Ghostscript 5

What is Ghostscript?

Installing Ghostscript

Building Ghostscript from C Source

Ghostscript Primer

Ghostscript Reference

More Ghostscript Applications

Ghostscript User Manual
© Thomas Merz 1996-97 (tm@muc.de)

This manual is adapted from appendix

B of the following book: »PostScript
and Acrobat/PDF. Applications,
Troubleshooting, and Cross-Platform
Publishing« by Thomas Merz,
Springer Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
New York 1997, ISBN 3-540-60854-0,
420 pages plus CD-ROM. Book and
manual are also available in German
(Thomas Merz Verlag München, ISBN
3-9804943-0-6).

The Ghostscript manual may be freely copied and redistributed

in printed or digital form if no payment is involved. Commercial
reproduction is prohibited. However, the author agrees to any
redistribution along with the Ghostscript software, provided the
distributor complies with the applicable Ghostscript license
terms.

The Ghostscript manual is available from

http://www.muc.de/~tm.
 1 What is Ghostscript?
L. Peter Deutsch, founder of Aladdin Enterprises, Menlo Park,
California, wrote the PostScript Level 2 and PDF interpreter
Ghostscript in the C programming language. The program runs
on most operating systems, including MS-DOS, Windows 3.x,
Windows 95, Windows NT, OS/2, Macintosh, Unix, and VAX/
VMS, and has been available free of charge ever since its intro-
duction in 1988. With the help of many users and programmers
on the Internet Ghostscript has become a high-quality and ver-
satile PostScript interpreter. Peter Deutsch also distributes a
commercial version with customer-specific enhancements and
support. Ghostscript’s capabilities include:

Screen output. Ghostscript displays PostScript and PDF

data on the screen. This is useful to examine PostScript graphics
or for saving a few trees if you want to browse some product
documentation which is available in PostScript format only.
Ghostscript checks PostScript files before you transfer them
(e.g., to a service bureau): Are all the necessary fonts there? Are
the graphics okay? Do the files contain all pages?
Ghostscript also helps with PostScript trouble-shooting: A
faulty page can be rendered on screen revealing which graphics
element yields an error message. Ghostscript provides the usual
Ghostscript User Manual PostScript error messages. A separate frontend to the interpret-
© Thomas Merz 1996-97 er, called GSview (for Windows and OS/2) or Ghostview (for
the X Window System), simplifies the handling of PostScript
Notes on the page layout. The design of the Ghostscript manual was files with a user-friendly GUI interface: with these frontends the
chosen to meet several objectives:
➤ It uses fonts from the PostScript core font set in order to reduce file user can access random pages in the document. Without them,
size. This also avoids font embedding issues since the original book
layout uses fonts from the commercial Thesis family.
Ghostscript displays the pages one after another, from the be-
➤ Pages can be printed on both letter and A4 format paper. The double- ginning to the end of the file.
page design also makes it easy to read the manual on screen.
➤ A two-page spread was slightly reduced and printed on one sheet of
paper in order to economically make use of paper and screen estate. Printer output. Another important task of a PostScript RIP is
to render PostScript data for output on a graphics-capable
Production notes. I created a PostScript file from the FrameMaker file printer. The Ghostscript distribution contains a wealth of driv-
via the PostScript printer driver. The resulting PostScript file was convert-
ed to PDF using Acrobat Distiller 3.0. Bookmarks and article threads were ers for a wide range of printer models, from the more popular
automatically generated by FrameMaker. Additionally, I inserted several
pdfmark instructions in the document manually, e.g. to populate the docu- to the more esoteric. A list of all drivers is found in section 3.3,
ment info fields and to set the open mode of the PDF file. »Configuration Options and Drivers«. These drivers are an inte-
gral part of Ghostscript and are not related to Macintosh or
This is version 1.3 of the manual. It covers Ghostscript 5.01 and GSview 2.2.
Windows system drivers.

Ghostscript User Manual Chapter 1: What is Ghostscript? 2

Ghostscript can even help optimize the output of a PostScript- Public License (AGFPL). Under the terms of the AGFPL, no
capable printer: if the computer’s CPU is significantly faster payment is required for private and commercial use of the pro-
than the printer’s, Ghostscript can in many cases speed up Post- gram. The sale of Ghostscript is explicitly prohibited, however.
Script output. PostScript printers with too little RAM some- Exempted from these conditions are BBSs, or servers for which
times cause trouble. Ghostscript can remedy this by making use users pay access fees independent of the downloaded software,
of your computer’s main memory (and a swap file or swap par- and CD-ROMs whose contents may be reproduced and distrib-
tition). Ghostscript has proven to be a robust and reliable Post- uted without any payment involved. Anyone interested in com-
Script RIP that is superior to many commercial PostScript mercially licensing Ghostscript should contact Aladdin Enter-
clones. prises or one of its distribution partners. The complete text of
the AGFPL is found in the file named PUBLIC which is part of
PDF on every platform. Beginning with version 3.33, Ghost- the Ghostscript distribution fileset.
script also contains an interpreter for the Portable Document For-
mat (PDF), the foundation of Adobe Acrobat. Large parts of
Ghostscript’s PDF interpreter are written in PostScript. It dis-
plays and prints PDF files and even converts them back to Post-
Script. However, Ghostscript only interprets layout-related in-
formation and currently ignores hypertext links or annotations.
Starting with Ghostscript 4.0, the program is also capable of
converting PostScript files to PDF, i.e., it offers Distiller func-
tionality. Though this feature, called the pdfwrite device, still
has some shortcomings, it is certainly an important milestone
since Ghostscript is the first free Acrobat Distiller substitute.

Utilities and converters. A complete PostScript interpreter

together with suitable drivers and utilities makes it possible to
carry out many of the operations covered in this book. These
include displaying graphics files in the formats GIF, JPEG, or
PBM; extracting textual data from PostScript or PDF files; ras-
terizing PostScript to raster graphics formats such as TIFF,
PBM, PNG; converting EPS graphics to the editable Illustrator
format, and many other useful features.

License conditions for the end-user. Although Ghost-

script is available free of charge, it is subject to certain license
conditions. These are always contained in the Ghostscript pro-
gram package. Until 1994, Ghostscript was subject to the GNU
Public License (GPL). Under the terms of this license, the origi-
nator retains the copyright for his work. The use and further
distribution of the program, however, are not restricted signifi-
cantly. Starting with version 3.0 in 1994, Peter Deutsch replaced
the GPL with the more restrictive Aladdin Ghostscript Free

Ghostscript User Manual Chapter 1: What is Ghostscript? 3

 2 Installing Ghostscript Ghostscript by supplying a handy interface to the interpreter.
With the GSview setup program you can install both Ghost-
2.1 Using GSview for Windows and OS/2 script and GSview comfortably. After uncompressing the zip
file of GSview, launch the program setup.exe (for Windows) or
Requirements and versions. The Ghostscript and GSview
installation (including fonts) uses 5.5 MB hard disk space. There os2setup.exe (for OS/2). The file readme.txt lists the required ZIP
are several flavors of Ghostscript for PC systems (note that sup- files. After asking for the version of Ghostscript you wish to
port for 16-bit MS-DOS and WIndows versions has been use, the setup program asks for the name of the directory to
dropped in Ghostscript 5.0): which the software is to be installed, and decompresses the ZIP
archives. Then it creates a program group (Windows 3.x) or a
System File name Notes start menu entry (Windows 95, NT 4.0).
MS-DOS, gs386.exe plus Version with DOS extender; very fast. When GSview is first run, it asks whether you want to create
80386 and higher dos4gw.exe a file association between GSview and files with the extension
Windows 3.x with gswin32.exe plus 32-bit version with enhancements for .ps, .eps, and .pdf. This means that double-clicking a file of the
Win32s; gsdll32.dll; Windows 95 and NT; it consists of a DLL respective type launches GSview automatically. You may al-
Windows 95 and NT gs16spl.exe and a (small) EXE program.
ways want to have the .ps and .eps associations created; how-
OS/2 gsos2.exe plus Uses gspmdrv.exe as display driver for the
gsdll2.dll presentation manager. ever, create the .pdf association only if you don’t use Acrobat
Reader.
If you moved the Ghostscript files to another directory you
Setup program for Ghostscript and GSview. Under Win- have to choose “Options”, “Configure Ghostscript...” after
dows and OS/2 the user frontend GSview facilitates using launching GSview to enter the path name of the Ghostscript
DLL, the include path, and possibly some Ghostscript options
Fig. 1. (see figure 2).
GSview simplifies Ghost- With “File”, “Open” you can open PostScript and PDF files. GS-
script usage under
Windows and OS/2. It view then passes these files on to Ghostscript for rendering.
also offers additional Using the menu sequence “Media”, “Display Settings...” you
possibilities, e.g., dealing
with EPS files.
can adjust the screen size: larger resolution values yield a larger
screen representation. Use a smaller resolution value if you
want to see the entire page at a time without scrollbars. With
the “Media” menu you can adjust the page size (media format).

Fig. 2.
Configuring
Ghostscript
path names in
GSview.

Ghostscript User Manual Chapter 2: Installing Ghostscript 4

 Additional features of GSview. GSview offers many addi- Launching and testing Ghostscript. On MS-DOS, you
tional Ghostscript functions which are described in several start Ghostscript by typing the program name gs386. In Win-
chapters of this book. This includes dealing with EPS files, ran- dows it’s easier to double-click on Ghostscript’s icon in the file
domly accessing the pages of DSC (Document Structuring Con- manager or Explorer, or to create an icon in the program man-
ventions) conforming PostScript files, following hypertext links ager/start menu. The file tiger.ps (part of the Ghostscript distri-
in PDF files, extracting selected pages to print parts of a docu- bution) is perfectly suited to test your installation. Start Ghost-
ment only, copying the bitmapped page contents to the clip- script and type in the following command at Ghostscript’s
board, or selecting printer drivers in a convenient manner. prompt:
GSview uses temporary files for printing and for extracting GS>(tiger.ps) run
text. These temporary files are normally created in the directory
Ghostscript should now display the test file on screen. Having
specified in the TEMP environment variable. A warning will be
finished the page, Ghostscript asks you to
given if the TEMP variable is not set. The TEMP variable must
therefore point to a writable directory on disk if GSview is run >>showpage, press <return> to continue<<
from CD-ROM. If the file contains more than one page, Ghostscript renders the
next page after the return key is pressed.
Caution: The installation is not yet complete! To complete
2.2 Installing Ghostscript without GSview
the installation, font access for Ghostscript needs to be config-
If you don’t use Windows, don’t need GSview, or can’t stand ured. This is covered in section 2.5, »Font Configuration«. If you
setup programs, you can install Ghostscript manually. All of want Ghostscript to use the same command line options every
the files contained in the archive gs5xxini.zip plus one of the ex- time, you can use the environment variable GS_OPTIONS.
ecutables listed in the table in section 2.1 are necessary for using Ghostscript evaluates this variable before checking the “real”
Ghostscript. The executables for Windows and OS/2 are con- command line options. Especially with Windows 3.x this is
tained in the compressed files gs5xxw32.zip and gs5xxos2.zip, re- much more convenient than the rather clumsy call by way of
spectively. Note that you can also use ghostscript-5.xxpc.tar.gz. the program manager and “File”, “Run...”
You will need the tar and gzip utilities to unpack this archive.
To use the 32-bit version for Windows 3.x, you need the
win32s system extension in addition to the Ghostscript files. 2.3 Installing Ghostscript on the Macintosh
(Note: many software packages use win32s, so it may already Requirements and versions. Currently, there are two Mac
be installed on your system.) ports of Ghostscript available. The first is called Mac GS Viewer
The MS-DOS version of Ghostscript uses the environment and is based on Ghostscript 3.33. A Mac version of GS 4.03 is
variable GS_LIB to locate the initialization files if they cannot be available as part of the CMacTeX package from
found in the current directory or the standard directory c:\gs.
http://www.math.tamu.edu/~tkiffe/cmactex.html
It’s best to include the following statements in your autoexec.bat
file (assuming you installed Ghostscript in d:\progs\gs): The following description applies to Mac GS Viewer. It’s avail-
able in three versions, one for Macs with Motorola CPU 68020
set GS_LIB=d:\progs\gs and higher, a native version for PowerPCs, and a version for
set PATH=...other path entries...;d:\progs\gs
Mac Classics with 68000 CPU (min. 3 MB available memory).
Alternatively, the command line option -I can be used to tell The installation needs approximately 6 MB disk space (includ-
Ghostscript where to find its files: ing fonts). Contrary to Windows and OS/2, there is no equiva-
gs -Id:\progs\gs lent of GSview for the Mac. Fortunately, this deficiency is com-

Ghostscript User Manual Chapter 2: Installing Ghostscript 5

 Fig. 4.
In the “Devices” menu you
Fig. 3. can choose a driver for Mac
Mac GS Viewer GS Viewer.
displays the tiger
test page. You can
enter PostScript loon help to learn more about Ghostscript. After one page has
commands in the been rendered on screen, the next page can be requested with
console window
and open files via “Ghostscript”, “Next Page”. The program can be closed with
“File”. “Quit”. The sequence “Edit”, “Settings...” changes such internal
settings as page size or the scaling factor of the window.

pensated for by several extensions in Mac GS Viewer and its Device drivers and file output. By default, Ghostscript ren-
user interface. ders into a Macintosh window. It can also create instructions for
To install Mac GS Viewer you need the program Stuffit Ex- other devices or graphics file formats. You can copy the bit-
pander. Decompress the archive macgs-v1.0-files.sit.hqx. mapped contents of a window to the clipboard, or save it as a
This places the contents of this archive in the Ghostscript folder. PICT file with “File”, “Save As...”. In the “Devices” menu you
Decompress one of the executable files can choose the output file. Although the Ghostscript source dis-
macgs-v1.0-ppc.sit.hqx tribution contains many dozens of drivers, the Macintosh ver-
macgs-v1.0-68k.sit.hqx sion only contains the screen driver, a few printer drivers, and
macgs-v1.0-classic.sit.hqx
drivers for the file formats PCX, PBM, and TIFF. This decision
along with the Ghostscript fonts from the archive macgs-v1.0- has been made in order to reduce storage requirements. Since it
fonts.sit.hqx into the same folder. The archive macgs-v1.0- is not possible to dynamically load drivers, you have to recom-
src.sit.hqx is only needed for compiling an individual version pile Ghostscript if you want to use additional drivers.
of Ghostscript.
Font configuration on the Mac. Ghostscript uses Post-
Launching and testing Ghostscript. Launch Ghostscript Script fonts in ASCII format. Since PostScript fonts on the Mac
by double-clicking on the Mac GS Viewer icon. After initializa- are usually stored in a compact resource format, Ghostscript
tion, the console window (“Talk to Ghostscript”) will appear cannot use them directly (this is planned for a future version).
with the Ghostscript prompt However, you can convert standard Mac PostScript fonts for
GS> use with Ghostscript with the unadobe utility. Execute the fol-
Although you can type in PostScript commands in the console lowing steps for each font you want to use:
window, it’s much easier to use Mac-style menu commands. ➤ Start unadobe and open the font file. unadobe doesn’t change

The sequence “File”, “Open” lets you open EPSF or TEXT files, the font data, but instead converts the resource representa-
e.g., the test file tiger.ps in the Ghostscript folder. Activate bal- tion to a textual representation suitable for Ghostscript. Save

Ghostscript User Manual Chapter 2: Installing Ghostscript 6

 the generated font file in the Ghostscript folder (using the
old file name or a new one).
➤ Edit the file Fontmap in the Ghostscript folder with a text edi-
tor (e.g., SimpleText). Append a line similar to the following
at the end of the file:
/TheSerifBold-Italic (TheSerBol) ;
This line contains the PostScript name of the font and the
name of the font file that you used in the first step. The line
must be terminated with a semicolon. If you’re unsure about
the exact PostScript name of the font, you can open the font
file created by unadobe with a text editor and look for the en-
try /FontName.
➤ Launch Ghostscript to test the font. You can either use a suit-
able PostScript file or request the font manually in the con- Fig. 5.
sole window: With Ghostview for X11
you can easily control
/TheSerifBold-Italic findfont Ghostscript for screen and
printer output. The page
Alternatively, you can install a fontmap file derived from an- list allows quick access to
random pages of DSC
other platform. For example, you can create the fontmap auto- compliant documents.
matically on Windows (see section 2.5, »Font Configuration«)
and install it in the Ghostscript folder together with the font
files. It’s important not to change the font file names so make URW++ contributed commercial-quality PostScript Type 1
sure that they correspond to the fontmap entries. Naturally, fonts for use with the Ghostscript package. These include look-
you have to observe the font manufacturer’s license conditions alikes for the 35 PostScript core fonts found in most laser print-
if the installed fonts originate from another system. ers. The URW++ fonts are distributed under the Aladdin and
the GNU license.
Ghostscript accepts many flavors of font formats:
2.4 Installing Ghostscript on Unix
Type 0 Composite fonts (large fonts composed of other fonts)
Using Ghostscript on Unix systems generally requires compil-
Type 1 commonly used PostScript outline fonts; ASCII (*.pfa) or bina-
ing the C source first. This process is covered in section 3,
ry (*.pfb) files.
»Building Ghostscript from C Source«.
Type 2 Type 1 extension used in the Compressed Font Format (CFF)
If you’re working with the X Window System, driving and OpenType
Ghostscript with the Ghostview frontend is a good idea. Type 3 rarely used PostScript fonts (outline or bitmap)
Multiple Master Type 1 extension with one or more design axes (parameters)
CID (character id) Format used for large character sets, e.g. Chinese and Japanese
2.5 Font Configuration
Type 42 TrueType font data wrapped in PostScript
This section applies to all operating systems except the Macin- TrueType Native TrueType font file (*.ttf)
tosh. Font configuration for the Mac differs from other systems
and has been covered with the Mac installation already.
For many years, the Ghostscript distribution contained only
low quality public domain fonts. In 1996, the German company

Ghostscript User Manual Chapter 2: Installing Ghostscript 7

It is necessary for Ghostscript to have access to the font file (in- In order to let Ghostscript access the fonts in Display PostScript
stalling the font in the operating system, ATM, or Display Post- systems, you have to include the appropriate path name in
Script is not enough). GS_LIB.
If you install Ghostscript with GSview, the URW font set is
automatically installed. If you only want to use the PostScript Dynamic font configuration. For large or frequently chang-
core font set, the font configuration is already finished. ing font installations the second method is preferable. Ghost-
script checks the GS_FONTPATH environment variable to de-
Static font configuration. There are two choices for the font termine the available font files and scans these files to find out
configuration. If the installed font base rarely changes, put one the names of the fonts they contain. Similar to GS_LIB above,
or more font directories in the environment variable GS_LIB. A this variable contains one or more directory names. Since
typical hard disk installation on MS-DOS or Windows uses the Ghostscript automatically recognizes fonts, this method is
following: much more flexible. However, since Ghostscript checks all font
set GS_LIB=C:\gs;C:\gs\fonts directories every time a new font is requested, this method in-
creases startup time. To avoid inconsistencies, make sure there
or on Unix: is no Fontmap file in one of the GS_LIB directories if you use
set GS_LIB=/usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts GS_FONTPATH, or launch Ghostscript with the -dNOFONT-
export GS_LIB MAP option.
For now, the font configuration is already done.
Each directory in GS_LIB may contain the Fontmap file which TrueType fonts. Starting with Version 4.0, Ghostscript con-
defines the relation between font names and file names. To add tains a rasterizer for TrueType fonts. Note that Ghostscript sup-
new fonts, simply add a line similar to the following at the end ports two flavors of TrueType fonts.
of the Fontmap file: Type 42 fonts: These contain TrueType data wrapped in
PostScript instructions and can be directly processed by the in-
/Fontname (filename) ; terpreter. Type 42 capability is integrated in all Ghostscript con-
The file name in parentheses must be found in one of the font figurations which include Level 2 support (which is the case for
directories. In many cases you can save yourself the trouble of all default makefiles). Level 2 capable Ghostscript versions ac-
entering font and file names because there are prebuilt Fontmap cept PostScript files with embedded Type 42 fonts (created, for
files for several systems and font configurations. If you use one example, by the Windows PostScript driver).
of the following, simply copy the appropriate file to the name Native TrueType files: Files in TTF format (as installed under
Fontmap: Windows) contain raw TrueType data which a PostScript inter-
preter generally cannot process directly. Ghostscript, however,
File name Origin of fonts/name of operating system contains some additional code for interpreting raw TrueType
Fontmap.atm Windows with standard ATM fonts files. This code is activated by the “ttfont” makefile option.
Fontmap.atb Adobe Type Basics font package Since TrueType plays an important role for Windows users, the
Fontmap.gs URW++ fonts (standard fontmap) Windows Ghostscript version is configured with the “ttfont”
Fontmap.os2 OS/2 with integrated ATM feature by default. This means that the Windows TrueType font
Fontmap.osf DEC OSF/1 with DPS directory can be configured for use with Ghostscript just as any
Fontmap.sol Solaris 2.3 and higher with DPS PostScript font directory. However, Ghostscript only recognizes
Fontmap.ult Ultrix 4.3 and higher with DPS TTF font files when searching font files via the GS_FONTPATH
Fontmap.vms VAX/VMS with DECwindows/Motif and DPS variable; it’s not possible to process TrueType files via the

Ghostscript User Manual Chapter 2: Installing Ghostscript 8

“run” operator. You can work around this with the following 3 Building Ghostscript from C Source
instruction:
Since the C source code of Ghostscript is readily available, you
(file.ttf) (r) file .loadttfont
can build an executable version of the interpreter if you have a
Platform fonts on Windows and X11. Ghostscript always C compiler for your system (and some experience in compiling
needs access to all PostScript fonts used in a document. It ras- C programs). This way, you can link in additional drivers that
are contained in the Ghostscript distribution but that (due to
terizes all the characters itself instead of delegating this task to
the operating system, ATM, or the X server (like other pro- memory restrictions) are not compiled into the standard ver-
grams do). However, to speed up processing, Ghostscript sions. More adventurous programmers also have the chance to
implement their own extensions to Ghostscript. The following
sometimes uses system fonts. This feature is called platform fonts
sections will give an overview of the compilation process and
and is used only for certain font sizes and horizontal or vertical
the configuration options.
text. Even so, the PostScript font name must exactly match the
system font name.
For small font sizes, platform fonts generally improve screen 3.1 A Little Tour to Ghostscript Files
font representation. In some situations, however, they make it
The Ghostscript source directory contains several hundred
worse – e.g., if PostScript and system font metrics don’t match
files. The compilation may even double this number, so you
(which results in ugly formatting). Another problem affects
may well get lost in this multitude of files. The following table
fonts with unusual character sets (encodings). In both cases you
lists the most important file types contained in the Ghostscript
can turn off platform fonts by launching Ghostscript with the
distribution:
-dNOPLATFONTS option. There is also a special X Window re-
source to achieve this: README, NEWS general information and development history of Ghostscript
Ghostscript*useExternalFonts:false current.txt notes on the current version
new-user.txt overview of Ghostscript
use.txt information on using Ghostscript
devices.txt Details on a number of printer drivers
make.txt notes on compiling Ghostscript
other *.txt additional documentation on special topics
PUBLIC “Aladdin Ghostscript Free Public License” (licensing conditions)
*.1 several Unix-style manual pages
*.c, *.h, *.asm source files
*.mak, *.def, *.rc, auxiliary files for building the program
*.icx
*.sh, *.bat, *.cmd scripts and batch files used in the build process; several special
applications of Ghostscript
gs_*.ps initialization files for Ghostscript
pdf_*.ps initialization files for the PDF interpreter
other *.ps auxiliary PostScript files and sample programs
Fontmap.* Fontmap files for several systems

Ghostscript User Manual Chapter 3: Building Ghostscript from C Source 9

3.2 Compiling the Standard Version directories of the Ghostscript directory. The -d option of pkun-
zip creates the directory gs5.xx:
Requirements. To build Ghostscript, you need approximate- pkunzip -d gs5xxsr1.zip
ly 16 MB disk space. The source is written in ANSI-C suited for pkunzip -d gs5xxsr2.zip
most current C compilers. However, you can also use an old pkunzip -d gs5xxsr3.zip
cd gs5.xx
Kernighan & Ritchie compiler. The auxiliary program ansi2knr
mkdir jpeg-6a
converts the source files to K&R syntax before compilation. An- cd jpeg-6a
other auxiliary program called genarch automatically creates an pkunzip ..\..\jpeg-6a.zip
include file which describes hardware and compiler architec- cd ..
mkdir libpng
ture. This includes bit and byte ordering, word size, and other cd libpng
system-specific information. Ghostscript can be compiled on pkunzip ..\..\lpngxxx.zip
MS-DOS, Windows, OS/2, Amiga, many Unix systems, Macin- cd ..
mkdir zlib
tosh, and VMS. The C source is highly portable, so compiling it cd zlib
on new systems shouldn’t be much of a problem. pkunzip ..\..\zlibxxx.zip
If you want to customize your particular version of Ghost- cd ..
script, see section 3.3 for a description of options you may set The Ghostscript distribution contains makefiles for the Mi-
before compiling the program. crosoft, Borland, Watcom and other C compilers (see make.txt).
For example, to create the 32-bit Windows version of Ghost-
Makefiles. The compilation process is controlled by make- script using the Borland Compiler, you first have to create the
files which you can adapt as necessary. To improve legibility, makefile:
the makefiles are split in parts:
echo !include "bcwin32.mak" >makefile
gs.mak Ghostscript “core” source
Next, you can change some settings in bcwin32.mak, e.g., com-
lib.mak graphics library
piler and Ghostscript paths, optimizations for 386/486/586
int.mak interpreter
CPUs or FPU, assembler accelerator modules or debugging op-
devs.mak device drivers
tions. Finally, launch make. In an intermediate step you have to
jpeg.mak JPEG library
manually start the Windows program genarch to create a system
libpng.mak PNG graphics file format library
specific include file.
zlib.mak compression routines used for the PNG format

Compiling on Unix. You need the following archive files for

All other *.mak files are platform specific makefiles used to con- compiling Ghostscript: ghostscript-5.xx.tar.gz, jpeg-6a.tar.gz, lib-
figure the development system. The compilation process for png-x.xx.tar.gz, and zlib-1.x.x.tar.gz. Note that the additional li-
different platforms and the supported development systems are braries may also be available by other names at Ghostscript dis-
described in full detail in the file make.txt. The following de- tribution points. Decompress the C source for Ghostscript and
scription is not intended to replace this file, but to give you a the JPEG, PNG, and ZLIB libraries from the compressed tar ar-
jump start. chives into a suitable directory. The tar commands create the
gs5.xx directory:
Compiling on MS-DOS, Windows, OS/2. First decompress
gunzip -c ghostscript-5.xx.tar.gz | tar xvf -
the C source from the compressed archive files gs5xxsr1.zip,
cd gs5.xx
gs5xxsr2.zip, and gs5xxsr3.zip. The files in the other archive files gunzip -c ../jpeg-6a.tar.gz | tar xvf -
jpeg-6a.zip, lpngxxx.zip, and zlibxxx.zip contain additional librar- gunzip -c ../libpng-x.xx.tar.gz | tar xvf -
ies needed by Ghostscript. These are unpacked into three sub- gunzip -c ../zlib-1.x.x.tar.gz | tar xvf -

Ghostscript User Manual Chapter 3: Building Ghostscript from C Source 10

mv libpng-x.x.x libpng Compiling on the Macintosh. In addition to the source
mv zlib-x.xx zlib code in MS-DOS or Unix format, you need the archive macgs-
The mv commands are necessary because the tar archives in- v1.0-src.sit.hqx to compile Ghostscript for the Mac. This ar-
clude directory names containing the version numbers. chive contains some additional Macintosh-specific files. The
The Ghostscript distribution contains makefiles for several op- source files end up in several folders. You’ll find an overview of
erating systems and compilers (ANSI-C, Kernighan&Ritchie, the build process in the Mac GS Viewer Manual (part of the
and GNU-C). Choose the appropriate makefile from *.mak and Ghostscript files) and some hints for compiling with the MPW
create a symbolic link with the following command (assuming or CodeWarrior compilers in the file worksheet.
you use the GNU compiler):
ln -s unix-gcc.mak makefile Compiling on other systems. The file readme contains
some remarks on Ghostscript ports to other systems, including
Use unixansi.mak or unix-cc.mak, respectively, for an ANSI or
VMS, Amiga, Atari ST, Acorn Archimedes and NEXTSTEP.
K&R compiler. On some systems you have to adapt the search
path for X11 specific include files and additional libraries. These
are controlled by the XINCLUDE und LDFLAGS variables in 3.3 Configuration Options and Drivers
the makefile which you can change before launching make. By You can adjust the Ghostscript makefile to build a version that
changing the prefix variable in the makefile you can adapt the suits your needs with several extensions and an individual as-
install directory. Now compile and install Ghostscript with the sortment of drivers. The most important options are PostScript
command Level 1, PostScript Level 2, and PDF. You can use the FEAT-
make install URE_DEVS variable in the makefile to control the interpreter’s
Consult the make.txt file if you have trouble with the build pro- configuration. The following table lists the most commonly
cess. The install process needs root permission on most systems. used features:
After compiling Ghostscript, the install command copies the ex-
level1 PostScript Level 1
ecutable program to /usr/local/bin and the auxiliary files to /usr/
level2 PostScript Level 2
local/share/ghostscript/5.xx. To complete the installation, you
pdf Portable Document Format (PDF)
have to install fonts for Ghostscript as described in section 2.5,
ttfont Support for native TrueType font files
»Font Configuration«.
epsf Support for Encapsulated PostScript files (EPS) with binary header

Compiling and installing Ghostview. Now you should in-

stall and compile the Ghostview source. This is accomplished By default, PostScript Level 2 and PDF support are configured
with the commands for all 32-bit configurations except the older Macintosh 3.33
port. The Windows configuration additionally contains the
gunzip -c ghostview-1.5.tar.gz | tar xvf -
cd ghostview-1.5 ttfont feature.
xmkmf Another important configuration option relates to the set of
make included drivers. Since it is not possible to load Ghostscript
make install
drivers dynamically at runtime, you have to choose the driver
If your system doesn’t have the xmkmf program, you have to set when building the program. In doing so, you trade function-
adapt the Ghostview makefile manually (this shouldn’t be too ality for memory efficiency: If all available drivers were includ-
hard if you have ever worked with makefiles). ed in Ghostscript, the program would need far too much mem-
ory. For this reason the standard configuration for each
platform contains only the most important screen, printer, and

Ghostscript User Manual Chapter 3: Building Ghostscript from C Source 11

file format drivers for the respective platform. You can check Display drivers in Ghostscript 5.01
the list of available Ghostscript drivers using the command line Advanced Logic chipset SuperVGA ali –
gs -? ATI Wonder SuperVGA, 256 colors atiw D
AT&T 3b1/Unixpc monochrome display att3b1 –
If you want Ghostscript to use a driver for which C source is in-
Borland Graphics Interface bgi –
cluded in the distribution but which is not compiled into the ex-
CRT sixels, e.g. VT240 compatible terminals sxlcrt –
ecutable by default, you have to build your own version by us- EGA 640x350, 16 colors ega D
ing a modified makefile. Hercules Graphics Display herc –
Many Ghostscript drivers have been contributed by users Linux PC with VGALIB vgalib –
and later became part of the Ghostscript distribution. If you Linux PC with VGALIB, 256 colors lvga256 –
want to write a new driver, read the remarks on Ghostscript/ Macintosh window (QuickDraw) mac M
driver interaction in drivers.txt. Microsoft Windows DLL mswindll W
In addition to the file format drivers listed in the table below, OS/2 DLL bitmap os2dll O
previous Ghostscript versions contained one for the GIF graph- OS/2 Presentation Manager os2pm O
ics file format. In reaction to the licensing problems around the Private Eye display pe –
Sony Microsystems monochrome display sonyfb –
LZW compression technique used in GIF, Peter Deutsch
SunView window system sunview –
dropped support for this format from the Ghostscript distribu-
SuperVGA with S3 Chip 86C911 s3vga –
tion. If you have to create GIF files you can integrate the GIF
SuperVGA 800x600, 16 colors svga16 D
driver from an older release. However, it’s easier to render to SuperVGA with Tseng Labs ET3000/4000 Chip, 256 colors tseng D
another graphics file format (e.g., TIFF or PNG) and convert it SuperVGA with VESA driver vesa –
to GIF using a graphics converter. Trident SuperVGA, 256 colors tvga D
The tables on the next pages list all display, printer, and file VGA 640x480, 16 colors vga D
format drivers available for Ghostscript 5.01. Each line contains X Window System (X11), release 4 and higher x11 U
a description of the device or format and the short name of the X Window System as alpha device x11alpha U
driver. The last column in the table tells you on which of the fol- X Window System as CMYK device, 1 bit per color x11cmyk U
lowing platforms the particular driver is part of the standard X Window System as b/w device x11mono U
configuration:
Printer drivers in Ghostscript 5.01
D MS-DOS 386 with 32-bit extender
Apple Dot Matrix printer (also for Imagewriter) appledmp –
W Windows 32-bit
Apple Imagewriter, high resolution iwhi –
O OS/2
Apple Imagewriter, low resolution iwlo –
U Unix
Apple Imagewriter LQ, 320 x 216 dpi iwlq –
M Mac GS Viewer (Ghostscript version 3.33)
CalComp raster format ccr –
Canon BubbleJet BJ10e bj10e DWOU
The driver name is used in the makefile as well as for selecting a Canon BubbleJet BJ200 bj200 DWOU
driver within Ghostscript. The makefile variables Canon Color BubbleJet BJC-600 and BJC-4000 bjc600 DWOU
DEVICE_DEVS1 to DEVICE_DEVS15 contain the names of the Canon Color BubbleJet BJC-800 bjc800 DWOU
drivers to be included in the program. If you don’t supply a Canon LBP-8II laser printer lbp8 WO
driver name at startup, Ghostscript uses the first driver in its list Canon LIPS III laser printer with CaPSL lips3 –
(which is a display driver on all platforms). Mitsubishi CP50 color printer cp50 –
DEC LA50 la50 –
DEC LA70 la70 –

Ghostscript User Manual Chapter 3: Building Ghostscript from C Source 12

DEC LA70 with low resolution extensions la70t – OCE 9050 oce9050 –
DEC LA75 la75 – Okidata IBM-compatible dot matrix printer okiibm –
DEC LA75plus la75plus – Okidata MicroLine 182 oki182 –
DEC LJ250 Companion color printer lj250 WO OS/2 system printer driver (only for OS/2 DLL) os2prn –
DEC LJ250, alternate driver declj250 WO Ricoh 4081 laser printer r4081 WO
DEC LN03 ln03 – Sony Microsystems NWP533 laser printer nwp533 –
Epson AP3250 ap3250 – StarJet 48 inkjet printer sj48 –
Epson-compatible dot matrix printer (9 or 24 pin) epson DWO SPARCprinter sparc –
Epson-compatible 9-pin, intermediate resolution eps9mid WO Tektronix 4693d color printer, 2 bits per RGB component t4693d2 WO
Epson-compatible 9-pin, triple resolution eps9high DWO Tektronix 4693d color printer, 4 bits per RGB component t4693d4 WO
Epson LQ-2550 and Fujitsu 3400/2400/1200 color printers epsonc WO Tektronix 4693d color printer, 8 bits per RGB component t4693d8 WO
Epson LP-8000 laser printer lp8000 – Tektronix 4695/4696 inkjet plotter tek4696 WO
Epson Stylus Color stcolor WOM Unified printer driver for many printers, e.g. NEC Pinwriter uniprint –
Epson Stylus 800 st800 WO P2X (ESC/P), Epson Stylus Color (ESC/P2), HP Deskjet
550C (HP-RTL). See devices.txt for details.
HP DesignJet 650C dnj650c –
Xerox XES 2700, 3700, 4045, and others xes –
HP DeskJet and DeskJet Plus deskjet DWOU
HP DeskJet 500 djet500 DWOU
HP DeskJet 500C, 1 bit per pixel cdeskjet DWOU Fax and other raster file format drivers in Ghostscript 5.01
HP DeskJet 500C, 24 bit per pixel, also for DeskJet 540C cdjcolor DWOU
BMP monochrome bmpmono WO
HP DeskJet 500C (same as cdjcolor) cdj500 –
BMP 4 bits (EGA/VGA) bmp16 WO
HP DeskJet 500C (not for 550C/560C), alternate driver djet500c WO
BMP 8 bits bmp256 WO
HP DeskJet 500C b/w, also for DeskJet 510, 520, 540C cdjmono DWOU
BMP 24 bits bmp16m WO
HP DeskJet 550C/560C cdj550 DWOUM
CGM b/w, low level output only cgmmono –
HP LaserJet laserjet DWOU
CGM 8 bits, low level output only cgm8 –
HP LaserJet Plus ljetplus DWOU
CGM 24 bits, low level output only cgm24 –
HP LaserJet IId/IIp/III* with TIFF compression ljet2p DWOU
CIF file format for VLSI cif –
HP LaserJet III* with delta row compression ljet3 DWOU
DigiBoard DigiFAX, high resolution dfaxhigh O
HP LaserJet IIID with duplex function ljet3d –
DigiBoard DigiFAX, low resolution dfaxlow O
HP LaserJet 4, 600 dpi ljet4 DWOU
Fax group 3, with EOLs, no header or EOD faxg3 U
HP LaserJet 4 with Floyd-Steinberg dithering lj4dith –
Fax group 3 2-D, with EOLs, no header or EOD faxg32d U
HP PaintJet XL pj DWOU
Fax group 4, with EOLs, no header or EOD faxg4 U
HP PaintJet XL, alternate driver pjetxl –
ImageMagick MIFF format, 24 bit color (RLE compressed) miff24 –
HP PaintJet XL color printer pjxl DWOU
JPEG format with JFIF header, RGB output jpeg DWOU
HP PaintJet XL color printer, alternate driver paintjet –
JPEG format with JFIF header, gray output jpeggray DWOU
HP PaintJet XL 300 color printer, also for DeskJet 1200C pjxl300 DWOU
MGR devices, 1 bit monochrome mgrmono –
HP 2563B line printer lp2563 –
MGR devices, 2 bits gray scale mgrgray2 –
IBM Proprinter, 9 pin ibmpro DWO
MGR devices, 4 bits gray scale mgrgray4 –
IBM Jetprinter inkjet color printer (Modell #3852) jetp3852 WO
MGR devices, 8 bits gray scale mgrgray8 –
Imagen ImPress imagen –
MGR devices, 4 bits color mgr4 –
C. Itoh M8510 m8510 WO
MGR devices, 8 bits color mgr8 –
Microsoft Windows system printer driver (DDB) mswinprn W
PCX, 4 bit CMYK pcxcmyk –
Microsoft Windows system printer driver (DIB) mswinpr2 W
PCX, monochrome pcxmono DWOUM
Mitsubishi CP50 color printer cp50 –
PCX, 8 bits gray scale pcxgray DWOUM
NEC P6/P6+/P60, 360 x 360 DPI necp6 WO
PCX, 4 bits color pcx16 DWOUM

Ghostscript User Manual Chapter 3: Building Ghostscript from C Source 13

PCX, 8 bits color pcx256 DWOUM 4 Ghostscript Primer
PCX, 24 bits color pcx24b DWOUM
PKM(Portable Inkmap),CMYK internally,RGB output,ASCII pkm U This section is meant to give you a jump start into directly using
PKM, (raw format) pkmraw U Ghostscript. If you use GSview or Ghostview to drive Ghost-
Plain bits (raw format), monochrome bit DWOU script, you only have to configure the appropriate Ghostscript
Plain bits (raw format), RGB bitrgb DWOU call; the rest is handled by the frontend.
Plain bits (raw format), CMYK bitcmyk DWOU
PBM (Portable Bitmap), ASCII format pbm UM
PBM, raw format pbmraw UM
4.1 Launching Ghostscript
PGM (Portable Graymap), ASCII format pgm UM In the following examples, gs always represents the name of the
PGM, raw format pgmraw UM Ghostscript executable file. Depending on your platform, the
PGM, optimizing to PBM ASCII if possible pgnm U
actual name may vary.
PGM, optimizing to PBM raw if possible pgnmraw U
PNG (Portable Network Graphics), monochrome pngmono WOU
File search path. First you have to make sure that Ghost-
PNG (Portable Network Graphics), 8 bits gray scale pnggray WOU
script finds its initialization and font files. When searching for
PNG (Portable Network Graphics), 4 bits color png16 WOU
PNG (Portable Network Graphics), 8 bits color png256 WOU
files without an absolute file name, Ghostscript uses the follow-
PNG (Portable Network Graphics), 24 bits color png16m WOU ing search order:
PPM (Portable Pixmap), ASCII format (RGB) ppm UM ➤ The current directory.
PPM, raw format (RGB) ppmraw UM ➤ The directories listed at the -I command line option, e.g., on
PPM, optimizing to PGM ASCII or PBM ASCII if possible pnm U MS-DOS, Windows or OS/2:
PPM, optimizing to PGM raw or PBM raw if possible pnmraw U
gs -Id:/gstools/gs5.xx;d:/gstools/gs5.xx/fonts
SGI RGB pixmap format sgirgb –
TIFF b/w, CCITT RLE 1-dim (fax group 3 without EOLs) tiffcrle DWOU or on Unix:
TIFF b/w, fax group 3 (with EOLs) tiffg3 DWOU gs -I/usr/local/lib/gs:/usr/local/psfonts
TIFF b/w, fax group 3 2-D tiffg32d DWOU
TIFF b/w, fax group 4 tiffg4 DWOU ➤ Thedirectories listed in the GS_LIB environment variable.
TIFF b/w, LZW (compression tag 5) tifflzw DWOUM ➤ Predefineddirectories selected at build time using the
TIFF b/w, PackBits (compression tag 32773) tiffpack DWOUM GS_LIB_DEFAULT makefile variable (C:\gs on MS-DOS,
TIFF 12 bit RGB color (no compression) tiff12nc DWOU Windows, or OS/2; /usr/local/share/ghostscript/5.xx on Unix).
TIFF 24 bit RGB color (no compression) tiff24nc DWOU
Watch the tiger. Ghostscript accepts the names of the Post-
PostScript, PDF, and PCL XL file format drivers in Ghostscript 5.01 Script files to display or print:
Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) epswrite WU gs file1.ps file2.ps ...
Portable Document Format (PDF) pdfwrite DWOU The interpreter processes the files one after the other. Then,
PostScript Level 1, monochrome bitmap psmono DWOU Ghostscript prompts for PostScript commands:
PostScript Level 1, 8-bit gray psgray DWOU
“Vector” PostScript (not rasterized) pswrite WU GS>
HP PCL XL mono pxlmono WU At this prompt you can type PostScript operators. If it is clumsy
HP PCL XL color pxlcolor WU or uncommon to pass file names on the command line (e.g., on
Windows), you can open files with the run command at the
prompt. Try the tiger.ps sample file included in the Ghostscript
distribution:

Ghostscript User Manual Chapter 4: Ghostscript Primer 14

GS>(tiger.ps) run gs -sDEVICE=laserjet -sOutputFile=\|lp file.ps -c quit
On the Mac, it’s even easier to use the “File”, “Open” menu Finally, Ghostscript sends the printer data to its standard out-
command. put with the following command line (the -q option suppresses
Note concerning MS-DOS path names: Since the backslash messages):
“\” escapes the next character in PostScript strings, you have to gs -q -sOutputFile=- file.ps -c quit | lp
use double backslashes in path names. However, a single Unix-
On Windows and OS/2 the easiest way to redirect printer data
style slash “/” also works as a separator in path names, for ex-
is to use GSview. This frontend presents a menu for choosing
ample
the printer interface.
GS>(c:/gs/tiger.ps)run
The following command exits the interpreter: Page size. Ghostscript uses U.S. letter size by default. To
change this, use a text editor to locate the following line in the
GS>quit
initialization file gs_init.ps:
Alternatively, you can append -c quit or -dBATCH to the com-
mand line. % (a4) /PAPERSIZE where { pop pop } { /PAPERSIZE exch
def } ifelse

Selecting a driver. Usually, Ghostscript uses the first driver In this line, remove the “%” comment sign at the beginning to
in its internal list (configured at build time). This driver outputs use A4 format. You can also replace the “a4” in parentheses by
to the screen in the standard configurations on all operating any other known format. A list of all formats known to Ghost-
systems. You can select another driver on the command line: script (and their dimensions) can be found in the gs_statd.ps file.
Alternatively, you can change the page size on the Ghostscript
gs -sDEVICE=laserjet file.ps -c quit
command line:
This instructs Ghostscript to produces output for the particular
gs -sPAPERSIZE=legal file.ps
device or file format (laserjet in the example above). Using the
following commands at the Ghostscript prompt, you can
change the driver at any time: 4.2 Printing with Ghostscript
GS>(epson) selectdevice Printing on MS-DOS. The following call processes a Post-
GS>(file.ps) run Script file for output on a Laserjet 4 printer connected to the
For printers with multiple resolutions you can also set the de- parallel interface:
sired print resolution using the -r option: gs386 -q -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=ljet4 file.ps -c quit
gs -sDEVICE=epson -r60x72 -c quit The -c quit option is used to exit Ghostscript after the PostScript
file is completely rendered. Due to the -q option, Ghostscript it-
Redirecting printer data. On MS-DOS, Ghostscript sends
self works quietly. However, the 386 MS-DOS extender still
printer data directly to the parallel port. On Unix, the printer
presents its copyright banner. You can suppress it with an envi-
data is sent to a temporary file. You can also redirect it to your
ronment variable:
own print file:
set DOS4G=quiet
gs -sDEVICE=laserjet -sOutputFile=laserjet.prn file.ps
-c quit If your printer is not connected to the parallel interface or you
If the output file name contains the variable %d (e.g. laser%d. want to bring the printer data to another machine, you can redi-
prn), Ghostscript produces one output file per page and replac- rect it to a file:
es the %d with the page number. On Unix, you can also redirect gs386 -q -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=ljet4 -sOutputFile=ljet.prn
the data to a pipe using the “\|” syntax: file.ps -c quit

Ghostscript User Manual Chapter 4: Ghostscript Primer 15

 To print this file, send it to the printer interface with the copy Printing on Unix. On Unix systems it’s possible to integrate
command: Ghostscript in the printing process seamlessly. However, some
copy /b ljet.prn lpt1: experience with Unix systems administration is required. The
variety of available Unix derivatives doesn’t really simplify the
The /b (binary) option is important because otherwise the copy
task of describing the integration of a PostScript emulation for
command may not completely transfer the printer data.
printers. The following notes are not supposed to be a complete
description, but should help you get started.
Printing on Windows 3.x. On Windows, it is easiest to use
Assuming other system components (especially spooler and
GSview for printing with Ghostscript. After installing this
backend) are already set up correctly and are able to transfer bi-
Ghostscript frontend correctly, you can select a PostScript file
nary data to the printer unmodified, you can manually use
using “File”, “Print...”. In the subsequent menus you can select
Ghostscript for printing:
printer driver, resolution (if the printer supports multiple reso-
lutions), and – in the case of DSC compatible files – the page gs -q -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=ljet4 -sOutputFile=\|lp
file.ps -c quit
range you want to print. When Ghostscript has finished pro-
cessing the file, you can select the printer interface for forward- You can find hints on integrating Ghostscript in systems with a
ing the data in a dialog box. printcap database in the file unix-lpr.txt. The accompanying
shell script lprsetup.sh automatically creates some necessary di-
Printing on Windows 95 and NT. For the newer systems of rectories and links as well as printcap entries. Use a text editor
the Windows family you can use the methods described above to adapt the list of device drivers in this script that Ghostscript
for MS-DOS and Windows 3.x. Additionally, you can select a is supposed to use. Obviously, these drivers must be compiled
printer queue using its UNC name: into the Ghostscript executable. You can also set up additional
printcap filters with lprsetup.sh. By default, it creates an input
gswin32 -q -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=ljet4 file.ps
-sOutputFile="\\spool\<printer name>" -c quit filter consisting of a shell script with the actual Ghostscript call.
This spools the printer data to the given printer queue. Using After executing lprsetup.sh, follow the instructions in unix-
the -sOutputFile="\\spool" option instructs Ghostscript to lpr.txt, i.e., create some links as indicated in the file, integrate
present a dialog box in which you can select the desired printer the generated printcap.insert file into the system printcap, and
queue or interface. Again – it’s much easier to use GSview. adjust the new entries to your local setup (serial interface pa-
rameters, etc.). The /usr/local/lib/ghostscript/filt directory con-
tains several links to the unix-lpr.sh file. In this file you have to
Fig. 6.
GSview simplifies select- add the -I option if you didn’t install Ghostscript in the stan-
ing print drivers, dard directories.
options, and parameters.
On System V, Release 4, and related systems you can define
print filters for specific file types. The spooler launches these fil-
ters for printing on devices which are not supported directly.
To define Ghostscript as a filter, change to the directory /etc/lp/fd
and create a file for the printer, say ljet_ps.fd:
Input types: postscript,ps
Output types: simple
Command: /usr/local/bin/gs -sDEVICE=ljet4 -q
-sOutputFile=- -
Integrate this filter in the spool system:

Ghostscript User Manual Chapter 4: Ghostscript Primer 16

 lpfilter -f ljet_ps -F /etc/lp/fd/ljet_ps.fd Like PostScript, you can also configure Ghostscript and GSview
To print a PostScript file, simply declare the file type on the as helper application for PDF files. Proceed as above, using the
command line: pdf suffix and a MIME type of
lp -T postscript tiger.ps application/pdf
For serial connections, make sure the backend doesn’t change Note that Ghostview doesn’t yet directly support PDF.
the printer data by using the stty options
PostScript files and security. PostScript – being a full-
-opost -cs8 -parenb
blown programming language – contains operators for modify-
ing and deleting files. This opens a security gap when down-
4.3 Ghostscript as Viewer for a WWW Browser loading unknown files. In the worst case, a file pretending to be
World Wide Web browsers and many E-mail programs classify a harmless PostScript image may delete files from your local
files according to MIME types (Multipurpose Internet Mail Exten- hard disk – possibly even with root permission! Although there
sion). PostScript files use a MIME type of are no known cases of such “trojan horses”, you should protect
yourself against this kind of attack. Ghostscript’s -dSAFER op-
application/postscript
tion disables critical file operators; the interpreter refuses to
MIME types and corresponding viewers are generally config- open files other than read-only. GSview launches Ghostscript
ured in a configuration file or menu. The details vary according with this option by default, Ghostview for Unix uses the option
to the particular program. Let’s take a look at the Windows ver- if launched with the -safer option itself.
sion of the well-known Netscape WWW browser as an exam-
ple:
➤ Launch Netscape Navigator.
➤ Choose “Options”, “General Preferences...” and the sub-
menu “Helpers”.
➤ For the MIME type application/postscript enter ai, ps, eps in
the extensions field (if the entry doesn’t exist already). Check
“Launch the Application” for “Action” and enter the path of
GSview, Ghostview oder Mac GS Viewer as appropriate,
e.g., c:\gs\gsview32.exe.
➤ Click “OK” and “Options”, “Save Options”.

Unix systems generally use the .mailcap file for configuring

MIME types. Use the following entry for Ghostview (see below
for the -safer option):
application/postscript; ghostview -safer %s
The relation between MIME types and file extensions is con-
trolled by the .mime.types file. If the following line doesn’t al-
ready exist, add it to the .mime.types file:
application/postscript ai, ps, eps

Ghostscript User Manual Chapter 4: Ghostscript Primer 17

 5 Ghostscript Reference Section -Sname=string
-sname=string
5.1 Command Line Options Defines a name in systemdict with the given string definition
(equivalent to /name (string) def).
On all platforms, Ghostscript evaluates several command line
options used to control the interpreter: -q
(quiet) Suppress normal startup messages.
-h
-? -f<filename>
--help Execute the given file, even if its name begins with a “-” or “@”.
These options cause Ghostscript to print a brief help message -f provides a way to terminate the token list for -c.
and a list of available (i.e., built-in) device drivers on screen.
-g<number1>x<number2>
@<filename> Equivalent to -dDEVICEWIDTH=number1 and -dDEVICE-
Ghostscript reads the specified file and treats its contents the HEIGHT= number2 (see below).
same as the command line. This makes it easier to use com-
mand line options on Windows or to use command lines longer -r<number>
-r<number1>x<number2>
than 128 characters on MS-DOS.
Equivalent to -dDEVICEXRESOLUTION=number1 and -dDE-
-- <filename> arg1 ... VICEYRESOLUTION=number2 (see below). This is intended for
-+ <filename> arg1 ... devices that support different horizontal and vertical resolu-
Ghostscript treats the file name as usual but stores the remain- tions, especially dot matrix printers.
ing arguments in an array named ARGUMENTS in userdict.
This way PostScript programs can access options and command -u<name>
line arguments. Undefines a name, cancelling -d or -s.

-@ <filename> arg1 ... -I<directories>

Add a list of directories to the search path for initalization and
Same as -- and -+, but expands arguments from argfile.
font files. Multiple directories are separated with a semicolon
-c tokens ... “;” (MS-DOS, Windows, OS/2) or colon “:” (Unix).
Interprets arguments up to the next “-” as PostScript code and
executes them. Each argument must be exactly one token. -P
Ghostscript first searches the current directory for library files.
-Dname=token This is the default.
-dname=token
Defines a name in systemdict with the given definition (equiva- -P-
lent to /name token def). This option is mainly used for spe- Ghostscript doesn’t search the current directory for library files,
cial names (see below). but uses the search path only.

-Dname -
-dname Instructs Ghostscript to read standard input from file or pipe
Defines name in systemdict with a value of true. (instead of from the keyboard). Ghostscript reads and processes
data from standard input and exits. Note that it’s not possible to
read PDF files from standard input.

Ghostscript User Manual Chapter 5: Ghostscript Reference Section 18

Special PostScript names used as switches. The use.txt garding the actual device resolution. Reasonable values for lpi
file contains some more options for debugging Ghostscript. A are N/5 to N/20, where N is the resolution in dots per inch.
couple of names with special meanings is being interpreted by
the PostScript code in Ghostscript’s initialization files. They -dFirstPage=<n>
Starts interpreting on the given page of a PDF document.
work similar to command line options:
-dGraphicsAlphaBits=<n>
-dBATCH
Specifies the bit depth for graphics anti-aliasing. Possible values
Instead of displaying the interactive prompt after processing all
are 1 (=no anti-aliasing), 2, and 4. Note that only few drivers are
command line files, Ghostscript exits. Equivalent to -c quit.
capable of anti-aliasing.
-dCOLORSCREEN
On devices with at least 150 dpi resolution forces the use of sep- -dFIXEDMEDIA
Causes the media size to be fixed after initialization. Pages are
arate halftone screens with different angles for the process col-
scaled or rotated if necessary.
ors (this produces the best quality output).
-dFIXEDRESOLUTION
-dCOLORSCREEN=0
Causes the output resolution to be fixed.
Uses separate screens with the same frequency and angle for
the process colors. -dLastPage=<n>
Stops interpreting after the given page of a PDF document.
-dCOLORSCREEN=false
Forces the use of a single binary screen. If COLORSCREEN is -dLOCALFONTS
not specified, the default is to use separate screens with differ- This is a compatibility option for certain obsolete fonts. This op-
ent angles if the device has fewer than 5 bits per color. tion makes Ghostscript load type 1 fonts always to local VM.
-dDELAYBIND -dNOBIND
Delay all bind operations until .bindnow is called. Used by the Disables the bind operator (useful for debugging).
pstotext package.
-dNOCACHE
-dDEVICEWIDTH=<number> Disables the font cache (useful for debugging).
-dDEVICEHEIGHT=<number>
Sets width and height of the device, respectively (in pixels). -dNOCIE
substitutes DeviceGray and DeviceRGB for CIEBasedA and
-dDEVICEXRESOLUTION=<number> CIEBasedABC color spaces respectively (useful on very slow
-dDEVICEYRESOLUTION=<number> systems where color accuracy is less important).
Sets the device horizontal resp. vertical device resolution in dpi.
-dNODISPLAY
-dDISKFONTS Suppresses normal initialization of the output device. This is
Causes character outlines in fonts to be loaded from disk on de- useful for debugging and also for PostScript converters that
mand only. This slows down text rendering but increases the don’t produce any screen or printer output (e.g., ps2ai).
number of fonts which may be loaded into RAM. This tech-
nique is mainly intended for low-memory systems. -dNOFONTMAP
Suppresses loading of the Fontmap file(s).
-dDITHERPPI=<lpi>
forces all devices to be considered high-resolution, and forces -dNOGC
use of a halftone screen or screens with lpi lines per inch, disre- Disables the level 2 garbage collector (useful for debugging).

Ghostscript User Manual Chapter 5: Ghostscript Reference Section 19

-dNOPAUSE -sFONTMAP=<filename1>:<filename2>...
Disables the prompt and pause at the end of each page. This is Defines one or more file names for the font file mapping table.
useful for producing printer output or driving Ghostscript from Several file names are separated by a semicolon “;” under Win-
another program. dows and OS/2 and a colon “:” under Unix.

-dNOPLATFONTS -sFONTPATH=<dirname1>:<dirname2>...
Disables platform fonts for X Windows or Microsoft Windows Defines one or more directory names to be searched for font
(see section 2.5, »Font Configuration«). definitions. Several path names are separated by a semicolon
“;” under Windows and OS/2 and a colon “:” under Unix.
-dNOPROMPT
Disables the prompt (but not the pause) at the end of each page. -sOutputFile=<filename>
This prevents text and graphics output from being mixed on PC Selects an output file name or pipe. If the file name contains the
displays. characters “%d”, Ghostscript replaces the “%d” with the actual
page number and creates one file for each page, e.g., page%d.prn
-dORIENT1=false
yields page1.prn, page2.prn and so on.
Exchanges the meaning of the values 0 and 1 for indicating
On OS/2, Windows 95 and Windows NT you can use printer
page orientation with setpageparams. This is needed for the Post-
queue names: -sOutputFile="\\spool\printername" sends
Script code of certain applications.
the output to the named printer queue. If the printer name is
-dQUIET missing, Ghostscript prompts for the name of the (connected)
Suppress informational messages. This is necessary when redi- printer (Windows) or uses the default queue (OS/2).
recting device output to stdout. On Unix, you can also redirect the output to another pro-
gram via pipe: -sOutputFile=\|lp. The special name “-” for
-dSAFER the output file instructs Ghostscript to send the data to its stan-
Disables the PostScript operators for writing or deleting disk
dard output.
files. This is intended for using Ghostscript as viewer for a Web
browser in a secure mode. -sPAPERSIZE=<papersize>
Selects a page size, e.g., a4. The file gs_statd.ps contains a list of
-dSHORTERRORS supported page size names.
Brackets several error messages with %%[ and ]%% (as Adobe
Interpreters do). -sPSFile=<filename>
Defines the output file name for PDF to PostScript conversion.
-dTextAlphaBits=<n>
Specifies the bit depth for text anti-aliasing. Possible values are -sSUBSTFONT=<fontname>
1 (=no anti-aliasing), 2, and 4. Note that only few drivers are ca- Selects the named font as substitute for all missing fonts. This
pable of anti-aliasing. disables Ghostscript’s normal font substitution mechanism.

-dWRITESYSTEMDICT
Systemdict remains writable. This is necessary for some utility 5.2 Environment Variables
programs that must bypass normal PostScript access protection,
GS_DEVICE=<device>
such as font2c and pcharstr. Defines the initial output device driver.
-sDEVICE=<device> GS_FONTPATH=<path>
Select the initial output device driver. Specifies a list of directories that should be scanned for fonts at
startup (see section 2.5, »Font Configuration«).

Ghostscript User Manual Chapter 5: Ghostscript Reference Section 20

 GS_LIB=<path> Name Class Default value
Search path for initialization and font files. maxDynamicColors MaxDynamicColors 256
useBackingPixmap UseBackingPixmap true
GS_OPTIONS=<options>
useXPutImage UseXPutImage true
Defines a list of command line arguments to be processed be-
useXSetTile UseXSetTile true
fore the ones specified on the command line. All command line
regularFonts RegularFonts (see use.txt)
options are also allowed in this environment variable.
symbolFonts SymbolFonts (see use.txt)
TEMP=<directory> dingbatFonts DingbatFonts (see use.txt)
Directory name for temporary files. On Windows and OS/2 this
variable must point to an existing directory in order to have the As an example, the resources below select a resolution of 72 dpi
printing feature work properly. (independent of actual screen size and resolution) and disable
DOS4G=quiet platform fonts:
Suppresses the usual startup message of the DOS extender for Ghostscript*useExternalFonts: false
the 386 MS-DOS version. Ghostscript*xResolution: 72
Ghostscript*yResolution: 72
If you want Ghostscript to use the same resource settings every
5.3 X Window System Resources time, it’s best to put the resources into a file and load it with the
Ghostscript evaluates several X resources under the program xrdb program.
name ghostscript and the class name Ghostscript. You can use X
resources to define user preferences or to activate bug
5.4 Configuration Error Messages
workarounds for several X servers. In the use.txt file you can
find more information on resources. The table below lists all re- Ghostscript issues the usual PostScript error messages (see
sources together with their default values. Chapter 2 of this book). Additionally, there are some messages
relating to Ghostscript installation or configuration errors in-
Name Class Default value stead of PostScript errors:
background Background white
foreground Foreground black /undefinedfilename in (Fontmap)
borderColor BorderColor black
Ghostscript can’t find the Fontmap file, and the GS_FONTPATH
borderWidth BorderWidth 1
environment variable isn’t set. Install a Fontmap file or set
geometry Geometry NULL
GS_FONTPATH to point to an appropriate font directory.
xResolution Resolution (calc. from screen Can't find (or open) initialization file
size)
gs_init.ps.
yResolution Resolution (calc. from screen
Ghostscript can’t find its main initialization file. Use the -I op-
size)
tion or the GS_LIB enviroment variable to point Ghostscript to
useExternalFonts UseExternalFonts true
the directory containing the gs_*.ps files.
useScalableFonts UseScalableFonts true
logExternalFonts LogExternalFonts false Can't find (or can't open) font file xxx
externalFontTolerance ExternalFontTolerance 10.0 The Fontmap file contains a font file entry for a nonexistent file
palette Palette Color or a file that Ghostscript can’t open. Under Unix, check the file
maxGrayRamp MaxGrayRamp 128 permissions.
maxRGBRamp MaxRGBRamp 5

Ghostscript User Manual Chapter 5: Ghostscript Reference Section 21

Substituting font Courier for xxx. 6 More Ghostscript Applications
Ghostscript can’t find a requested font and substitutes for it
with another font. Processing continues. Many file format conversions and other special applications are
possible with the help of Ghostscript drivers and auxiliary pro-
Unable to load default font xxx! Giving up. grams. Some of these applications are not PostScript interpreter
Ghostscript can’t find the default font file and hence isn’t able to tasks at first sight. The descriptions in the following sections
do text output at all. Therefore processing stops. Check the font provide a summary of the most important of these applications.
configuration. Usually you can find more detailed information in the appro-
priate documentation or source files (*.txt, *.ps, *.c).
Can’t find library ’libXt.so.6’
Unix versions of Ghostscript generally are linked dynamically.
For this reason, several libraries must be accessible at runtime. 6.1 Graphics File Formats
Use the ldd command to find out which libraries are needed, lo-
Displaying and printing graphics file formats. The utili-
cate these on your hard disk, and set the LD_LIBRARY_PATH
environment variable appropriately. Another solution is to link ty programs viewcmyk.ps, viewgif.ps, viewjpeg.ps, view-
pbm.ps, and viewpcx.ps – all written in PostScript – display or
Ghostscript statically.
print raster graphic files in the CMYK, GIF, JPEG, PBM, or PCX
Unknown device: xxx file formats without converting them to PostScript. Launch
Ghostscript has been launched with an unknown device driver Ghostscript with the appropriate utility and load a graphics file
name. If you want to use drivers which are not available in the using one of the procedures viewcmyk, viewGIF, viewJPEG,
standard configuration, you have to recompile and link Ghost- viewpbm, or viewpcx, e.g.
script with the necessary drivers.
gs viewjpeg.ps
GS>(file.jpg) viewJPEG
gs: Interpreter revision (501) does not match
gs_init.ps revision (403). Converting PostScript to raster graphics formats.
Ghostscript found an initialization file that doesn’t match the Several file format drivers enable Ghostscript to convert Post-
program version. Make sure the GS_LIB environment variable Script files to TIFF, PBM, PCX, BMP, etc., given the appropriate
or the -I command line option don’t point to an obsolete Ghost- driver has been compiled into the Ghostscript executable. The
script version on your hard disk. Ghostscript call contains the name of the driver and (optionally)
the resolution. For example, to create a 600 dpi bitmapped TIFF
version of a file, use the following command:
gs -q -dNOPROMPT -dBATCH -sDEVICE=tiffpack -r600
-sOutputFile=page%d.tif file.ps
Ghostscripts replaces the “%d” variable in the filename with the
actual page number (page1.tif, page2.tif etc.). By default, the TIFF
drivers use a resolution of 204 x 196 dpi (standard fax resolu-
tion).

Enhanced rendering with anti-aliasing. A technique cal-

led anti-aliasing tries to improve text or graphics rendering by
making use of gray levels for smoothing. Anti-aliasing is imple-
mented in a couple of Ghostscript drivers, namely the Windows

Ghostscript User Manual Chapter 6: More Ghostscript Applications 22

and OS/2 display drivers, as well as the Portable Graymap For- If you configured and compiled Ghostscript with the epsf fea-
mat (PGM) and Portable Pixmap Format (PPM) driver. To make ture, the Interpreter is capable of reading EPS files which in-
use of anti-aliasing, the bit depth must be at least 8 bits. The fol- clude binary screen preview sections in addition to the Post-
lowing command line can be used to convert a PostScript file to Script code.
PGM with anti-aliasing:
Converting to the Adobe Illustrator format. As of ver-
gs -q -dBATCH -sDEVICE=pgm -dTextAlphaBits=4
-sOutputFile=file.pgm file.ps sion 5.01, a special Ghostscript driver for creating Adobe Illu-
strator format is not yet available. Instead, Ghostscript uses the
Possible alpha values are 1 (=no anti-aliasing), 2, and 4. Anti- sophisticated PostScript program ps2ai.ps. Although this con-
aliasing for graphics can (independently of text anti-aliasing) version is bound to some restrictions, in many cases it yields
similarly be achieved using the -dGraphicsAlphaBits=4 graphics files which may be opened and edited with any Illus-
option. trator-compatible program. On Unix, redirect Ghostscript’s out-
Note: you can easily create anti-aliased output with GS- put to a file. On Windows and OS/2 it’s easier to have Ghost-
view’s menu option “Media”, “Display Settings...”. script create the file directly. To achieve this, change the
variable /jout at the beginning of ps2ai.ps to a value of true. As-
Converting PostScript to PostScript raster graphics.
sign the name of the AI file you want to create to the /joutput
This conversion makes it possible to print PostScript Level 2
variable. Now launch Ghostscript with the converter and the
files on devices with PostScript Level 1 interpreters. Ghost-
PostScript file to be converted to AI format:
script’s psmono and psgray drivers produce PostScript files con-
taining a 1-bit or 8-bit raster version of the file as a PostScript gs -dNODISPLAY ps2ai.ps file.ps
Level 1 bitmap. Similar to the TIFF conversion you can select For EPS files that are missing the showpage operator at the end,
the resolution: you have to type this operator at the Ghostscript prompt before
gs -sDEVICE=psmono -r600 -sOutputFile=file1.ps file2.ps quitting in order to completely render the page. For the conver-
sion to be successful, it is necessary for Ghostscript to have ac-
By default, the psmono driver uses a resolution of 300 dpi.
cess to all fonts used in the PostScript file. Note that the conver-
sion isn’t perfect: there may be problems concerning color
Converting PostScript to PostScript vector graphics..
The pswrite and epswrite drivers produce “high-level” Post- ramps and grouped objects in the converted AI files.
Unfortunately ps2ai.ps doesn’t work on the Mac.
Script or EPS output. Contrary to the above-mentioned Post-
Script drivers, this output isn’t rasterized but may contain geo-
metrical objects. Depending on the nature of the input file, the 6.2 PDF Files
output may increase or decrease in size. pswrite output may be
Displaying and printing PDF files. You can list PDF files
considered as “purified” PostScript in some sense.
on Ghostscript’s command line or in GSview’s open dialog box
Additional features for EPS files. The shell script/batch just like you can PostScript files because Ghostscript recognizes
PDF files automatically. In order to be able to process PDF files,
file ps2epsi or ps2epsi.bat creates ASCII previews for EPSI files.
Ghostscript must be configured with the PDF interpreter. By
Usage notes can be found in ps2epsi.txt. On Windows and OS/2
default, this is true on all 32-bit systems except the Macintosh.
many additional EPS functions are possible with GSview, in-
cluding determining a correct bounding box and creating or de- Ghostscript interprets the printable contents of PDF files only,
and ignores hypertext elements (such as links, annotations, and
leting preview bitmaps. More details can be found in chapter 3
bookmarks) and thumbnails. Although there is no font substitu-
of this book.
tion with Multiple Master fonts, Ghostscript replaces a missing

Ghostscript User Manual Chapter 6: More Ghostscript Applications 23

font with a similar one and adjusts the metrics of the substitut- There are no further options available for PS to PDF conversion.
ed font to those of the missing font. Ghostscript recognizes the pdfmark and setdistillerparams opera-
Contrary to PostScript files, it’s possible to access random tors. However, the distiller parameters are ignored with the ex-
pages of PDF files. Therefore you can select a page range for ception of ASCII85 encoding. Text in any other font than the 14
PDF files when launching Ghostscript: Acrobat base fonts or in fonts with non-standard encodings is
gs -dFirstPage=<n> -dLastPage=<m> file.pdf converted to bitmaps.

This works for displaying and printing PDF files and for con- Encrypted PDF files. PDF files may optionally contain en-
verting them to PostScript (see below). crypted data. PDF encryption uses a combination of the MD5
and RC4 algorithms. Although code for these algorithms is
Converting PDF files to PostScript. Ghostscript is able to
publicly available, current U.S. export regulations make it im-
convert PDF files back to PostScript Level 2. In fact, if the PDF
possible to include the code necessary for reading encrypted
file doesn’t contain compressed raster graphics or color spaces,
PDF files in the Ghostscript distribution. You may, however, re-
the generated PostScript files use Level 1 operators only. The
trieve a simple add-on file from the following URL:
following command line creates the corresponding PostScript
file for a PDF file: http://www.ozemail.com.au/~geoffk/pdfencrypt

gs -dNODISPLAY -sPSFile=file.ps file.pdf Of course this file doesn’t contain a code-cracker: you still need
the password to open encrypted PDF files.
A little shell script/batch file contained in the Ghostscript dis-
tribution makes this even easier: PDF files in GSview and Ghostview. Note that because of
pdf2ps file.pdf file.ps the idiosyncrasies of the PDF format Ghostscript isn’t able to
The following additional options are available for PDF to Post- read PDF files from its standard input. Due to this fact, display-
Script conversion: ing PDF files with Ghostview has its limitations. You can use
the following command line for Ghostview on Unix to browse
-dPSBinaryOK PDF files one page after the other. It’s not possible to jump to
Allows the generated PostScript files to contain binary data. arbitrary page numbers:
-dPSLevel1 ghostview -arguments file.pdf quit.ps
Generates PostScript Level 1 output. GSview for Windows and OS/2 has already been adapted to
-dPSNoProcSet processing PDF files. GSview handles PDF files just as Post-
Does not include the PostScript prolog (procset) in the output. Script files. Jumping to an arbitrary page in the file is also
Note that the prolog is necessary when sending the generated possible.
file to a PostScript printer.
Extracting text from PDF files. Using the ps2ascii.ps or
Converting PostScript to PDF (distilling). Ghostscript is pstotext utilities you can extract text from PDF files (see next sec-
also able to “distill” PostScript files to PDF. The following com- tion for details).
mand line can be used to distill PostScript files to PDF:
gs -q -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=pdfwrite 6.3 Printing and Extracting Text
-sOutputFile=file.pdf file.ps
Printing text files. The gslp.ps utility program implements a
Again, a shell script/batch file simplifies the process:
lineprinter emulation, i.e., printing simple text files with Post-
ps2pdf file.ps file.pdf Script commands. This includes some formating such as head-

Ghostscript User Manual Chapter 6: More Ghostscript Applications 24

ers and footers, page numbers and tabs. Ghostscript optionally a different method will be used for text extraction which is less
creates PostScript code or renders the text on screen or printer. accurate but faster. Note that unlike ps2ascii.ps, pstotext pre-
Details on using the emulator and possible options may be serves umlauts and other special characters.
found in the gslp.ps file. Example for printing a text file on a la-
serjet printer:
6.4 Font Tools
gs -q -sDEVICE=laserjet -r300 -dNOPAUSE -- gslp.ps
file.txt Printing font tables. The prfont.ps utility prints character ta-
You may use several options following the file name gslp.ps. bles for any given PostScript font. It first prints all characters
The -p option creates a PostScript file instead of rendering the contained in the encoding vector of the font, then uncoded
text on screen or printer: characters. If the font isn’t configured in Ghostscript, enter the
gs -q -dNOPAUSE -- gslp.ps -p file.ps file.txt font file name on the Ghostscript command line. Then type the
font name and the procedure name at the Ghostscript prompt:
Extracting text from PostScript and PDF files. The text gs fontfile prfont.ps
extraction feature is a counterpart of the lineprinter emulation GS>/FontName DoFont
as it extracts the textual contents from a PostScript file. There
are at least two options for extracting text with Ghostscript: the
ps2ascii.ps PostScript program and the more sophisticated psto-
text package.
ps2ascii.ps is included in the Ghostscript distribution. De-
pending on the -dSIMPLE option, the utility creates simple or
complex output. Simple output consists of text only, whereas
And now
complex output additionally contains information about font for a little commercial...
type and string positions. The positions are given in tenth of a
point. More details may be found at the beginning of ps2ascii.ps,
some usage samples in the batch file ps2ascii.bat. A typical com-
mand line:
gs -dNODISPLAY -dNOBIND -dWRITESYSTEMDICT -dSIMPLE
ps2ascii.ps file.ps -c quit >file.txt
Note that there is good reason to call the utility ps2ascii: If the
PostScript file contains any special characters (German um-
lauts, for example), they don’t make their way into the output
file but get substituted with two-character sequences of ASCII
symbols.
The pstotext package is available as a Ghostscript add-on
from the following URL:
http://www.research.digital.com/SRC/virtualpaper/
pstotext.html
The pstotext code is also included in the GSview distribution as
a separate DLL. Simply use GSview’s “Edit”, “Text Extract...”
feature to make use of it. If you check “Options”, “Quick Text”,

Ghostscript User Manual Chapter 6: More Ghostscript Applications 25

 PostScript & Acrobat/PDF
Applications, Troubleshooting, and Cross-Platform Publishing

Originally entitled the »PostScript and Acrobat Bible« in Ger-

man, this handbook achieves the seemingly impossible: it covers
this tricky and technical field in an entertaining manner without
getting bogged down in PostScript programming. The author
genuinely wants to assist in overcoming cross-platform barriers
using MS-DOS, Windows, Macintosh or Unix and, accordingly,
neither the book nor the tools are limited to one particular plat-
form or operating system. The 9 chapters plus 3 appendixes run
the entire gamut, from the very basics right up to Ghostscript.
The whole book is creatively designed, making use of comical
illustrations. In short, essential reading for all technically minded
users of PostScript and Acrobat/PDF.

Examples
• How to port EPS files or fonts from Mac to Windows to Unix
• Pros and cons of different PostScript drivers for Windows
• How to install PostScript fonts in the X Window System
• How to interpret and fix PostScript error messages
• How to edit or create PostScript fonts
• How to make EPS files editable again
• What's the Control-D business with PostScript files?
• How to make use of Level 2 without a Level 2 savvy driver
• How to create hypertext features in PDF files automatically
• How to use PDF files without Acrobat software
• Linking PDF files to the World Wide Web
• Performance optimization and prepress issues

Contents
Basics – Between Monitor and Printer – Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) – PostScript Fonts – PostScript Level 2
– Gray Levels and Color – Display PostScript – Adobe Acrobat and PDF – Miscellaneous – Software on the
CD-ROM – Ghostscript Manual – Character Sets

PostScript & Acrobat/PDF

Applications, Troubleshooting, and Cross-Platform Publishing
By Thomas Merz. Including CD-ROM for MS-DOS/Windows/Macintosh/Unix
ISBN 3-540-60854-0, Springer-Verlag, Heidelberg, Berlin, New York
Springer-Verlag New York Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, U.S.A. Email: orders@springer.de

German Edition: Die PostScript- und Acrobat-Bibel

Was Sie schon immer über PostScript und Acrobat/PDF wissen wollten
Von Thomas Merz. 444 Seiten zweifarbig, 137 Abbildungen, Hardcover; DM 89,-
CD-ROM für MS-DOS/Windows/Macintosh/Unix beiliegend
ISBN 3-9804943-0-6, Thomas Merz Verlag, München, Fax +49/89/29 16 46 86

Ghostscript User Manual Chapter 6: More Ghostscript Applications 26