2013/02/15
pkfix for those ugly postscript files
This tool, pkfix, is so useful, I cannot even breathe right now. Some old PostScript files generated through the LaTeX/DVI process use bitmap fonts, and when converted to PDF, their texts look ugly or fuzzy, and are unsearchable. People put these up without the source, and it appeared we were out of luck.
Not so! Using pkfix, the bitmap fonts are replaced in the PS file by their equivalent vector font counterparts on the system. Once that’s done, and the PS converted to PDF, the text looks sharp with that freshly typeset look. Search also works.
