preparing a preprint for an IEEE conference using Word 2004
(version 11.2) on a Mac G5. I have plots (line art) in EPS format from
Adobe Illustrator that I want to use. When I import the EPS file into
Word, although a blurry bit-mapped image appears on the display, the
nice EPS image is output when I print the document. Unfortunately,
Word outputs the blurry bit-mapped image to the PDF file that I must
submit to IEEE.

As an alternative I exported the EPS image from Illustrator as a
Macintosh PICT file. Word imports this format and it looks nice on the
display. Unfortunately, in both the printed output and the PDF file
generated by Word any rotated text (like the labels on my plot
ordinates) have fine lines from the base of the first character in the
text string to the top of each successive character in the string,
effectively obliterating the text. As a test, I re-imported the PICT
image back into Illustrator and printed it successfully. So the
problem must be with Word.

I have already tried exporting/importing the other popular bit-mapped
formats such as GIF, PNG, and JPEG and have fussed with their
optimizations -- they all produce blurry images. Illustrator outputs
vector formats too, but it seems Word cannot import them.

Has anyone else encountered this problem? Any suggested work-arounds?

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

EVERYONE has this problem

We got only "half a fix" to it so far... Word wouldn't print EPS 'at all'
previously.

I believe that the work-around is to File>Print> and choose the Adobe PDF
printer. This should produce a .ps file.

Then use Adobe Distiller to make the PDF from the .ps. That should give you
"Press Quality".

Hope this helps

I am preparing a preprint for an IEEE conference using Word 2004
(version 11.2) on a Mac G5. I have plots (line art) in EPS format from
Adobe Illustrator that I want to use. When I import the EPS file into
Word, although a blurry bit-mapped image appears on the display, the
nice EPS image is output when I print the document. Unfortunately,
Word outputs the blurry bit-mapped image to the PDF file that I must
submit to IEEE.

As an alternative I exported the EPS image from Illustrator as a
Macintosh PICT file. Word imports this format and it looks nice on the
display. Unfortunately, in both the printed output and the PDF file
generated by Word any rotated text (like the labels on my plot
ordinates) have fine lines from the base of the first character in the
text string to the top of each successive character in the string,
effectively obliterating the text. As a test, I re-imported the PICT
image back into Illustrator and printed it successfully. So the
problem must be with Word.

I have already tried exporting/importing the other popular bit-mapped
formats such as GIF, PNG, and JPEG and have fussed with their
optimizations -- they all produce blurry images. Illustrator outputs
vector formats too, but it seems Word cannot import them.

Has anyone else encountered this problem? Any suggested work-arounds?

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[Elliott Roper]

EVERYONE has this problem

We got only "half a fix" to it so far... Word wouldn't print EPS 'at all'
previously.

It worked OK in Word 5.1 didn't it? Not to PDF of course, since it
wasn't invented yet.

I believe that the work-around is to File>Print> and choose the Adobe PDF
printer. This should produce a .ps file.

Then use Adobe Distiller to make the PDF from the .ps. That should give you
"Press Quality".

Hope this helps

You don't have to stump up for Distiller. Apple's Preview.app can pull
the same trick for free. In Tiger's print panel -- PDF » PDF as
Postscript.

Open the .ps in Preview.app and save the PDF

Panther has a similar feature, but I forget the exact wording in the
print dialog.

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

I can't find it in OS 10.3.9, but I have Distiller installed...

Preview gives Export to PDF, no PostScript option.

It worked OK in Word 5.1 didn't it? Not to PDF of course, since it
wasn't invented yet.

No, "it" didn't. Word 5.1 called a Mac OS print routine that worked.

Word X called a Mac OS X routine that works differently.

Word 2004 calls a newer version of the CUPS routine which doesn't do what
the Apple documentation said it would do. You can't just flip print
routines about in an application service release -- the changes are too
pervasive, you don't have sufficient development budget to properly
regression test it (which is WHY the fix only 'half works').

Hopefully, the NEXT version of Word will cause the LATEST version of the
Apple Print Routine, and with a little bit of luck, by then, Apple will have
learned that it's not nice to change the way functions work while
Independent Software Vendors are trying to use them

Of course, this is a lot easier on Windows. The Office and Windows
developers share the same lunchroom. If Windows borks the print routine
Office is calling, there's a really massive food-fight... Very, very
messy...

Cheers

You don't have to stump up for Distiller. Apple's Preview.app can pull
the same trick for free. In Tiger's print panel -- PDF » PDF as
Postscript.

Open the .ps in Preview.app and save the PDF

Panther has a similar feature, but I forget the exact wording in the
print dialog.

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[Michel Bintener]

Preview gives Export to PDF, no PostScript option.

Yes, but you can use OS X's print dialogue to create a PS file, and Preview
will be able to open the PS file by automatically converting it into a PDF
file. Elliott, if I understood him correctly, was saying that there's no
real need to use Distiller for this job since the tools that come with OS X
allow you to do a similar thing.

 

[Chris Ridd]

Yes, but you can use OS X's print dialogue to create a PS file, and Preview
will be able to open the PS file by automatically converting it into a PDF
file. Elliott, if I understood him correctly, was saying that there's no
real need to use Distiller for this job since the tools that come with OS X
allow you to do a similar thing.

Panther's and Tiger's built-in PS->PDF converter (which BTW uses Adobe code)
is pretty good but Adobe's Distiller will usually produce smaller PDFs, and
you have much more control over the conversion in Distiller.

Having said that, what Apple provides is quite good enough for most of *my*
needs and it certainly beats paying several hundred quid for a copy of
Acrobat.

Cheers,

Chris

 

[Jim Liljegren]

It worked!! I used "Save PDF as postscript" from Word, then used
Preview to convert the postscript to PDF. Thanks to everyone for their
help!!