[NTLUG:Discuss] OT: PS viewer and Acrobat Reader 9

[Fred James]

Stuart Johnston wrote:
> (omissions for brevity)
>> That would work if Acrobat 9 was not required to be able to fill in the
>> fillable form ... only print to file option there is *.ps
>
> Have you tried evince for filling in the original PDF?  It worked with 
> the IRS PDF I tried but if your PDFs are locked somehow, I don't know.
>
> Did you have any luck converting the PS file to PDF using Chris's 
> script or ps2pdf directly?
'evince' is (on this fillable form at least) quirky at best ...
    tab to the next field does not work
    check boxes do not work (do not fill)
    clicking on the next field can make the contents of the last field 
"disappear" ... clicking on that "disappeared" field brings the contents 
back
... However ...
    the form can be printed to file in PDF format, and that new PDF can 
be open nicely ... it should be noted that it is no longer a fillable 
form at that point (not a problem for me in this case).

... ps2pdf ...
    the original PDF is encrypted and copyrighted ... ps2pdf will abort 
with the message:  "This PostScript file was created from an encrypted 
PDF file.
Redistilling encrypted PDF is not permitted."  Which for legal reasons 
is as it should be.
    I had already tried ps2pdf before Chris's script arrived, so while I 
haven't tried the script it looks good to me.
Regards
Fred James