Encapsulated Post Script (eps) art files are mainly used by artists and graphic designers with specific equipment configurations.

PAGES provides eps files as a courtesy to our few customers who use them. There is no new content in the eps files you see listed on the compressed collections page of each issue; they are the same art files as the TIF files.

EPS files have two advantages over TIF files that make eps file appealing to graphic designers. First, you can break eps files apart and take one part of a picture out of the whole. Second, eps files are typically used to combine text and graphics for pre-press uses because eps files are highly scalable and don't become "bitmappy."

The problem is that you need special equipment to print out eps files and you need special (expensive) software to use eps files.

Here are a series of questions for you to see if you can use the PAGES eps files:

Do you actually use a Macintosh computer?
Do you have a postscript printer? (Not all laser printers are postscript.)

Generally you would use an eps file only if the answers to those questions were "yes."

HOWEVER.... (there is always an exception....)

You might use eps files if you have a PC, assuming you have a POSTSCRIPT laser printer. But you would need special software.

You might use eps files if you do not have a postscript laser printer, IF you use Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop software (or some other vector- and dot-based drawing programs like Corel Draw). If you do use Illustrator, then you might want to open the eps files and break them apart so you could use just part of an illustration, for example. Then, even if you didn't have a postscript printer, you could import the files into Photoshop and print them out to your non-postscript laser printer.