Illustrator CS3, LaTeX and dvips OS X

Question

Illustrator is used by some for preparing eps files to use with  the LaTeX typesetting system.  After upgrading to CS3, ilustrator generated eps files are causing trouble for dvips.<br /><br />It seems like Illustrator in Adobe CS3 breaks some rule that causes dvips to get<br />confused and give the following message while processing graphics (in this<br />example the file "test2.eps"):<br /><br />/### /usr/texbin/dvips -R -Poutline  -o<br />/tmp/altpdflatex.17833-1197330873/gem_dec07.ps gem_dec07.dvi This is dvips(k)<br />5.96 Copyright 2005 Radical Eye Software (www.radicaleye.com) ' TeX output<br />2007.12.11:1054' -> /tmp/altpdflatex.17833-1197330873/gem_dec07.ps<br /><tex.pro><texps.pro><special.pro>. <cmtt10.pfb><cmbx12.pfb><cmr8.pfb><br /><cmti10.pfb><cmex10.pfb><cmsy8.pfb><cmsy10.pfb><cmmi8.pfb><cmmi10.pfb><br /><cmbx10.pfb><cmr12.pfb><cmr17.pfb><cmr10.pfb>[1] [2] [3<test2.eps><br />/usr/texbin/dvips: expected to see %%EndBinary at end of data; struggling on<br />/usr/texbin/dvips: expected to see %%EndBinary at end of data; struggling on<br />/usr/texbin/dvips: expected to see %%EndBinary at end of data; struggling on<br />/usr/texbin/dvips: expected to see %%EndBinary at end of data; struggling on<br />/usr/texbin/dvips: expected to see %%EndBinary at end of data; struggling on<br />/usr/texbin/dvips: expected to see %%EndBinary at end of data; struggling on<br />/usr/texbin/dvips: expected to see %%EndBinary at end of data; struggling on<br />/usr/texbin/dvips: expected to see %%EndBinary at end of data; struggling on<br />.........<br /><br />Details:<br /><br />System: Latest version of MacTeX (1/12/07) OS X 10.4.11. Macbook 2GHz.<br /><br />Including graphics using:<br /><br />\usepackage{graphicx}<br />.....<br /><br />\includegraphics[width=\columnwidth]{figure.eps}<br /><br />I have tried to do a study of what exactly causes the problem.  It seems to have<br />something to do with the handling of transparency.  In legacy AI formats where<br />transparency is discarded there seems to be no problem.  In order to get the<br />error, you need to have a file that includes some transparency, such as a drop<br />shadow.  I don't recall having this problem with illustrator 11 (CS1). Saving<br />legacy formats with transparency doesn't seem to help however.<br /><br />The problem doesn't seem to be fatal, the file processes with the error messages<br />and the output  appears to be OK.<br /><br />Has anybody else seen this problem?<br /><br />cheers,<br /><br />ben

Answer 1

One more thing: The error is indeed due to a malformed EPS file. Adobe themselves defined the %%Begin/EndBinary command like this:<br /><br />%%BeginBinary: <bytecount><br />###Binary data block###<br />%%EndBinary<br /><br />as found in: http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/en/ps/5001.DSC_Spec.pdf<br /><br />Unfortunately, CS2 and CS3 do not obey this specification but always set the bytecount to 1. Hence, dvips expects to see an %%EndBinary when there is still binary data streaming in from the eps file. Dvips consequently has to actively search for the %%EndBinary delimiter, which takes some time.<br /><br />So please, Adobe, stick to your own rules and fix this.<br /><br />Kind regards,<br />  Malte