Stock EPS files saved in the Illustrator 8 format failed with "typecheck in `a
dictionary`": its gradient procset builds shading dictionaries with `bd` …
`ed`, where `ed` is `(>>) cvx` (or a Level 1 dictionary builder as a
string), and `cvx` left a string literal, so `shfill` got a string. Its
`discard` procedure also `load`s procedures by integer keys, which `load`
refused.
- Executable strings: `cvx` makes a string executable (`xcheck` true,
`cvlit` back, still a `stringtype` for `length`/`get`/`forall`/
`getinterval`); run by name or met in a procedure, it runs its text as a
program, every time (an executable file shares the same runner).
- `load` takes any key (integers, booleans), as `where` already did.
- Test: an Illustrator 8-style gradient procset with both `ed` forms and
`discard`; the import fuzz vocabulary has executable strings and integer
keys. An Illustrator 2026 file saved in the Illustrator 8 format (made
here, not committed) now opens as vectors with its radial gradient.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Discord feedback: "EPS files are always rasterized: they open as bitmaps, in
other programs as vectors". Every EPS saved by Illustrator 2026 fell back to
its TIFF preview (`gcheck` was unknown), and cairo/Inkscape files stopped at
their first image (`status`), dropped masked images (ImageType 3) and failed
on mesh gradients; the warning didn't say where the program failed.
Fallback never silent:
- The warning names the PostScript error, the operator that raised it and
the named procedures it ran in, innermost first ("a PostScript error
(typecheck in `add`), in `inner` in `outer`"); errors caught by `stopped`
aren't reported. It reaches the status bar, document.open, app.open and
file.open (which now return document.open's result, so MCP's open_file over
the control channel gets it), and `vectorcraft-cli info` ("warnings").
- A file whose PostScript can't be read opens as its TIFF preview, else its
Windows metafile preview (as vectors, scaled to the bounding box), else its
EPSI bitmap. es @msg rows for the new messages.
Interpreter:
- Operators programs probe or use: gcheck/scheck, rootfont,
currentcolorrendering, currenthsbcolor, status, token, read,
bytesavailable, fileposition/setfileposition, resetfile, write*, pdfmark
(marks dropped, as Ghostscript does), execform, nulldevice, strokepath,
pathforall, user paths (ufill/ueofill/ustroke/uappend/upath/setbbox, the
encoded form too), setcachedevice2, findcolorrendering, cache, device and
VM queries, revision; (%stdout) (w) file gives a sink.
- `//name` is replaced by its value when read, inside procedures too.
- Tiling patterns become pattern swatches (their PaintProc drawn in pattern
space, one cell; uncoloured ones in the colour under them; makepattern
copies share one swatch); nested patterns stop at 8 levels.
- Type 3 fonts draw their glyphs (BuildGlyph/BuildChar, widths from
setcachedevice/setcharwidth) as outlines grouped per string, spaced by
ashow/widthshow/awidthshow/xshow/yshow/xyshow/kshow; glyphshow and
stringwidth/cshow use them.
- Shadings of types 1 and 4-7 become gradient meshes (data from arrays,
strings or files, packed or not, flags sharing edges), as fills through a
shading pattern too; sampled functions (type 0) are evaluated;
GradientMesh::coons/triangle are shared with PDF import.
- ImageType 3 masked images, interleaved by sample, by row or in separate
sources; ReusableStreamDecode reads its data when made; Flate/LZW PNG and
TIFF predictors.
- Bounded: DeviceN at 32 inks, sampled functions at 2^24 samples and 32
outputs, 4096 patches a shading, strokepath ignores dashes finer than 1e5
pieces, Type 3 glyphs nest 8 deep (a glyph that shows itself overflowed the
stack before the limit), 64-bit index maths for 32-bit targets.
Tests: a synthetic program per generator (cairo/Inkscape, its Type 3 fonts,
matplotlib, CorelDRAW, Affinity, LibreOffice, Ghostscript eps2write,
Illustrator procsets), meshes and function shadings, masked images, fault
messages, probing operators, metafile/EPSI previews, `//name`, user paths,
hostile patterns/glyphs/shadings (run against main, 12 of the 14 generator
and feature tests fail; CorelDRAW- and LibreOffice-style programs already
read there). The import fuzz vocabulary covers the new operators. Checked
against real files made here with Inkscape 1.4 (cairo) and Illustrator 2026
(its own format and the CS-to-CC compatibility formats; all fell back or
stopped early on main and open as vectors now; its Illustrator 8 format
needs the next commit); those files aren't committed.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Legacy PostScript .ai files (Illustrator 3-8, and their EPS) open through
the EPS interpreter, which only recorded what was drawn: every group came
in flattened. In a file in Illustrator's format (its %AI comments, or
Illustrator named as the creator) the `u` ... `U` it writes at the top
level now open and close groups, whatever its prolog defines them as, so
groups come in nested as they were, between and inside clipping groups.
clipnest's Clip carries an optional region: without one it is a plain
group, nested in the same chain as the clips (ids given in opening order,
so a chain of clips and groups sorts by id).
Clips nested without end used to nest clipping groups past the stack
(a stack overflow in EPS and EMF/WMF import): clips and groups now nest
at most 128 deep with a warning, and each object's chain counts against
the EPS reader's drawing budget.
PDF-compatible .ai (Illustrator 9+) can't get the same: its PDF content
draws each object on its own and doesn't mark plain groups (only layers,
clipping groups and groups with opacity, blending or a mask, which
already come back); the groups live only in the private data, which is
out of scope. Documented in ROADMAP and docs/mcp.md.
Addresses Discord feedback.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Laying out type (show, stringwidth, cshow) costs about 300 operations plus
64 a character, measured, and now counts that much against MAX_OPS: a
300-byte file running cshow over a 4 MB string took 60 s, and
{ (a) stringwidth pop pop } loop ran for over 5 minutes (already the case on
main); both now stop with "the program runs too long" within seconds.
Tests: executable filters run inside themselves stop at the nesting limit
(directly, mutually and under stopped), currentfile cvx exec runs nothing
twice, cshow over a long string is refused; the hostile PostScript fuzz
tokens gain self-recursive filter execution, currentfile filters, cvlit and
cshow.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
#249 made the reduced repros of #234 open, but a real file saved by the
reference app (version 30) still fell back to its screen-resolution preview
with "typecheck in `a dictionary`". Running its prolog to the end needed:
- The standard dictionaries (systemdict, userdict, globaldict, statusdict,
errordict, $error) as values in systemdict, so `/globaldict where
{ /globaldict get begin } if` gets a dictionary, not an operator.
SharedFontDirectory names the font directory too. errordict has a
handleerror for prologs that wrap it.
- `dictstack`, `internaldict`, `currentsystemparams` and
`currentuserparams` (with the cache sizes programs `get`), and `cshow`.
- Executable files: `cvx` and `cvlit` set a file's attribute, `xcheck`
reads it, and executing one runs its data as a program, as the prolog
does with `(...) 0 () /SubFileDecode filter cvx exec`.
- SubFileDecode with a count of 0 and an empty end string passes its
whole source through instead of nothing.
- `flushfile` on a filter over the program's data skips that data (the
file's XMP packet). A filter chained from a pending one leaves it
nothing to skip, so the writer's own `VCsrc flushfile` is unchanged.
The interpreter empties its standard dictionaries when it finishes, since
systemdict now holds itself. Both real files tested now import as 15
vector paths in CMYK with no warnings, and round-trip through SVG and PDF
pixel for pixel. The EPS fuzzer exercises the new operators.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
EPS files the reference app saves (its procsets in the prolog, a binary header with a TIFF
preview) now open as editable art instead of failing with "undefinedresource in Generic". When
their PostScript still can't be read, the palette preview they carry is placed with the usual
warning instead of the file being refused.
Root cause: five interpreter gaps and one preview format. The Generic and Category resource
categories didn't exist, so categories couldn't be made from Generic (now Category holds the
standard categories, defineresource in Category makes new ones, undefineresource is added);
clipsave/cliprestore were unknown (now a clip stack in the graphics state); systemdict's
languagelevel was the operator, not the integer 3; getinterval copied arrays and strings
instead of sharing their storage, so astore into a subarray was lost (arrays and strings are
now views into shared storage, and readstring/readline return the part they fill); and
resourceforall was unknown (now enumerates matching names with * ? \ templates). The preview
is an 8-bit palette TIFF with an alpha sample, which the image crate can't decode: a small
bounds-checked reader handles that layout (either byte order, any strips).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
- Images distort as a raster mesh warp: cut by Fidelity into triangles,
each a clipped image under the affine map of its corners (pieces overlap
slightly, no seams; the renderer paints them without clip layers; SVG
writes the pixels once and <use>s them).
- Symbol instances distort as their symbol's art (the renderer's cache
follows edits to the symbol).
- Distort Appearance bakes strokes (filled outlines) and geometry effects
before bending; Distort Linear Gradients bends linear gradients; Distort
Pattern Fills bends the tiles. Opacity masks of the content bend too.
- Bug fix: a rotated, sheared or reflected warp envelope re-warped along
the page axes. Envelopes now keep their own frame (append-only model
field), so the warp turns with the art; move and scale keep it square.
- Live evaluation shares one set of hooks (vectorcraft_doc::live::Hooks,
vectorcraft_effects::{expand_live, expanded_live_group,
expand_live_deep}) between the canvas, Expand and every exporter.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Every exporter (SVG, PDF, EPS, EMF/WMF, DXF) evaluated live objects with no
text outliner, so type inside an envelope was written undistorted. They now
share vectorcraft_effects::expand_live_deep, which outlines type per run in
each run's paint, as the canvas now does too (it used the first run's paint
for the whole line).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Rust 1.99's clippy adds chunks_exact_to_as_chunks, and cargo clippy
--workspace --all-targets -D warnings (cargo xtask ci) failed on its eight
hits in metafile, pdf and eps. as_chunks gives fixed-size arrays, so the
loops read the same bytes without indexing into slices, and encrypt's
CBC loop takes the remainder from as_chunks instead of the iterator.
as_chunks is stable since 1.88.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01U9TrG4w49oSRYbP3cqxA3D
Opening, placing, pasting or importing a file, the font menus and MCP now find
the installed system fonts (Arial, Times New Roman...) in a fresh session, so a
file renders the same whatever happened earlier, and PDF import keeps the real
family names (Microsoft YaHei, not "Microsoft Ya Hei").
Root cause: FontDb only consulted the system font catalog, which stayed empty
until a CJK fallback or Character panel > Show System Fonts happened to scan
the font folders. Every lookup by family name (face, families, styles,
has_family) now waits for one cataloging scan per session: the app starts it
in the background, other processes run it on first use. The scan reads only
each file's table directory and name table (about 70 ms for 780 faces here,
instead of reading every font file whole), the catalog is indexed by family,
the family list is cached, and an installed style of a loaded family (a
bundled family also installed with more weights) loads when asked for.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
file.print {format: "postscript"} (the default for a .ps path) writes the
print job as Level 3 or 2 (level) PostScript instead of a PDF: DSC comments
with %%Pages the page count, one page per sheet with its paper size,
printer's marks in Registration, separations naming their ink (%%PlateColor)
with its halftone screen, a fixed flatness and film negatives. Transparency
is flattened first with flattenerPreset. The answer says which format was
written. In the app, a PostScript job is always saved, never sent to the
printer (the Print dialog's own options are unchanged).
The PDF print's layout is exposed as vectorcraft_pdf::plan (the PDF writer
uses it too); vectorcraft_eps::print draws its sheets with the EPS writer's
document walk, each sheet once however many copies print.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
document.open and file.place read .eps files and PostScript by any name
(PostScript .ai opens as artwork, .ait as a new untitled document). An EPS
file VectorCraft wrote restores the document it carries (restored: true);
other files run through a small clean-room PostScript interpreter (paths,
colours and spot inks, gsave/grestore, concat, line state, bind def,
procedures, loops and dictionaries, clips, shadings, images through the
decoding filters, type as point type), and fall back to their TIFF preview
with a warning when the program can't be read. Operation, nesting, memory
and path budgets keep hostile files from hanging or exhausting memory.
The clipping-group nesting the metafile reader used moves to
vectorcraft_doc::clipnest, shared by both readers.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
document.export {format: "tiff"} writes baseline TIFF through the raster
export path (resolution, background, anti-aliasing, artboard ranges):
colorModel rgb (transparency as unassociated alpha), cmyk (ink amounts,
CMYK colours keep their inks) or gray, lzw (weezl), byteOrder little (II)
or big (MM), embedIcc, and the resolution tags. Export As offers it with
the tiffOptions dialog; TIFF moves from read-only to read and write.
The TIFF writer is shared: EPS previews now use it (and its PackBits)
instead of their own copy, so eps depends on render (layers allow it).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
New crates/eps (L3): a hand-written EPS writer. A DSC header with
%%BoundingBox and %%HiResBoundingBox (y up from the origin), %%LanguageLevel
and spot colours; paths filled and stroked with caps, joins, miter limits
and dashes (strokes a plain line can't draw as filled outlines, brushes as
their art), clipping groups, linear and radial gradients as smooth
shadings at Level 3 and stepped fills at Level 2 or with compatible
gradient printing, patterns as tiles, freeform gradients and placed images
as images (Flate with masked transparent pixels at Level 3, run-length at
Level 2), type as glyph outlines, spot colours as Separation spaces and
overprints when preserved; RGB written as CMYK on request. A TIFF preview
(1-bit or colour, transparent or opaque) behind the binary header, a PNG
thumbnail and the native document in comments (eps::native and
eps::thumbnail read them back for a later import).
document.export {format: eps} and document.exportEps: transparency is
flattened first with a flattener preset (built-in or saved) and options;
the visible art's bounds, or with useArtboards one file per artboard named
{stem}_{artboard}.eps. Export As lists EPS, then EPS Options
(ui.epsOptionsDialog for agents, remembered between exports).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
bflatastic
EthanSuquet
theironchef