Creating PDF files using RISC OS

PDF for publication on the web and paper

Summary

• Load !Printers and the appropriate PostScript Printer Definition File (e.g. PoScript2) from Printer Control.
• Open (and close) the directory which contains !GhostScr so it can be seen.
• Double click on !ps2pdf.
• Make a PostScript file by printing the document (e.g. from Impression or TechWriter) to a file.
• Drop this PostScript file (type PoScript, &ff5) onto !ps2pdf on the iconbar.
• When conversion is complete name resultant pdf file (type PDF, &adf) (e.g. xxxxx/pdf) and save it.

Set RISC OS/Acorn printer

• If there are no PostScript printer drivers (Printer Definition Files) loaded in the Printer Manager (Printers) load the ones you want as follows:
• Find the drivers you want in the directory on your Hard Drive.
  (e.g. IDEFS::IDEDisc4.$.Printing.Printers.PoScript) I recommend that you try PoScript, PoScript2 and Linotype.200. After experiment you may want to try others like IBM 4019/39.
• Drag them to the printer Control panel window of the Printer Manager (!Printers).
• Save your choices at Printers on the iconbar after leaving active only those you want to use every time you load Printers.
  
• Load !Printers from Apps icon on IconBar by clicking <select> mouse button on Apps Icon and then double-clicking <select> on !Printers.
• Click <menu> over Printers icon and <select> Printer Control …
• Click <menu> over the desired Printer Definition File (e.g. PoScript2) and choose Active to load it.
• Click <select> with <shift> held to check configuration. You will probably want to print in colour, but consider this as it may result in a slightly bigger files.
• Click <adjust> with <shift> held and drag the file icon to its location to set it the first time (This PS file is called Printout, but you can rename it what you like.)
• Click <select> on PoScript2 on the iconbar to load the PostScript Printout file into the set directory.
• Open the appropriate document file (e.g. Impression file, or Draw file or anything else that can be printed.
• Check the files before printing them to a PostScript file to ensure that everything will fit within the printable area of the chosen printer (e.g. PoScript2). (See below)
• Print in the normal way (i.e. as for hardcopy printing) but the Impression file will be printed as a PostScript file called Printout which will be found in the folder that you set earlier.

Check the document and create a PostScript file

• After activating the chosen printer check the files (e.g. Impression) before printing them to a PostScript file to ensure that everything will fit within the printable area of the chosen printer (e.g. PoScript2). This should be done for any type of printing, not just PostScript printing.
• Show the Print borders on the file (e.g. in Impression by pressing <ctrl>+<shift>+O, or selecting Print borders in the View Menu after pressing the <menu> mouse button‹‹ with the caret in the Impression document).
• There should now be a light grey print border around the document. As different printers may allow printing on different area of the paper this grey border may vary for those printers. This is also true of printing to file with a PostScript printer driver.
• Adjust anything on the page, if necessary, so that everything falls inside this grey boundary.
• Add the date of printing for office reference in the future. A small font in a footer is a good idea. It could be an active date.
• The document is now ready to print.
• Click on the Print button or whatever is needed on the chosen application and continue as normal. It will print the PostScript file into the set directory.
• If there is trouble printing the next PostScript file, delete the former, click on PoScript2 again and then print. This should be rare.

Convert the PostScript file to a Portable Document Format (PDF) file.

• Neither the use of RiScript from Cerilica nor Taborca from RISCOS Ltd is not discussed here.
• This method uses Freeware or Shareware applications which are readily available from the Web. Links to such sites can be found at the following URL.
  https://mcelroy.id.au/computer/riscos/pdfapps.html
  Advice on how to set up these applications is not given here. (A couple of tips are appended.)
• Let the computer “see” the GhostScript  distiller (!GhostScr) which takes the PostScript file and creates a pdf file. Open the folder which holds it or make sure it is seen in the boot sequence. The latter does not seem to work when using raFS but is fine with RISC OS 4.
• Load PS2PDF onto the iconbar by double clicking on !ps2pdf.
• Drop the previously created PostScript file onto PS2PDF.
• Distilling the PostScript file into a PDF file may take some time depending on the size of the file. Images within a file slow it down and make the resultant file quite big as GhostScript does not have the effective compression that Adobe’s Acrobat Distiller uses.
• When hard disc activity has stopped for some time there should appear a Save box allowing one to name the file (e.g. xxxx/pdf) and drag it to a folder for saving.
• If the PDF file does not already have the PDF file type icon filetype it to &adf.
• Include the extension /pdf (which becomes .pdf on Unix and Windows). The easiest way to do this, especially for a batch of files, is to drop them on the icon of !DOSext after this has been loaded onto the icon bar.

Does the pdf file work?

• Make sure that the application !pdf has been seen.
• Double click on the newly created pdf file.
• It should load, albeit somewhat slowly using !pdf.
• If possible try the new pdf files using Acrobat Reader on a Windows machine. If one has Windows under a PC card, or on a PC, always check the file on an Adobe Acrobat Reader. These can be had from the Web or the cover CD of PC magazine.
• Check important files with Mac or Lunix owning friends if you do not have access to one yourself.

Tips for using GhostScript with RISC OS

• Do note some of the traps mentioned in the Archive article.
• Experiment with various combinations of Word Processor, image types, fonts, distillers and readers.
• The advice needed to set up GhostScript is found on the page mentioned and in the Help and Docs files.
• When using GhostScript with RISC OS 3.5 and 3.7 I found raFS to be an easy and sound way to cope with the long filenames and more than 77 files in a directory.
• Long file names. Move the files from the various directories associated with GhostScript straight from the zip files into the final destination which can cope with long filenames. This is vital if one is using raFS (or such) on RISC OS 3.x. It can take a long time to repair the resultant truncated file names if one does not. Drag each !GhostScr directory onto the main one.

Good luck!

This is a very easy and rewarding activity.

16:17:01 22-Mar-2000