Export EPS

EPS - Export

Encapsulated Postscript (EPS or EPSF) is a standard format for interchange of typeset text and graphic content among applications in a variety of heterogeneous environments. It is a vector format, uses ASCII encoding, and may contain a binary preview header.

EPS is a vector format. It is similar to PDF. It is an Adobe authored format. While it may be used as a vector exchange format, the content, as is the case with PDF, is printer instructions.

This panel is accessed from the File main menu, Export selection. The popup menu on the export panel is used to select this file format.

The Content popup menu provides a selection to specify the elements of the drawing that are included in the export. The choices are self explanatory.

The Background popup menu further defines what is included in the export. It is often desirable to define the backdrop of the drawing differently for an export, compared to the screen display. For example a reference grid might be used for the screen display but would not be included with the export. This setting determines if the exported graphic will be transparent or have a solid (white or colored) background.

The Color Space, more precisely color model, popup is used to convert all colors on the drawing to a single color model, CMYK, RGB, or Gray.

Use the save button to execute the save action after all parameter selections are made.

The LaTeX psfrag check box is for support of psfrag use with the exported file. Psfrag is a special method of replacing place holder characters with LaTeX typeset text. With the newer version of the EPS format that is generated by EazyDraw and macOS, it is necessary to "patch" the exported file with an invisible marker string to facility support for this place holder mapping. This box should only be checked if the psfrag support is needed.

In most cases it is necessary to map all colors to a single color space to allow the EPS file to be opened on other systems. If you are not able to open the EPS file on anther system or with another application, selecting a particular single color space may alleviate the problem. This is caused by limitations with the receiving applications EPS capability or known problems with multiple color space support present with older versions of the EPS file format.

EPS with CMYK color mapping is frequently used when submitting a drawing electronically for printed press use. Professional printers normally require CMYK. The popup color space menu can be used to conveniently satisfy this requirement. In most cases RGB will be the color space used for computer drawing, this is the space rendered on the computer monitor. CMYK will result in different hues and colors, but these slight differences then result in a truer color on high quality printing presses. CMYK for personal use is now much more prevalent with home use photo quality printers. Mapping to CMYK may provide improved appearance when printing drawings to a photo-quality printer on high quality paper.

Color spaces are explained in more detail on the manual entry for Color Space Management on the Layers Inspector. It is possible to control the color space used for individual layers - on the Layers Inspector.

If the psfrag check box in used, a text string comprising of the sequence of ASCII characters from decimal 33 to decimal 126 is inserted as the first graphic of the drawing. This text string is drawn with the background color (usually white) to make it invisible. Inclusion of this string forces a traditional one-to-one mapping of the traditional ASCII characters out of the more expansive set of unicode characters. In order for psfrag to work properly, your key text strings must be presented with one of the The standard type 1 post script (pdf) fonts which include: Times-Roman, Times-Bold, Times-Italic, Times-BoldItalic, Helvetica, Helvetica-Bold, Helvetica-Oblique, Helvetica-BoldOblique, Courier, Courier-Bold, Courier-Oblique, Courier-BoldOblique, Symbol, and ZapDingbats. Note that "Times" is not included. In most cases you will need to use single letter substitution text, if multi-letter sequences are used you may need to change "xshow" to "show" in the output eps text file, where your substitution is used.