Trouble using pstopdf in Sonoma

[Herbert Schulz]

> On Nov 26, 2023, at 9:15 AM, Anthony Davison via mactex-support <mactex-support at tug.org> wrote:
> 
> I’ve just upgraded my OS to Sonoma 14.1.1 and have discovered (after being unable to compile files with the TeX + dvi + distiller option) that Apple support for postscript has disappeared in Sonoma.  A consequence of this is that pstopdf is not found in /usr/bin/ and therefore the simpdftex script doesn’t work.
> 
> Example output is here:
> 
>> ### Saving intermediary ps file /tmp/altpdflatex.72143-1701006856/RMplan2023.ps as RMplan2023.ps
>> ### /usr/bin/pstopdf  /tmp/altpdflatex.72143-1701006856/RMplan2023.ps /tmp/altpdflatex.72143-1701006856/RMplan2023.pdf
>> /Library/TeX/texbin/simpdftex: line 512: /usr/bin/pstopdf: No such file or directory
>> ### FAILED to generate /tmp/altpdflatex.72143-1701006856/RMplan2023.pdf ()
>> 
> 
> I have tried putting pstopdf into /usr/local/bin but this doesn’t work.  
> 
> I’m puzzled because the 2023 MacTeX update says it is for Sonoma, so I guess I can’t be the only person to have this problem, but I can’t (yet) find a solution on the web.  I have installed the most recent TeX Live version, and updated all the packages, but that doesn’t seem to cure it. 
> 
> I use a lot of .ps and .eps files in making slides for teaching, so some solution/workaround would be greatly appreciated.  
> 
> Should a script that uses pstopdf as a default should be updated? 
> 
> Many thanks for any help you can give.  
> 
> Yours, 
> 
> Anthony Davison
> 
> Professor A. C. Davison
> EPFL-FSB-MATH-STAT, Station 8
> Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
> CH-1015 Lausanne
> Switzerland Tel: + 41 (0)21 693 5502
> Sec: + 41 (0)21 693 5456
> http://stat.epfl.ch/
> 

Howdy,

By default simpdftex uses Ghostscript's ps2pdf not Apple's (late) pstopdf. Have you done something to change that? Do you have Ghostscript installed?

How are you calling simpdftex? If you are using TeXShop's (La)TeX command check The TeX+dvips+distiller section on the Engines tab of TeXShop->Settings.

Good Luck,

Herb Schulz
(herbs2 at mac dot com)