Discord feedback: "EPS files are always rasterized: they open as bitmaps, in
other programs as vectors". Every EPS saved by Illustrator 2026 fell back to
its TIFF preview (`gcheck` was unknown), and cairo/Inkscape files stopped at
their first image (`status`), dropped masked images (ImageType 3) and failed
on mesh gradients; the warning didn't say where the program failed.
Fallback never silent:
- The warning names the PostScript error, the operator that raised it and
the named procedures it ran in, innermost first ("a PostScript error
(typecheck in `add`), in `inner` in `outer`"); errors caught by `stopped`
aren't reported. It reaches the status bar, document.open, app.open and
file.open (which now return document.open's result, so MCP's open_file over
the control channel gets it), and `vectorcraft-cli info` ("warnings").
- A file whose PostScript can't be read opens as its TIFF preview, else its
Windows metafile preview (as vectors, scaled to the bounding box), else its
EPSI bitmap. es @msg rows for the new messages.
Interpreter:
- Operators programs probe or use: gcheck/scheck, rootfont,
currentcolorrendering, currenthsbcolor, status, token, read,
bytesavailable, fileposition/setfileposition, resetfile, write*, pdfmark
(marks dropped, as Ghostscript does), execform, nulldevice, strokepath,
pathforall, user paths (ufill/ueofill/ustroke/uappend/upath/setbbox, the
encoded form too), setcachedevice2, findcolorrendering, cache, device and
VM queries, revision; (%stdout) (w) file gives a sink.
- `//name` is replaced by its value when read, inside procedures too.
- Tiling patterns become pattern swatches (their PaintProc drawn in pattern
space, one cell; uncoloured ones in the colour under them; makepattern
copies share one swatch); nested patterns stop at 8 levels.
- Type 3 fonts draw their glyphs (BuildGlyph/BuildChar, widths from
setcachedevice/setcharwidth) as outlines grouped per string, spaced by
ashow/widthshow/awidthshow/xshow/yshow/xyshow/kshow; glyphshow and
stringwidth/cshow use them.
- Shadings of types 1 and 4-7 become gradient meshes (data from arrays,
strings or files, packed or not, flags sharing edges), as fills through a
shading pattern too; sampled functions (type 0) are evaluated;
GradientMesh::coons/triangle are shared with PDF import.
- ImageType 3 masked images, interleaved by sample, by row or in separate
sources; ReusableStreamDecode reads its data when made; Flate/LZW PNG and
TIFF predictors.
- Bounded: DeviceN at 32 inks, sampled functions at 2^24 samples and 32
outputs, 4096 patches a shading, strokepath ignores dashes finer than 1e5
pieces, Type 3 glyphs nest 8 deep (a glyph that shows itself overflowed the
stack before the limit), 64-bit index maths for 32-bit targets.
Tests: a synthetic program per generator (cairo/Inkscape, its Type 3 fonts,
matplotlib, CorelDRAW, Affinity, LibreOffice, Ghostscript eps2write,
Illustrator procsets), meshes and function shadings, masked images, fault
messages, probing operators, metafile/EPSI previews, `//name`, user paths,
hostile patterns/glyphs/shadings (run against main, 12 of the 14 generator
and feature tests fail; CorelDRAW- and LibreOffice-style programs already
read there). The import fuzz vocabulary covers the new operators. Checked
against real files made here with Inkscape 1.4 (cairo) and Illustrator 2026
(its own format and the CS-to-CC compatibility formats; all fell back or
stopped early on main and open as vectors now; its Illustrator 8 format
needs the next commit); those files aren't committed.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Luminosity soft masks become opacity masks (alpha masks as a white copy of
their art; backdrop colour gives Clip, an inverting transfer function Invert;
the PDF export's backdrop and Difference covers read back as the options; a
constant alpha mask is opacity). Transparency groups keep their /I and /K
flags (read by walking the content as the interpreter does). Tiling patterns
become pattern swatches (one per colour for uncoloured ones). Text becomes
point type, one object per line with a run per font and paint, fonts named
from the file (document.open textAs: text | outlines). Patch and triangle
mesh shadings become gradient meshes; gradients drawn through their grey
opacity mask get stop opacity back; shadings that don't extend clip the art.
A rectangular clip around all its art (a form's box) is dropped.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
