
 ePDF version 2.0 beta 5

 ePDF is a REXX-based tool for PostScript-to-PDF conversion which uses
GhostScript as its back-end. With ePDF you are able to create PDF files with
user definable document information.


 REQUIREMENTS:

OS/2 or eComStation with Rexx installed
Installed GhostScript with latest EMX


 UPDATE INFORMATION
Its recommended to delete older versions of ePDF before you install newer
versions.


 INSTALLATION:

 Just unzip the archive to a directory on harddrive. Run install.cmd from a
commandline to create objects on your desktop.
 If not already present, you'll have to manually add the GS_LIB environment
variable to your config.sys in order to let ePDF call GhostScript functions.
The GS_LIB statement must contain the paths to your active GhostScript \lib
directory and the path to your os/2 fonts: e.g.
SET GS_LIB=D:\gstools\gs7.04\lib;C:\PSFONTS;

 Alternatively, you may add the paths to the Distiller libpath field in
the program's properties dialog, e.g.
 "D:\gstools\gs8.00\lib;C:\PSFONTS"

 Please note that the above setting will override the GS_LIB statement in
your config.sys [see above] which allows you to use a different GhostScript
version for ePDF than the one used by GhostView or other software.

 Also, in order for GhostScript to work correctly with ePDF, you'll have to
take care of the proper FONTMAPPING which involves renaming the file
'Fontmap.OS2' to 'Fontmap' (without quotes) in the \lib directory of your
GhostScript installation. For further details, please refer to the GS
documentation.


 SETUP:

 After the first start please open the properties notebook and go through all
pages.

>>> Page 1: distiller setup

 Select a the 'add' button to create a new distiller setup, or select 'change'
to edit the settings of an existing setup. ePDF is able to work with up to 15
different distiller pre-settings. Then the dialog window for the distiller 
setting will be opened. 
 Enter al label for this setup. This is the name that will be used for the menu
point in mainwindow. Dupes are not allowed, each distiller label must have
another name. Use the tild '~' to define a Hotkey, if you want to select a 
menu entry later without the mouse by hitting a key, e.g. enter
"GhostScript ~8.00"
will create a menu entry with an understriked "8", and you can use the "8"
key to check this entry.
Attention: use different hotkeys for each distiller label! Otherwise it will not
work.

 Enter full path including the drive to gsos2.exe in the corresponding entry 
field, e.g.
D:\gstools\gs8.00\bin\gsos2.exe
 If you leave this entry field, ePDF will try to locate the lib and the postscript
font directory. If it is successfully then the directories will automaticly entered
to the last entry field. This will happen only if the entry field is empty.
Take a look at the directories, and if necessary correct and complete it. 
Directories must be separated by a semicolon. Do not enter spaces!
 Hit "OK" to save your settings.  

 Once set in the properties notebook, you may re-select the distiller
settings from the main menu for each conversion process.

>>> Page 2: parameter setup
First its the same procedure like on page 1. You are able to manage up to 15
different paramter settings. Select add (or change) to open the setup dialog.

 In the setup dialog window select the program's execution parameters using 
the radio buttons, check boxes and spin buttons.

 It is possible to load pre-settings. In the top group of the window select 
a radio button corresponding to your usage intention: 

 SCREEN selects low-resolution output similar to the Acrobat Distiller "Screen
Optimized" setting.
 EBOOK selects low-resolution output similar to the Acrobat Distiller "Ebook
Optimized" setting.
 PRINTER selects output similar to the Acrobat Distiller "Print Optimized"
setting.
 PREPRESS selects output similar to Acrobat Distiller "Prepress Optimized"
setting.
 DEFAULT selects output intended to be useful across a wide variety of uses,
possibly at the expense of a larger output file.

Then click "opt". This will load optimal values for each setting.

 For a detailed explanation of the settings above and additional parameters,
please refer to the file PS2PDF.htm in your GhostScript documentation or to
the "Adobe Technical Note #5151" at
http://partners.adobe.com/asn/developer/acrosdk/DOCS/distparm.pdf

One personal note:
Please use _always_  PDF compatibility to version 1.2. This is the only version
that we could read with Acrobat Reader 3.0 under OS/2, but all higher versions
on other platforms are able to read PDF 1.2. Please support the "portable 
document format" concept by this way.

 Once set in the properties notebook, you may re-select the execution
parameters from the main menu for each conversion process.

>>> Page 3: PDF doc infos

 Enter any default values for the PDF doc infos. You may also leave them
blank.
 The defaults will read and applied to the main window after the program has
been launched. They may be overridden for each conversion process.


>>> Page 4: PDF file

 Enter a valid directory in the first entry field, where the PDF files will be 
created.

Then make your choice how the PDF file names will be generated:

Select "PostScript file name" if you wish to generate file names based on the
PostScript file. If you converse a ps files called "test.ps" the output file 
will called "test.pdf". Or select "source document file name" if you want to 
use the file name from the source file, e.g. the name from the StarOffice 
document "document.sdw" will transcribed to "document.pdf". 
ePDF will try to read this name from the postscript file. This works fine with 
documents created by using printer redirection to a ps file (e.g. with 
printmon).

If you like to use ePDF on a server (using the new auto run parameter) to 
create PDFs without any user interaction, then its a good idea to enable the 
option "time prefix". You will get unique file names to avoid overwriting of 
existing files.



>>> Page 5: options

 The PostScript file needs to be modified to include the PDF INFO data prior
to conversion. If you don't want this to happen, check "don't modify the
postscript file". ePDF will then copy all data to a temporary file which is
being deleted thereafter. This will slow down the process somewhat, and you
will need sufficient free space on your hard disk.

 If you don't need the PostScript file after successful conversion to PDF, you
may chose to automatically delete it. Use this option only if you have NO
problems with converting a file (or you may easily recreate it).
 If you want to use "PrintMon PS" is is a good idea to check "delete
PostScript file after conversion", otherwise the additional temporary PS files
(created by using PrintMon) will not deleted.

 In case you do not select either option, your original PostScript file will
remain on your disk, yet modified with the PDF INFO you've added.

 To hear a short beep after program completion, please check this option.

 You may enable STDIO to assist your reporting any bugs. This options
enables the output of any (error) messages to a rexx console. If required,
please copy the contents and send the output to us if you need to report a bug
in ePDF.

 Finally, if you wish that ePDF will be automatically closed after the PDF 
conversion, then enable the last checkbox.

 PRINTMON:

 ONLY if you intend to use "PrintMon PS" (the printer queue redirection to
ePDF) you have to specify a printer port to be monitored. Open the settings
dialog of the "PrintMon PS" Object in the ePDF folder and enter a port name in
the parameter field (e.g. lpt3). This must be a port which has NO printer
attached! Thereafter open the settings dialog of your postscript driver,
select the "output ports" page and chose the corresponding port. Do NOT select
'output to a file' when using "PrintMon PS" since there is no PostScript file
being generated. Feel free to add a reference of "PrintMon PS" to your StartUp
folder; otherwise you will have to restart PrintMon PS every time you want to
use ePDF.


 USE:

 First you must create a PostScript file by redirecting your printer output to
a file (NOT required when using "PrintMon PS", see below). We recommend
installation of the "HP Designjet 750C/PS" (from the plotters package) driver
from IBM. With this driver you can create coloured postscript files with large
pages. Another good choices are the driver for the "Apple Laserwriter 16/600PS"
and for the "Apple Color Laserwriter 12/600PS" (from the postscript package). 
Please remember that (i) you do not need the PS printer itself to successfully 
use the appropriate PostScript printer driver and (ii) that depending on your 
problem, different printer drivers may produce greatly differing results.

Get printer drivers from IBMs OS/2 Device Driver Pak On-Line:
http://service5.boulder.ibm.com/2bcprod.nsf

Hints for printer setup:
- Select a value of 999 max loaded fonts under options in the printer driver 
properties dialog to disable the limition of the number of loaded fonts.
- Disable 'print during spooling'.
- Enable usage of 'system fonts', and disable 'printer fonts'.
- If you get error messages about not conformable forms, then enable '
overwriting of not conformable forms.

 Once generated by e.g. your word processor/printer driver, you may select a
PostScript file for conversion from the FILE menu.

 It is also possible to start ePDF from commandline with the PS-filename as
parameter, or drag & drop PostScript files onto the ePDF program object. Drag
& drop of PS-files to the open ePDF main window is also possible by dropping
the files to the window's background.

 ePDF will automatically assign a PDF filename in the same path and display
the resulting filename & path a editable field, in case you chose to use a
different name. A right mouse button click on the PDF file entry field opens
the parent folder of the selected/displayed pdf file.

 If you have "PrintMon PS" running, ePDF will start up automatically once you
print a file from your application to the specified port (i.e. the one that is
monitored by 'PrintMon PS'). Enter a PDF file name with full path and drive in
the main window of ePDF. Please remember that when using "PrintMon PS" you 
do not create a 'permanent' PostScript file. Also be sure that you only print
with a postscript printer driver to this port!

 Make a choice from "PDF settings" menu to use the appropriate Distiller
parameters for your data.

 Finally fill in and /or replace the PDF DOC info field entries and hit 'Ok'
to start the conversion.
 Leave the 'title' field blank if you want to use the filename of the source
document as the title.


 COMMAND LINE OPTIONS

syntax: epdf[.exe] inputfile options

inputfile
 an existing file that will be conversed to PDF;
 enter file name with full path and drive

/A
 automatic conversion, no interaction is possible

 sample:
   ePFD.exe c:\temp\postscript.ps /A

More options will comming soon.



 ATTENTION: 

 The PostScript file will appended/edited by ePDF but should never be damaged.
However, in case you experience troubles with a conversion, please use the
"don't modify ps file" check box on last page of the properties dialog.


 AVAILABILITY:

The latest version of ePDF may be found at http://www.subsys.de/ePDF/
 Please send comments, suggestions or bug reports to mail@subsys.de using
"ePDF" in the subject line of your email.


 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

Thanks to (alphabetical order):

 Jaime A. Cruz, Jr. for the ingenious "Poor man's Distiller", that brings the
idea to use PrintMon for printer redirection.

 all the beta testers, especially Daniel Goellnitz, Philip Griffin-Allwood, 
Martin R. Hadam and Rudolf Hoeger for heavy betatesting and suggestions.

 Martin R. Hadam for reformating and debuging of this readme file

 Andreas Ludwig, for creating the WPI archive

 Kai Uwe Rommel for the great PrintMon tool.


 HISTORY:

 version 2.0 beta 5
- new option: optimize
With this option PDFs will be created linearized. This means that the the file 
structure will be optimized. You are able to load such PDFs page by page from
the web (streaming). In much cases the file size will increase, because e.g. 
multiple used images will be saved only one time in the pdf file.
This new features causes a second GhostSctript launch, and you will need the
double value of disk space as the PDF file needs.
You will find the option in parameter setup.
- bugfix for file name generation based on source document (invalid characters
will be translated to "-", SPACE and "." will translated to "_")
- bugfix for temp-dir request
- bugfix in psdump.cmd
- new feature: the extended attribute "ACROBAT DOCUMENT" will be added to the 
PDF file after creation. With this feature it is possible to create filenames 
without a "pdf" extension and to open such a file with a double click from the 
WPS. But its recommended to use a pdf extension for files which will be 
broadcasted


 version 2.0 beta 4
- bugfix for file name generation
- smaller main window size

 version 2.0 beta 3
- new listboxes to select distiller and parameter profiles (
- application relaunch after setup not longer required
- optimized internal routines
- new notebook page: PDF file, for better generation of PDF file names,
- new command line parameter to run ePDF without user interaction
- new option: 'close ePDF after PDF creation'


 version 2.0 beta 2
- minor bugs fixed
- position and size of parameter setup window will now be saved

 version 2.0 beta 1
- management for different distiller and parameters added
- GUI for parameter setup added


 version 1.0
 - minor bugs fixed
 - changed program name from "PS2PDF" to "ePDF" to avoid confusion due to the
a GhostScript routine of the same name.
 - new eCs-like about dialog

 version 0.7-0.9
 - lot of bugs fixed on ePDF.exe, Print2PS.cmd, PSDump.cmd
 - drag and drop of PS files to program window enabled
 - management for different PDF setups added
 - right mouse button on the PDF file entry field opens the parent folder of
the selected/displayed pdf file

 version 0.6
 - Printer device redirection of PostScript data to PS2PDF (now called ePDF)
(using PrintMon by Kai Uwe Rommel)

 version 0.5
 - fixed PDFDocEncoding

 version 0.4
 - set CreationDate to PDF file
 - fixed PDFDocEncoding
 - fixed install.cmd
 - 'enable STDIO' and 'dont modify ps file' check boxes at options page in
properties

 version 0.3
 - PDFDocEncoding (for umlauts and special chars) The routine was written for
a translation from codepage 850 to PDFDocEncoding, but it should work for most
chars from CP 437.
 - 'beep' enable / disable checkbox at options page in properties
 - some bugs fixed
 - install script


 Frank Wochatz
 Berlin, 04. Jan 2002
