A lithographic system comprises an array of individually controllable elements, a projection system, datapath hardware, and a conversion system. The array of individually controllable elements is capable of modulating a radiation beam. The projection system is configured to project the modulated radiation beam onto a target portion of a substrate. The datapath hardware converts an input pattern file into a control signal for controlling the array of individually controllable elements. The conversion system is configured to convert a requested device layout pattern into an input pattern file for the datapath hardware. The input pattern file is a spatial-frequency-restricted representation of the requested device layout pattern.