Postscript from PCs/Macs

Modern applications should generate a conforming EPS file. Under windows when you're printing to file, look at the PostScript properties (or Advanced options), and choose (depending on the driver you have) either 'Archive Format', 'Encapsulated PS', 'Optimize for Portability' or 'Page Independence'. People seem to have more luck with the free Adobe postscript driver than with the Microsoft one.

The resulting file should begin with %!PS. If it doesn't it's not postscript. Remove any characters that are before %!PS, and (to be on the safe side) remove anything after the final %%EOF line.

If you have problems on a Macintosh, check that you're using the LaserWriter 8 driver. Platform-specific considerations do crop up. The EPS generated on the Macintosh will use ASCII 13 line terminators, while Unix will use ASCII 10 (and DOS will use both). If this causes trouble, use emacs to convert, or try (in Unix)

     tr "\015" "\012" <original.ps >new.ps