[PLUG] ps2ascii not working: GS-8.63

[Rogan Creswick]

On Thu, Oct 15, 2009 at 8:37 AM, Rich Shepard <rshepard at appl-ecosys.com> wrote:
>   I've the GNU Ghostscript-8.63 installed, but when I try to convert a
> printed Web page (*.ps) to text (*.txt), I get what appears to be raw
> PostScript rather than ASCII text. I'm using Firefox-3.0.14.

I've noticed some glaring regressions in the printed output from
firefox in the 3.0 series.  A *lot* of new font "stuff" was added (eg:
ligatures) and it looks a bit like that impacted the printed output
pretty negatively... letter spacing (kerning?) is often very
inconsistent, to the point that I can't bear to read printed FF output
anymore.

Anyway, it's possible that Firefox is just producing really ugly PS.
If so, then Firefox may be the only thing affected by this problem,
and you could use something else to get text from web pages (lynx and
w3m will do it).  Or <cough> switch to Opera :)  (I would suggest
chrome, but it also has sub-optimal printed output.  Better than
Firefox, but not great:  http://imgur.com/A595C.png Take a look at
"just works" and "flexible" in that image to see some of the
differences.)

--Rogan


>
>   Has anyone else encountered this? Is it related to a more current version
> of PS than that supported by ps2ascii? Are there alternative tools I could
> use?
>
> Rich
>
> --
> Richard B. Shepard, Ph.D.               |  Integrity            Credibility
> Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc.        |            Innovation
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