pst-barcode, textpos and XeLaTeX

Question

Please consider the following MWE, which shall place a QR code (pst-barcode package) at a fixed position on the page using the textpos package:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{pst-barcode}
\usepackage[absolute,showboxes]{textpos}
\setlength{\TPHorizModule}{1mm}
\setlength{\TPVertModule}{1mm}
\textblockorigin{0mm}{0mm}

\newcommand{\insertBarcode}{
    \begin{pspicture}(1in,1in)
        \psbarcode{Test}{}{qrcode}
    \end{pspicture}
}

\begin{document}

    \begin{textblock}{75}(80,50)
      Here should be a QR code:\\
      \insertBarcode\\
      But there is none.
    \end{textblock}

    \vspace*{50mm}
    W/o being placed in a \texttt{texblock} environment, the QR code will show up:\\
    \insertBarcode

\end{document}

If this document is compiled with XeLaTeX (MikTeX), the QR code within the normal page content is displayed without any problems. But the one enclosed in the textblock environment won't show up.

I get the following warning:

MiKTeX GPL Ghostscript  9.00: Unrecoverable error, exit code 1

** WARNING ** Filtering file via command -->mgs.exe -q -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sPAPERSIZE=a0 -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dCompatibilityLevel=1.3 -dAutoFilterGrayImages=false -dGrayImageFilter=/FlateEncode -dAutoFilterColorImages=false -dColorImageFilter=/FlateEncode -dUseFlateCompression=true -sOutputFile="mik56F0.tmp" "mik56EF.tmp" -c quit<-- failed.
** WARNING ** Image format conversion for PSTricks failed.
** WARNING ** Interpreting special command pst: (ps:) failed.
** WARNING ** >> at page="1" position="(226.77, 618.307)" (in PDF)
** WARNING ** >> xxx "pst:  tx@Dict begin STP newpath 0.8 SLW 0  setgray   gsave 0.  "

Using LaTeX -> dvi2ps -> ps2pdf, the QR code will show up as intended.

So my question is: Is it possible to place barcodes from the pst-barcode package within a textblock environment using XeLaTeX (MikTeX)?

I would appreciate any help.

Answer 1

Compile it with either pdflatex --shell-escape mainfilename.tex or xelatex --shell-escape mainfilename.tex.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{filecontents}

\begin{filecontents*}{temporary.tex}
\documentclass[border=0pt,pstricks]{standalone}
\usepackage{pst-barcode}
\begin{document}
       \begin{pspicture}(1in,1in)
        \psbarcode{Test}{eclevel=L width=1 height=1}{qrcode}
    \end{pspicture}
\end{document}
\end{filecontents*}

\begin{filecontents*}{another.tex}
\documentclass[border=0pt,pstricks]{standalone}
\usepackage{pst-barcode}
\begin{document}
       \begin{pspicture}(1in,1in)
        \psbarcode{Another}{eclevel=L width=1 height=1}{qrcode}
    \end{pspicture}
\end{document}
\end{filecontents*}

\def\attach#1{%
\immediate\write18{latex #1}% you can replace it with xelatex but don't forget to comment the following dvips and ps2pdf.
\immediate\write18{dvips #1}%
\immediate\write18{ps2pdf #1.ps}%
\includegraphics{#1}}

\usepackage[absolute,showboxes]{textpos}
\setlength{\TPHorizModule}{1mm}
\setlength{\TPVertModule}{1mm}
\textblockorigin{0mm}{0mm}

\usepackage{graphicx}

\begin{document}

\begin{textblock}{75}(80,50)
Here should be a QR code:
    \begin{center}
        \attach{temporary}
    \end{center}
But there is none.
\end{textblock}


\vspace*{50mm}
W/o being placed in a \texttt{texblock} environment, the QR code will show up:\\
\attach{another}

\end{document}

Answer 2

It looks as if xelatex chokes over postscript which needs to be processed at shipout time (it needs to call ghostscript to convert the ps and this can fails in complicated situations). With eso-pic there is the same problem. Imho you should generate pdf-files of your barcodes.

You can try the externalize library of tikz (you need to use xelatex --shell-escape) to do it automatically:

\documentclass[]{scrartcl}
\usepackage{pst-barcode}
\usepackage{tikz}

\usetikzlibrary{external}
\tikzset{external/system call={xelatex --jobname="\image"
"\texsource"}}

\tikzexternalize
\newsavebox\mybarcode

\begin{document}
some text
%\tikzset{external/force remake}
\tikzsetnextfilename{mybarcode}
\savebox\mybarcode{%
 \begin{tikzpicture}
 \node{\begin{pspicture}(1in,1in)
         \psbarcode{Test}{}{qrcode}
       \end{pspicture}};
 \end{tikzpicture}}

\IfFileExists{mybarcode.pdf}{\includegraphics{mybarcode}}

\end{document}