Legacy ImageMagick Discussions Archive

How can I detect the postscript level of an EPS file?

There is no easy, straightforward, reliable way to detect the PostScript level of an EPS (or of any other PostScript file).

Some PS files may provide it as a DSC comment like '%%LanguageLevel: 2' (which may be supplemented by '%%Extensions:'. But you cannot trust this, it may be wrong.

More reliable would be to check the complete code of the file for PostScript language operators (keywords) which were defined only for PS Level 2 or for PostScript 3.

To check for details about this, see...

1. ...Chapter 1.3. "1.3 LanguageLevel 3 Overview" of the PLRM, and
2. ...APPENDIX A: "LanguageLevel Feature Summary" of the PLRM

The PostScript Language Reference & Manual (PLRM) is available here: https://www.adobe.com/products/postscript/pdfs/PLRM.pdf.