open .eps files: often get an error

**Holger** · 05 February 2009, 06:55 PM

hello,
trying to open many of the .eps-files I have collected, Xara produces only an error-messag. it says always:
"Error in EPS-file in Line 13255 [3]" (the line numbers are always different).
but some other of my .eps I can open without any problem.

what could be the reason for the error in so many eps-files?

thanks

Holger

Oh sorry, saw the thread by Col. Mustard.
I think, the answer is to find there.
Maybe the patch will fix this problem.
But for foreign users like me it will last some month before the patch is localized. to sad...

**steve.ledger** · 05 February 2009, 07:55 PM

All EPS files are not created equal.

There's plenty of threads which discuss this problem.
PDF has largley replaced the need for EPS in a modern world.

**Holger** · 05 February 2009, 08:02 PM

thank you.
until the 4.01 patch for my version is released, I think about buying Adobe Illustrator CS4 as an external tool for converting file formats...

**steve.ledger** · 05 February 2009, 08:05 PM

Even with the 4.01 update patch, many EPS still do not open.
Improved, but not 100% solved.

**Holger** · 05 February 2009, 08:08 PM

too sad, that there is no freeware "all eps into any other, especially pdf-converter" (okay, would spend some money for it too).

**steve.ledger** · 05 February 2009, 08:14 PM

Not really.
There are plenty of EPS converters out there, but they convert EPS to a bitmap (JPG, PNG, GIF etc)
But again, they too will fail to open some EPS files.

**Holger** · 05 February 2009, 08:53 PM

the eps to pdf converter is obviously a market-gap.
but... why I never thought about it, I could use Acrobat Profess. at the business to convert... mhmm, will try it.

**Holger** · 10 February 2009, 06:11 PM

now I know from the support that .eps files made with photoshop are the big problem.
it is not fixerd yet.

**Soquili** · 10 February 2009, 07:35 PM

Holger the eps files created by Photoshop are bitmaps with an eps header.

**DGehman** · 11 February 2009, 02:54 PM

Ghostscript and its Windows front end, GSview can open, display and then save EPS as PDF. At least it can in the iteration that I have, GSview 4.7.

The key in GSview is to output the EPS via the File > Convert menu, selecting pdfwrite.

I don't have a version of Xara that handles incoming PDF, so I can't say if it will work, but the software is free. See the Wikipedia entry on Ghostscript. The output PDF does work just fine in Serif PagePlus and Foxit reader, for whatever that's worth.

I remember the application download process being totally geeky, and that I had to guess at what to choose. This was in 2005, so I don't remember any details.

I also don't remember if the pdfwrite converter comes with GSview or whether you have to download a further converter pack.

Dave

EDIT: looks as though this is bitmap output as well. There might be a PDF printer driver type converter that maintains vectors -- I don't know. However, I don't think that the Foxit driver or the PDF995 driver maintains vectors.

Yet another EDIT: the GSview output via pdfwrite *IS* a vector in Inkscape... You have to ungroup quite a bit to get to the bits and pieces.