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>
file.print {format: "postscript"} (the default for a .ps path) writes the
print job as Level 3 or 2 (level) PostScript instead of a PDF: DSC comments
with %%Pages the page count, one page per sheet with its paper size,
printer's marks in Registration, separations naming their ink (%%PlateColor)
with its halftone screen, a fixed flatness and film negatives. Transparency
is flattened first with flattenerPreset. The answer says which format was
written. In the app, a PostScript job is always saved, never sent to the
printer (the Print dialog's own options are unchanged).
The PDF print's layout is exposed as vectorcraft_pdf::plan (the PDF writer
uses it too); vectorcraft_eps::print draws its sheets with the EPS writer's
document walk, each sheet once however many copies print.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
document.open and file.place read .eps files and PostScript by any name
(PostScript .ai opens as artwork, .ait as a new untitled document). An EPS
file VectorCraft wrote restores the document it carries (restored: true);
other files run through a small clean-room PostScript interpreter (paths,
colours and spot inks, gsave/grestore, concat, line state, bind def,
procedures, loops and dictionaries, clips, shadings, images through the
decoding filters, type as point type), and fall back to their TIFF preview
with a warning when the program can't be read. Operation, nesting, memory
and path budgets keep hostile files from hanging or exhausting memory.
The clipping-group nesting the metafile reader used moves to
vectorcraft_doc::clipnest, shared by both readers.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
New crates/eps (L3): a hand-written EPS writer. A DSC header with
%%BoundingBox and %%HiResBoundingBox (y up from the origin), %%LanguageLevel
and spot colours; paths filled and stroked with caps, joins, miter limits
and dashes (strokes a plain line can't draw as filled outlines, brushes as
their art), clipping groups, linear and radial gradients as smooth
shadings at Level 3 and stepped fills at Level 2 or with compatible
gradient printing, patterns as tiles, freeform gradients and placed images
as images (Flate with masked transparent pixels at Level 3, run-length at
Level 2), type as glyph outlines, spot colours as Separation spaces and
overprints when preserved; RGB written as CMYK on request. A TIFF preview
(1-bit or colour, transparent or opaque) behind the binary header, a PNG
thumbnail and the native document in comments (eps::native and
eps::thumbnail read them back for a later import).
document.export {format: eps} and document.exportEps: transparency is
flattened first with a flattener preset (built-in or saved) and options;
the visible art's bounds, or with useArtboards one file per artboard named
{stem}_{artboard}.eps. Export As lists EPS, then EPS Options
(ui.epsOptionsDialog for agents, remembered between exports).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
