Compressed Postscript Documents - FAQ

What is a Compressed Postscript (.psz) File?

A compressed postscript file represents a single document compressed to a reduced file size in order to accomodate faster file transfers over the Internet. The data compression achieved is approximately a 4:1 ratio. This means that a 1MB postscript file compresses to 250KB and transfer time is about one-fourth that of the uncompressed files.

Users receiving the compressed document over the Internet will need to uncompress the file before printing. For MS Windows platforms, a print spooler is provided by Texas Instruments. Unix, Macintosh, and other users can obtain free uncompression utilities from the Info-ZIP website.

NOTE: Info-ZIP software is not supported by Texas Instruments Incorporated.

How was it generated?

The compressed file was generated with Info-ZIP compression software. Info-ZIP was chosen because it supports multiple hardware platforms, including: Unix, VMS, OS/2, MS-DOS, MS Windows, Windows NT/95, AmigaDOS, Atari TOS, Macintosh, Acorn RISCOS and Human68K (Japanese).

The TINETSPL print spooler software supplied by Texas Instruments only supports the MS Windows environment. Unix, Macintosh, and other users should refer to the Info-ZIP website.

What can I do with a Compressed Postscript File?

For MS Windows users a print spooler program is provided. This utility will extract and print the compressed postscript files as requested by the user. The program can be invoked within Panorama or simply from a hypertext link provided by the search pages.

Users may chose to view postscript files from their workstation, instead of printing. The ghostview utility allows viewing of postscript files. Note that .psz files must be uncompressed before they can be viewed, using one of the unzip utilities listed below.

NOTE: The Ghostview utility is not supported by Texas Instruments Incorporated.

Are other compression programs compatible with Info-Zip?

Info-ZIP's compression utilities are compatible with the DOS-based PKZIP by PKWARE, Inc. and with GNU's gzip. Info-ZIP code has also been incorporated into a number of "off the shelf" products in both commercial and freeware categories. Some of these products include IBM's OS/2 Warp BonusPak, IBM WebExplorer, WinZip and DyanaZIP.