problems with psset & fixps

[Michal Szymanski]

Hello,

I've been using "a2ps" for years. Recently, I installed "apsfilter"
as the default PS filter for my printing subsystem (mainly Linux
machines). "Apsfilter" uses "a2ps" by default for pretty-printing.

To my confusion, there are PS files (generated by some old, simple
pretty-printing software which is still used by me and my collegues)
which, after being filtered, print out with ugly fonts, with the header
cropped etc.

After investigating the "apsfilter" operation I've found that it
filters all files, even PS files, through "psset -n -q -s"
("-s" is changed to "-t" or "-d" for duplex printing).
With "a2ps" 4.12 everything is working fine, as "psset" in this version
truly honors "-n" option and do not invokes "fixps". In 4.13b-15,
however, "psset -n" invokes "fixps -n" but for some reason, on the files
in question, it finds "DSC" to be broken and completely rewrites the
file with ghostscript, ignoring "-n" option. The result is as I stated
above - ugly fonts, cropped pages. I do not know why but I am really
confused. I do not know how important DSC is (whatever it means) but I
think the filters should honor "do not invoke fixps" flag.

The original files are pretty OK, even with DSC broken. For those
interested in seeing how bad they look after being filtered, please look
at: 

ftp://ftp.astrouw.edu.pl/pub/msz/orig.ps
ftp://ftp.astrouw.edu.pl/pub/msz/filtered.ps
  
Any hints how could that be fixed? Would the change of just "psset" to older
version break anything else in "a2ps" package?

regards, Michal.

-- 
  Michal Szymanski (address@hidden)
  Warsaw University Observatory, Warszawa, POLAND