Successfully converted PDF to EPS ..... but help!

[theographics]

I posted yesterday about how to convert a PDF to an EPS. Well, thank you for all your responses. I found a software (free trial or $50 to buy) called "PDF to Image Converter". It works great! Except for one HUGE problem! I was able to save the two page PDF file into two different files. Page one opens VERY easily but the other one will not. I get an error message of "stackunderflow error reported by PostScript Interpreter".

Does ANYONE know how I can get around this and what exactly is happening!? Thank you!

[rickself]

Download the 30-day trial of Pitstop from Enfocus. It should save that pdf to eps without a hitch.

[theographics]

I already have it in EPS through the converter software. I can't open page 2 because of the error message. I am just trying to figure out what "stackunderflow error reported by PostScript Interpreter" means.

[Bear]

i think what rickself is suggesting is that pitstop is more recognised and widely used, and will therefore be likely to do a better job in the conversion. The error you are getting is based on an error that has occured during the conversion. Postscript is basically the language used to convert the written code of the file into visual objects on screen, and somewhere it's misreading something that has been translated, which would suggest the programme you used didn't do a very good job of it.

Why are you trying to convert to eps and then what are you trying to open it in? Illustrator can handle opening pdfs directly and then you can save as EPS straight out from there. I assume that most other vector programmes have some sort of PDF opening ability, but others may be able to explain otherwise...

[rickself]

Thanks, bear, that's right. Pitsop is a Godsend for prepress folks. And it is free to use for 30 days.
It indeed sounds like the conversion did go south.
And, theographics, check out this website that will help describe and decipher ps errors:
www.prepressure.com (http://www.prepressure.com)

[urstwile]

Rick, can you give a rundown of some of the stuff Pitstop can do? I tried searching for a description on the forum. I'd rather hear it from you or other pre-press people here who have used it. And would it be worth buying if I'm at an agency? I'm thinking one copy at maximum. $600 is a bunch of money though. At least with our budget here.

Also, in our recent software upgrades, I opted to choose Acrobat Standard rather than Professional. I know that Standard doesn't have pre-flighting capabilities, but I was considering maybe upgrading at least two of our copies of Standard to Pro (mine and another production artist's) for the pre-flight capabilities.

Sorry to hijack the thread. :o

[rickself]

Rick, can you give a rundown of some of the stuff Pitstop can do?
Here's some for starters.
Convert an RGB pdf to either 4 color or grayscale or any combination;
Change fonts, styles, colors;
Search and replace one color to another (Registration to Black for instance);
Replace Black with a Rich Black;
Uncompress a jpeg or lzw compression;
Resize an image;
Change any stroke (.5pt stroke to 1pt);

It's endless. All with vector type, never rasterizing...pc, mac, no difference.

Throw one at me and I'll try to give a yay or nay on conversion.

[Broacher]

>>I posted yesterday about how to convert a PDF to an EPS.<<

Um... I thought you were more interested in getting a PDF into a text editable format.

To convert a PDF to an EPS is a piece of cake. You just use 'SaveAs' and set the options you want.

>>I found a software (free trial or $50 to buy) called "PDF to Image Converter". It works great! Except for one HUGE problem! I was able to save the two page PDF file into two different files. Page one opens VERY easily but the other one will not. I get an error message of "stackunderflow error reported by PostScript Interpreter".<<

Hold on... now you're just rasterizing-- if I interpret 'image' correctly. You might as well do it (and I would bet much better) directly into Photoshop. What format did you end up with from that program? Is it EPS vector or raster? Or... ??

And that postscript error sounds like a memory shortage problem to me-- not unlikely if you've rasterized it a too high a resolution. What happened to your plan to stay in vector/type?

As for PitStop-- it's great-- even though Adobe stole a lot of its tricks in the latest Acrobat pro versions. Particularly the scripts that are easy to customize. And overprinting, font substitution.... a must for any prepress department, IMHO.

[theographics]

Well, thanks for all your responses! But I have finally finished my project. It was a emergency job for a new client. I needed to open a PDF file into a format that enabled me to edit the text. Well, I never did succeed. The first page I was able to open once I converted it to EPS with my Corel. But it turns out that the 2nd page had something screwy about it. The original artist had done layers and layers and layers - it was 300 mb in eps format! I finally downloaded Illustrator, converted it to eps, opened in Illustrator, the text was NOT editable so I erased it all. Saved the rest of it as a TIFF. Opened it in Corel and retyped the text. It looked great. But was a time suck!


Thanks for all your interesting comments. There is a lot I don't know. I am self-taught, sort of "have an eye" and have done a lot of research on my own. After my few days with Illustrator . . . I appreciate my Corel so much more. It's a keeper for me!

Thanks again.

[rickself]

Isn't it nice when you can offer good free advice, to download a FREE tryout that would have done this thing in 5 minutes and there's still a better way...that will take hours and form lots of grief?

Oh well, ya do this for 16 years and what do ya get? Same ole same ole.

Glad ya got it worked out.

[urstwile]

Rick, there, there. You've inspired me to try the tryout tomorrow, so maybe all is not lost. :)