RE: XY to PDF on OS X--two steps

[russurquhart1@xxxxxxxx]

I've been using this method for some time. It's really cool! This is
just a side advantage to the display model for the OS being based on a
subset of PS/PDF.
One other note, you may want to save your file with a pdf extension,
while you are viewing it in Preview. You can then send the new .pdf file
to others, etc.

fwiw,


Russ

On Tue, Oct 14, 2008 at 2:39 PM, Caballero wrote:
> Lately I've been experimenting with a translation others have been
> doing for a long time--converting XyWrite files to PDFs. Robert and
> Carl have a sophisticated routine involving Ghostscript or GSView. I
> wanted to adress the problem with what Manuel Castelao once called the
> "classical method" of producing a PostScript file in XyWrite and then
> using Adobe Acrobat's "Distiller" to convert it into a PDF.
> It turns out that this method can be simplified even further. And,
> contrary to common wisdom, you can use either XY3 or XY4 to make
> PostScript files and thence PDFs.
>
> Here are the two steps (yes, only two):
> 1. TYF your Xywrite file after loading a good Postscript printer
> driver (see below), and give the destination file the suffix "PS";
> e.g.:
>
> 	TYF XYFILE,XYFILE.PS
> 2. Get this .PS file onto your Mac OSX environment and open it with
> Preview. The file is automatically converted by Preview into a PDF.
>
> You're done.
> This method is astonishingly simple. I was using Distiller as an
> intermediary, but it turns out it's unnecessary. Preview (a
> wonderfully efficient utility, in my opinion) can do it on its
> own--and faster. I don't have all the Adobe stuff on my personal
> machines because I find it all rather bloated; I use a shared faculty
> computer when I want Acrobat and Distiller. Because the .PS files I
> was creating in XyWrite took on the iconic appearance of files that
> could open with Preview on the Mac desktop, I couldn't resist clicking
> on it rather than walking over to another computer, and to my surprise
> Preview did all the work I had been using Distiller for earlier.
> Preview is preinstalled on your Macintosh; no new software needed.
> With regard to the printer files... On Manuel's advice, I started with
> POST35N.PRN under XY4, and it works. I suspect POST47.PRN would work
> too, but I haven't tested it yet.
> Manuel didn't think the procedure would work in XY3, so initially I
> was just opening my XY3 files in XY4 and adjusting them (UF,SZ,etc.).
> But XY3 die-hards can indeed use:
>
> 3POST29.PRN or
> 3POSTPLS.PRN
> (These filenames are the ones posted on Bry's site; the originals--I
> think--lack the initial "3")
> There may be others that work in XY3, but two that consistently DO NOT
> work are 3POST13.PRN and 3POST.PRN; they do not produce valid
> PostScript files (at least for today's world)
> Which of the two XY3 drivers above you choose to load may pertain to
> your choice of fonts, and it's also true that XY3's irregular
> treatment of italic/oblique faces needs to be watched (3POST29 treats
> MDRV as italics; 3POSTPLS treats MDBR as italics). Since I had a file
> with MDBR and was lazy, I just loaded 3POSTPLS to get my italics true
> in the PDF. But lucky for us both the files and the printer files may
> be altered ad infinitum to match up.
> After this experience, I was pondering how brilliant the inventors of
> XyWrite were: here's XyWrite III+, vintage 1989, talking to a Mac OSX
> utility, seamlessly, in 2008. I ignored TYF for 18 years, but there
> it was, waiting for me; now it's the command of the day.
>
> Carlo Caballero
> thyrsus@xxxxxxxx