[LOW] STR #1907: Problem printing GMT PostScript

[John M Kuhn]

Helge Blischke wrote:
> Michael Sweet wrote:
> > [STR Closed w/o Resolution]
> >
> > This file does not conform to the Adobe Document Structuring Conventions,
> > yet claims to be conformant.
> >
> > The main issues are:
> >
> >     1. There are two %%EndProlog comments in the file
> >     2. The #copies variable is set outside the Begin/EndSetup block and
> > does not use Begin/EndFeature, making it impossible to override the number
> > of copies.
> >     3. The scale command in the Begin/EndSetup block is illegal in that
> > context - it must appear in the Begin/EndPageSetup since it affects the
> > graphics state.
> That is not true. The DSC spec (5001.DSC_Spec_v3.0.pdf) states concerning
> the setup section:
> 	� The document setup section is denoted by the %%Begin(End)Setup
> 	comments. The document setup should consist of procedure calls for
> 	invoking media selections (for example, setting page size), running
> 	initialization routines for procsets, downloading a font or other resource,
> 	or setting some aspect of the graphics state. This section should appear
> 	after the %%EndProlog comment, but before the first %%Page: comment.
> and, later on, dealing with page independence:
> 	Pages should not have any inter-dependencies. Each page may rely on
> 	certain PostScript language operations defined in the document prolog or in
> 	the document setup section, ...
>
> Thus, the scale command in the setup section is perfecly legal (though the cited
> document warns on possible pitfalls by relying in graphics state settings in the
> document setup section later on.

I want to thank Helge and Michael for helping me to understand
the printing problem that I am having.  I have contacted the GMT
authors and they are going to move the scale command to the
PageSetup.

I am not an expert on PostScript, but what I have read indicates
that anything that would be affected by initgraphics, such as
scale, should not be done in the Setup block.

John