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Thread: Reading PostScript Files

  1. Jul 31st, 2002, 07:59 AM #1
    ashay
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    Reading PostScript Files

    hi,

    Is it possible to read Postscript files using VB????Or shud i use some other third party components??

    I hv to read the PostScript files and make txt files out of them.

    Any suggs,helps welcome....

    regds,
    ashay
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  2. Jul 31st, 2002, 02:13 PM #2
    jdc2000
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    Postscript files ARE text files. I am assuming that what you really want to do is strip out the text that controls the formatting and have only the actual text to be printed left. To do this, you will need to have some method of determining what is formatting and what is data. A sample of your postscript file would be helpful for us to get an idea for a method that might work for you.
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  3. Aug 2nd, 2002, 04:24 AM #3
    ashay
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    hi,

    thanx jdc for ur contribution

    u mean to say that i create a parser that will strip off the irrelevant formatting code and retrieve just the text data.

    I just saw that in the ps files the data is present in "(" and ")"

    hope wat i say makes sense.....

    is there any other approach...

    regds,
    ashay
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  4. Aug 2nd, 2002, 05:01 AM #4
    jdc2000
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    There is one other approach, but unless the text you want to retrieve is not actually in the PostScript file as text but as a graphic, I do not recommend it. You could print the file through a printer driver to a file on disk, then OCR that file to get the text. Of course, the OCR process will not be 100% effective in retrieving the text, whereas extracting the text from the PostScript file will be 100% effective. It might help to know exactly what you are wanting to do and why you need to get data from a PostScript file instead of from the source that the PostScript file was created from in order to suggest alternatives.
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  6. Aug 2nd, 2002, 05:22 AM #5
    ashay
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    hi,

    well,the user will be providing me with some ps file and i need my application to convert thez postscript files to txt files and save them in another directory.

    Just m trying to figure out some good feasible solutions.

    thanx for ur help

    any more comments :

    regds,
    ashay:rolleyes
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  7. Aug 2nd, 2002, 05:22 AM #6
    ashay
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    hi,

    well,the user will be providing me with some ps file and i need my application to convert thez postscript files to txt files and save them in another directory.

    Just m trying to figure out some good feasible solutions.

    thanx for ur help

    any more comments

    regds,
    ashay
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  8. Aug 2nd, 2002, 07:36 AM #7
    ashay
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    hi jdc,

    one more question....

    can we use some apps like Ghostview with VB for converting the postscript files to text files ????


    or r there any third party components available for this????
    plzzz lemme know soon......

    regds,
    ashay
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  9. Aug 2nd, 2002, 08:19 AM #8
    Jim Brown
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    This might help....

    On Luc Devroye's PostScript page, about half way down, there's a link to do with PostScript to .... (whatever format) filters. I see it mentions PostScript to Text.

    But are you sure you can't get the files in text in the first place? The PS must have come from somewhere! It's unusual for applications to produce PS straight from the app, as opposed to using a print driver; although I know it's not impossible. If the document started life in Word for instance, then a Save As ...txt would do the trick.
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  11. Aug 2nd, 2002, 10:12 AM #9
    ashay
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    hi,

    the client has got a loads of ps files and want to convert them to txt files for some distribution.......

    i will check ur link and reply soon....

    thanx for help

    regds,
    ashay
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