Copyright (C) 1989, 1995, 1996, 1997 Aladdin Enterprises. All rights reserved.
This file is part of Aladdin Ghostscript.
Aladdin Ghostscript is distributed with NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. No author
or distributor accepts any responsibility for the consequences of using it,
or for whether it serves any particular purpose or works at all, unless he
or she says so in writing. Refer to the Aladdin Ghostscript Free Public
License (the "License") for full details.
Every copy of Aladdin Ghostscript must include a copy of the License,
normally in a plain ASCII text file named PUBLIC. The License grants you
the right to copy, modify and redistribute Aladdin Ghostscript, but only
under certain conditions described in the License. Among other things, the
License requires that the copyright notice and this notice be preserved on
all copies.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
This file, use.txt, describes how to use the Ghostscript language
interpreter.
For an overview of Ghostscript and a list of the documentation files, see
README.
********
******** Installing Ghostscript
********
Please read the documentation file install.txt for information on installing
Ghostscript.
********
******** Shell scripts for Ghostscript
********
The Ghostscript distribution includes several Unix shell scripts for
driving Ghostscript in different environments. These are all
user-contributed code: please contact the user identified in the file, not
Aladdin Enterprises, if you have questions.
> pv.sh - preview a specified page of a dvi file in an X window.
> sysvlp.sh - System V 3.2 lp interface for parallel printer.
> pj-gs.sh - printing on an H-P PaintJet under HP-UX.
> unix-lpr.sh - queue filter for lpr under Unix.
> lprsetup.sh - setup for unix-lpr.sh.
If one of these serves your needs, you may be able to skip most of
the rest of this document.
********
******** How to use Ghostscript ********
********
To invoke the interpreter, give the command
gs <filename1> ... <filenameN>
The interpreter will read in the files in sequence (using the method
described under "File searching" below to find the files) and execute them.
After doing this, it reads further input from the primary input stream
(normally the keyboard). Each line (i.e. characters up to a <return>) is
interpreted separately. To exit from the interpreter, type quit<return>.
The interpreter also exits gracefully if it encounters end-of-file. Typing
the interrupt character, e.g., control-C, is also safe.
The interpreter recognizes several switches described below, which may appear
anywhere in the command line and apply to all files thereafter.
You can get a brief help message by invoking Ghostscript with
gs -h
or
gs -?
This message also lists the available devices. For a little more
information about available devices, a one-line description of each device
appears near the beginning of the file devs.mak.
Choosing the output device
--------------------------
Ghostscript may be built with multiple output devices. Ghostscript
normally opens the first one and directs output to it. To use device xyz
as the initial output device, include the switch
-sDEVICE=xyz
in the command line. Note that this switch must precede the first .ps
file, and only its first invocation has any effect. For example, for
printer output in a normal configuration that includes an Epson printer
driver, you might use the shell command
gs -sDEVICE=epson myfile.ps
instead of just
gs myfile.ps
Alternatively, once you are inside Ghostscript, you can type
(epson) selectdevice
(myfile.ps) run
All output then goes to the printer instead of the display until further
notice. You can switch devices at any time by using the selectdevice
procedure, e.g.,
(vga) selectdevice
or
(epson) selectdevice
As yet a third alternative, you can define an environment variable
GS_DEVICE as the desired default device name. The order of precedence for
these alternatives, highest to lowest, is:
selectdevice
(command line)
GS_DEVICE
(first device in build list)
To select the resolution on a printer, use the shell command
gs -sDEVICE=<device> -r<xres>x<yres>
For example, on a 9-pin Epson-compatible printer, you can get the
lowest-resolution (fastest) mode with
gs -sDEVICE=epson -r60x72
and the highest-resolution mode with
gs -sDEVICE=epson -r240x72.
On a 24-pin printer, the lowest resolution is
gs -sDEVICE=epson -r60x60
and the highest-resolution 24-pin mode is
gs -sDEVICE=epson -r360x180
If you select a printer as the output device, Ghostscript also allows you
to control where the device sends its output. Normally, output goes
directly to the printer (PRN) on MS-DOS systems, and to a scratch file on
Unix or VMS systems. To send the output to a series of files foo1.xyz,
foo2.xyz, ..., use the switch
-sOutputFile=foo%d.xyz
(For compatibility with older versions of Ghostscript, -sOUTPUTFILE=
also works.) The %d is a printf format specification; you can use
other formats like %02d. Each file will receive one page of output.
Alternatively, to send the output to a single file foo.xyz, with all
the pages concatenated, use the switch
-sOutputFile=foo.xyz
On Unix systems, you can send the output directly to a pipe. For
example, to pipe the output to the command `lpr' (which, on many Unix
systems, is the command that spools output for a printer), use the
switch
-sOutputFile=\|lpr
You can also send output to stdout for piping with the switch
-sOutputFile=-
In this case you must also use the -q switch, to prevent Ghostscript from
writing messages to stdout.
File formats like PCX and PBM are also 'devices'. When you select a file
format as the 'device', you must also specify an output file, e.g.,
gs -sDEVICE=pcxmono -sOutputFile=xyz.pcx
To find out what devices are available, type
devicenames ==
after starting up Ghostscript. Alternatively you can use the -h or
-? switch in the command line, as described above.
Choosing paper size
-------------------
Ghostscript is normally configured to use U.S. letter paper as the default.
To select a different default paper size, find the line in gs_init.ps that
says
% Optionally choose a default paper size other than U.S. letter.
The next line begins
% (a4)
To select A4 as the default paper size, remove the % but do not change
anything else. To select a different default paper size, remove the % and
replace the word a4 with the name of the desired paper size. You can use
any paper size listed in the table at the beginning of gs_statd.ps.
Alternatively, to select a different default paper size for a single
invocation of Ghostscript, you can use the command line switch
-sPAPERSIZE=a_known_paper_size
e.g.,
-sPAPERSIZE=a4
or
-sPAPERSIZE=legal
Individual documents also can (and often do) specify a paper size, which
will take precedence over the default one. If you want to force a specific
paper size, ignoring the paper size specified in the document, make that
paper size the default (as just described), and also include
-dFIXEDMEDIA
on the command line.
Finally, most (but not all) of Ghostscript's printer drivers can be
configured at compile time to use A4 paper as the default by including
-DA4 in the CFLAGS switches in the makefile. See make.txt for more
details.
File searching
--------------
When looking for initialization files (gs_*.ps, pdf_*.ps), font files, the
Fontmap file, and files named on the command line, Ghostscript first tests
whether the file name specifies an explicit directory. The test is as
follows:
- On Unix systems, Ghostscript tests whether the name begins with
'/', or with one or more '.'s followed by a '/'.
- On MS-DOS or MS Windows systems, Ghostscript tests whether the
name has a ':' as its second character, or begins with '/' or
'\', or with one or more '.'s followed by a '/' or '\'.
- On VMS systems, Ghostscript tests whether the name contains a
node, device, root, or directory specification.
If the file name does specify an explicit directory (the test succeeds),
Ghostscript simply tries to open the file using the given name. Otherwise,
Ghostscript will try directories in the following order:
- The current directory (unless disabled by the -P- switch);
- The directory/ies specified by the -I switch(es) in the command
line (see below), if any;
- The directory/ies specified by the GS_LIB environment variable,
if any;
- The directory/ies specified by the GS_LIB_DEFAULT macro in the
Ghostscript makefile, if any.
Each of these (GS_LIB_DEFAULT, GS_LIB, and -I parameter) may be either a
single directory, or a list of directories separated by a character
appropriate for the operating system (':' on Unix systems, ';' on VMS
systems, ';' on MS-DOS systems). We think that trying the current directory
first is a very bad idea -- it opens serious security loopholes and can lead
to very confusing errors if one has more than one version of Ghostscript in
one's environment -- but when we attempted to change it, users insisted that
we change it back. You can disable looking in the current directory first
using the -P- switch described below.
Note that Ghostscript does not use this file searching algorithm for the
'run' or 'file' operators: for these operators, it simply opens the file
with the given name. To run a file using the searching algorithm, use
'runlibfile' instead of 'run'.
Font lookup
-----------
Ghostscript has slightly different rules for determining how to find the
file containing a font with a given name. It starts by looking for Fontmap
files in every directory on the search path: these files provide mappings
between font names and file names. (See the Fontmap file in the Ghostscript
distribution for details.) If it can't find a font in any Fontmap file in
the search path (or in the list provided with the -sFONTMAP= switch, if
present), it looks at the GS_FONTPATH environment variable (or the value
provided with the -sFONTPATH= switch, if present), which is also a list of
directories. It goes to those directories, one by one, and looks for all
files that appear to contain PostScript fonts; it then effectively adds all
those files and fonts to its internal copy of the Fontmap (the catalog of
fonts and the files that contain them). If you are using one of the
following types of computer, you may wish to set GS_FONTPATH to the
indicated value so that Ghostscript will automatically acquire all the
installed Type 1 fonts:
System type GS_FONTPATH
----------- -----------
DEC OSF/1 /usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1Adobe
DEC Ultrix /usr/lib/DPS/outline/decwin
HP-UX 9 /usr/lib/X11/fonts/type1.st/typefaces
IBM AIX /usr/lpp/DPS/fonts/outlines
" /usr/lpp/X11/lib/X11/fonts/Type1
" /usr/lpp/X11/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/DPS
NeXT /NextLibrary/Fonts/outline
SGI IRIX /usr/lib/DPS/outline/base
" /usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1
Sun SunOS 4.x /usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/outline
" (NeWSprint only)
newsprint_2.5/SUNWsteNP/reloc/$BASEDIR/NeWSprint/small_openwin/lib/fonts
Sun Solaris 2 /usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/outline
VMS SYS$COMMON:[SYSFONT.XDPS.OUTLINE]
These paths may not be exactly right for your installation; if the
indicated directory doesn't contain files whose names are familiar font
names like Courier and Helvetica, you may wish to ask your system
administrator where to find these fonts.
NOTE: On Solaris systems simply setting GS_FONTPATH may not work, because
for some reason some versions of Ghostscript can't seem to find any of the
Type1 fonts in /usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/outline. It says: "15
files, 15 scanned, 0 new fonts". See Fontmap.Sol instead.
Temporary files
---------------
By default, Ghostscript creates temporary files named _temp_XX.XXX in the
current directory on MS-DOS and VMS systems, gsXXXXXX in the current
directory on OS/2 systems, and gs_XXXXX in the /tmp directory on Unix
systems. You can change the directory in which Ghostscript will create
these files by setting the TEMP environment variable to the name of the
directory.
Ghostscript currently doesn't do a very good job of deleting temporary
files when it exits; you may have to delete them manually from time to
time.
Environment variable summary
----------------------------
GS_DEVICE
Defines the default output device. Described above.
GS_FONTPATH
Specifies a list of directories that should be scanned for fonts
at startup. Described above.
GS_LIB
Provides a search path for initialization files and fonts.
Described above.
GS_OPTIONS
Defines a list of command line arguments to be processed before
the ones actually specified on the command line. For example, setting
GS_DEVICE to xxx is equivalent to setting GS_OPTIONS to -sDEVICE=xxx. The
contents of GS_OPTIONS are not limited to switches; they may include
actual file names or even @file arguments.
TEMP
Defines a directory name for temporary files. Described above.
********
******** Using Ghostscript and Ghostview with PDF files
********
Ghostscript is normally configured (except on 16-bit MS-DOS platforms) so
that it can interpret both PostScript and PDF files (the latter are
sometimes incorrectly called "Acrobat files"). It examines each file to
determine automatically whether it is a PDF file or a PostScript file. All
the normal switches and procedures for interpreting PostScript files also
apply to PDF files, with a few exceptions noted below. In addition, there
is a shell script
pdf2ps input.pdf output.ps
that converts PDF to (Level 2) PostScript.
Switches not applicable to PDF files
------------------------------------
You cannot use the `-' switch to provide PDF input from stdin or a pipe.
The PDF language, unlike the PostScript language, inherently requires random
access to the file.
Added switches for PDF files
----------------------------
-dFirstPage=pagenumber
Starts interpreting on the given page of the document.
-dLastPage=pagenumber
Stops interpreting after the given page of the document.
-sPSFile=filename
Writes the PostScript equivalent of the PDF input on the
given file.
Ghostview and PDF files
-----------------------
Since Ghostview pipes PostScript files to Ghostscript, you cannot view PDF
files with Ghostview just by saying
ghostview file.pdf
Instead there are two options:
1. Tanmoy Bhattacharya has written some patches for Ghostview 1.5
that allow it to read and display PDF files. These are available
from:
ftp://gita.lanl.gov/people/tanmoy/hypertex/gv1.5gs3.33hack.tar.gz
2. Start Ghostview as follows:
ghostview -arguments file.pdf quit.ps
This will allow you to display a PDF file, but you won't be able
to jump to particular pages. Use Tanmoy's code if you want that
facility.
********
******** Notes on specific platforms ********
********
VMS
---
On VMS systems, the last character of each "directory" name indicates what
sort of entity the "directory" references. If the "directory" name ends
with a colon, it is taken as referring to a logical device, e.g.:
$ DEFINE GHOSTSCRIPT_DEVICE DUA1:[GHOSTSCRIPT_14]
$ DEFINE GS_LIB GHOSTSCRIPT_DEVICE:
If the "directory" name ends with a closing square bracket, it is taken as
referring to a real directory, e.g.:
$ DEFINE GS_LIB DUA1:[GHOSTSCRIPT]
In order to specify switches and file names when invoking the interpreter,
define GS as a foreign command:
$ GS == "$disk:[directory]GS.EXE"
where "disk" and "directory" specify the disk and directory where Ghostscript
is located. For instance,
$ GS == "$DUA1:[GHOSTSCRIPT]GS.EXE"
To allow the interpreter to be run from any directory, define the logical
GS_LIB which points to the Ghostscript directory
$ DEFINE GS_LIB disk:[directory]
This allows Ghostscript to locate its initialization files stored in the
Ghostscript directory -- see use.txt for further details. Finally, to
invoke the interpreter, merely type GS. Although DCL normally converts
unquoted parameters to upper case, C programs receive their parameters in
lower case. That is, the command
$ GS -Isys$login:
passes the switch "-isys$login" to the interpreter. To preserve the
case of switches, enclose them in double quotes; e.g.,
$ GS "-Isys$login:"
If you are on an X Windows display (for which gs is built), you can do
$ set display/create/node="domain-name"/transport=tcpip
For example,
$ set display/create/node="doof.city.com"/transport=tcpip
and then run Ghostscript
$ gs
If you write printer output to a file and then want to print the file
later, use the "/PASSALL" qualifier to the PRINT command.
In order to get PDF files (or PostScript files that use the setfileposition
operator) to work properly on VMS systems, you must ensure that they are
"stream LF" type files. (**NOTE**: This only applies if you are using DEC C
to compile Ghostscript; there is no known way to get these files to work
properly with the old VAX C compiler.) If you transfer files by FTP, you
probably need to do one of the following two things after the transfer:
1. If FTP'd in text/ASCII mode then do:
$ CONVERT/FDL=STREAMLF.FDL input-file output-file
where the contents of the file STREAMLF.FDL are given below.
2. Otherwise, if FTP'd in binary mode do
$ SET FILE/ATTRIBUTE=(RFM:STMLF)
The contents of the STREAMLF.FDL file are shown between, and exclusive of, the
dashed lines:
-------------------------------------------------
FILE
ORGANIZATION sequential
RECORD
BLOCK_SPAN yes
CARRIAGE_CONTROL carriage_return
FORMAT stream_lf
-------------------------------------------------
MS-DOS
------
Ghostscript supports many SuperVGA displays directly, most of them with
more than 16 colors. The complete list is in the file devs.mak, which is
part of the Ghostscript source code. (If you got Ghostscript under the
Aladdin Ghostscript Free Public License, the person or place from which you
got it is also required to make the source code available to you; if you
got it under the GNU License, see the GNU License for more information.)
Some applications, such as Microsoft Word, require a prologue in front of
the PostScript files they output. In the case of Word, this is one of the
*.ini files included with the Word distribution. Other applications may
require other prologues. These may be specified on the Ghostscript
command line, e.g.,
gs prologue.ini myfile.ps
If you have a SuperVGA display that supports a 16-color mode with 800x600
pixels, and you know the display mode number for this mode, you can select
it by using the command line switches
-sDEVICE=svga16 -dDisplayMode=NNN
where NNN is the display mode number in decimal. The modes for some
popular display chipsets are as follows:
Acumos AVGA2, AVGA3 88 (0x58)
Advance Logic AL2101 43 (0x2B)
Ahead V5000 113 (0x71)
ATI VGAWONDER, Graphics Ultra etc. 84 (0x54)
Chips and Technologies 106 (0x6A)
Cirrus Logic CL-GD 500/600 100 (0x64)
Cirrus Logic GD 5422 88 (0x58)
Compaq VGA 89 (0x59)
CTI 106 (0x6A)
* Genoa 5xxx, Sigma VGA 41 (0x29)
Genoa 6xxx 106 (0x6A)
MXIC MX 68010 85 (0x55)
NCR 77C22 88 (0x58)
OAK Technologies OTI-067, OTI-077, OTI037C 82 (0x52)
OAK Technologies OTI037C w/ NEL BIOS 91 (0x5B)
* Orchid Prodesigner 41 (0x29)
Paradise 88 (0x58)
Poach 106 (0x6A)
Primus 42 (0x2A)
Realtek RT 3106 31 (0x1F)
Tecmar 22 (0x16)
Trident 8900 91 (0x5B)
* Tseng ET-3000, ET-4000 41 (0x29)
* VEGA 41 (0x29)
Video 7 SVGA 98 (0x62)
WD90C11 92 (0x5C)
Western Digital 88 (0x58)
The ones marked * are the default (they all use the same value.) If your
card's chipset doesn't appear on this list, or if you try the value here
and it doesn't work, please e-mail the chipset and correct display mode to
ghost@aladdin.com for inclusion in future releases.
NOTE: The remainder of the MS-DOS section is currently not relevant, because
the Borland compilers do not support 32-bit MS-DOS executables, and
Ghostscript no longer supports the 16-bit MS-DOS environment. We have
retained this section on the off-chance that Borland will support 32-bit
MS-DOS compilation at some future time.
If you are running Ghostscript on a MS-DOS machine with a display that is
not EGA/VGA compatible, you must use the Borland compiler. You must build
Ghostscript with the BGI driver as the default, and you will need the
appropriate .BGI file from the Borland Turbo C library. (Ghostscript
includes the EGA/VGA driver in the executable.)
If you are using the BGI driver, two additional environment variables
become relevant:
BGIPATH - defines the directory where Ghostscript will look for
the appropriate BGI driver. If BGIPATH is not defined, Ghostscript will
look in the directory defined as BGIDIR in the makefile. In either case,
if no driver is found in the designated directory, Ghostscript will look
in the current directory.
BGIUSER - a string of the form nn.dname, where nn is a hexadecimal
number giving a display mode and dname is the name of a file containing a
user-supplied BGI driver. If BGIUSER is defined and the BGI device is
selected, Ghostscript will supply nn as the display mode and will obtain
the driver from the file named dname.
X Windows
---------
Ghostscript looks for the following resources under the program name
"ghostscript" and class name "Ghostscript":
Name Class Default
---- ----- -------
background Background white
foreground Foreground black
borderColor BorderColor black
borderWidth BorderWidth 1
geometry Geometry NULL
xResolution Resolution **
yResolution Resolution **
useExternalFonts UseExternalFonts true
useScalableFonts UseScalableFonts true
logExternalFonts LogExternalFonts false
externalFontTolerance ExternalFontTolerance 10.0
palette Palette Color
maxGrayRamp MaxGrayRamp 128
maxRGBRamp MaxRGBRamp 5
maxDynamicColors MaxDynamicColors 256
useBackingPixmap UseBackingPixmap true
useXPutImage UseXPutImage true
useXSetTile UseXSetTile true
regularFonts RegularFonts see below
symbolFonts SymbolFonts see below
dingbatFonts DingbatFonts see below
** Calculated from display metrics.
Notes on Resources:
Ghostscript doesn't look at the default system background and
foreground colors; if you want to change the background or
foreground color, you must set them explicitly for Ghostscript.
(This is a deliberate choice, so that PostScript documents will
display correctly -- with white = white and black = black --
by default, even if text windows use other colors.)
The geometry resource only affects window placement.
Resolution is given in pixels per inch.
The font tolerance gives largest acceptable difference in
height of the screen font. The tolerance is expressed as
a percentage of the height of the desired font.
The palette resource can be used to restrict ghostscript to
using a grayscale or monochrome palette.
The maxRGBRamp and maxGrayRamp control the maximum number of
colors that ghostscript allocates ahead of time for the dither
cube/ramp. Ghostscript will never preallocate more than half
of the cells in a colormap. maxDynamicColors controls the
maximum number of colors that Ghostscript will allocate
dynamically in the colormap.
The use... resources exist primarily to work around bugs in X servers. In
particular, many versions of DEC's X server (DECwindows) have bugs that
require setting useXPutImage or useXSetTile to false.
Some servers do not implement backing pixmaps properly, or do not
have enough memory for them. If you get strange behavior or "out
of memory" messages, try setting useBackingPixmap to false.
Some servers do not implement tiling properly. This will show up
as broad bands of color where dither patterns should appear. If
this happens, try setting useXSetTile to false.
Some servers do not implement bitmap/pixmap displaying properly.
This may show up as white or black rectangles where characters
should appear, or characters may appear in "inverse video" (e.g.,
white on a black rectangle). If this happens, try setting
useXPutImage to false.
To use native X11 fonts, Ghostscript must map PostScript font names to
the XLFD font names. The regularFonts, symbolFonts, and dingbatFonts
resources give the name mapping for different encodings. The XLFD font
name in the mapping must contain seven dashes. The X driver adds the
additional size and encoding fields to bring the total number of dashes
in the font name to 14. Here are the default font mappings:
Regular Fonts: (Fonts available in standard or ISO-Latin-1 encoding)
AvantGarde-Book:-Adobe-ITC Avant Garde Gothic-Book-R-Normal--\n\
AvantGarde-BookOblique:-Adobe-ITC Avant Garde Gothic-Book-O-Normal--\n\
AvantGarde-Demi:-Adobe-ITC Avant Garde Gothic-Demi-R-Normal--\n\
AvantGarde-DemiOblique:-Adobe-ITC Avant Garde Gothic-Demi-O-Normal--\n\
Bookman-Demi:-Adobe-ITC Bookman-Demi-R-Normal--\n\
Bookman-DemiItalic:-Adobe-ITC Bookman-Demi-I-Normal--\n\
Bookman-Light:-Adobe-ITC Bookman-Light-R-Normal--\n\
Bookman-LightItalic:-Adobe-ITC Bookman-Light-I-Normal--\n\
Courier:-Adobe-Courier-Medium-R-Normal--\n\
Courier-Bold:-Adobe-Courier-Bold-R-Normal--\n\
Courier-BoldOblique:-Adobe-Courier-Bold-O-Normal--\n\
Courier-Oblique:-Adobe-Courier-Medium-O-Normal--\n\
Helvetica:-Adobe-Helvetica-Medium-R-Normal--\n\
Helvetica-Bold:-Adobe-Helvetica-Bold-R-Normal--\n\
Helvetica-BoldOblique:-Adobe-Helvetica-Bold-O-Normal--\n\
Helvetica-Narrow:-Adobe-Helvetica-Medium-R-Narrow--\n\
Helvetica-Narrow-Bold:-Adobe-Helvetica-Bold-R-Narrow--\n\
Helvetica-Narrow-BoldOblique:-Adobe-Helvetica-Bold-O-Narrow--\n\
Helvetica-Narrow-Oblique:-Adobe-Helvetica-Medium-O-Narrow--\n\
Helvetica-Oblique:-Adobe-Helvetica-Medium-O-Normal--\n\
NewCenturySchlbk-Bold:-Adobe-New Century Schoolbook-Bold-R-Normal--\n\
NewCenturySchlbk-BoldItalic:-Adobe-New Century Schoolbook-Bold-I-Normal--\n\
NewCenturySchlbk-Italic:-Adobe-New Century Schoolbook-Medium-I-Normal--\n\
NewCenturySchlbk-Roman:-Adobe-New Century Schoolbook-Medium-R-Normal--\n\
Palatino-Bold:-Adobe-Palatino-Bold-R-Normal--\n\
Palatino-BoldItalic:-Adobe-Palatino-Bold-I-Normal--\n\
Palatino-Italic:-Adobe-Palatino-Medium-I-Normal--\n\
Palatino-Roman:-Adobe-Palatino-Medium-R-Normal--\n\
Times-Bold:-Adobe-Times-Bold-R-Normal--\n\
Times-BoldItalic:-Adobe-Times-Bold-I-Normal--\n\
Times-Italic:-Adobe-Times-Medium-I-Normal--\n\
Times-Roman:-Adobe-Times-Medium-R-Normal--\n\
ZapfChancery-MediumItalic:-Adobe-ITC Zapf Chancery-Medium-I-Normal--
Symbol Fonts: (using Symbol encoding)
Symbol: -Adobe-Symbol-Medium-R-Normal--
Dingbat Fonts: (using Dingbat encoding)
ZapfDingbats: -Adobe-ITC Zapf Dingbats-Medium-R-Normal--
For X11/NeWS, one can use the OpenWindows scalable fonts instead, which
will give good quality output for any point size. In this environment,
the relevant section of the resource file should look like this:
Ghostscript.regularFonts: \
AvantGarde-Book: -itc-avantgarde-book-r-normal-- \n\
AvantGarde-BookOblique: -itc-avantgarde-book-o-normal-- \n\
AvantGarde-Demi: -itc-avantgarde-demi-r-normal-- \n\
AvantGarde-DemiOblique: -itc-avantgarde-demi-o-normal-- \n\
Bembo: -monotype-bembo-medium-r-normal-- \n\
Bembo-Bold: -monotype-bembo-bold-r-normal-- \n\
Bembo-BoldItalic: -monotype-bembo-bold-i-normal-- \n\
Bembo-Italic: -monotype-bembo-medium-i-normal-- \n\
Bookman-Demi: -itc-bookman-demi-r-normal-- \n\
Bookman-DemiItalic: -itc-bookman-demi-i-normal-- \n\
Bookman-Light: -itc-bookman-light-r-normal-- \n\
Bookman-LightItalic: -itc-bookman-light-i-normal-- \n\
Courier: -itc-courier-medium-r-normal-- \n\
Courier-Bold: -itc-courier-bold-r-normal-- \n\
Courier-BoldOblique: -itc-courier-bold-o-normal-- \n\
Courier-Oblique: -itc-courier-medium-o-normal-- \n\
GillSans: -monotype-gill-medium-r-normal-sans- \n\
GillSans-Bold: -monotype-gill-bold-r-normal-sans- \n\
GillSans-BoldItalic: -monotype-gill-bold-i-normal-sans- \n\
GillSans-Italic: -monotype-gill-normal-i-normal-sans- \n\
Helvetica: -linotype-helvetica-medium-r-normal-- \n\
Helvetica-Bold: -linotype-helvetica-bold-r-normal-- \n\
Helvetica-BoldOblique: -linotype-helvetica-bold-o-normal-- \n\
Helvetica-Narrow: -linotype-helvetica-medium-r-narrow-- \n\
Helvetica-Narrow-Bold: -linotype-helvetica-bold-r-narrow-- \n\
Helvetica-Narrow-BoldOblique: -linotype-helvetica-bold-o-narrow-- \n\
Helvetica-Narrow-Oblique: -linotype-helvetica-medium-o-narrow-- \n\
Helvetica-Oblique: -linotype-helvetica-medium-o-normal-- \n\
LucidaBright: -b&h-lucidabright-medium-r-normal-- \n\
LucidaBright-Demi: -b&h-lucidabright-demibold-r-normal-- \n\
LucidaBright-DemiItalic: -b&h-lucidabright-demibold-i-normal-- \n\
LucidaBright-Italic: -b&h-lucidabright-medium-i-normal-- \n\
LucidaSans: -b&h-lucida-medium-r-normal-sans- \n\
LucidaSans-Bold: -b&h-lucida-bold-r-normal-sans- \n\
LucidaSans-BoldItalic: -b&h-lucida-bold-i-normal-sans- \n\
LucidaSans-Italic: -b&h-lucida-medium-i-normal-sans- \n\
LucidaSans-Typewriter: -b&h-lucidatypewriter-medium-r-normal-sans- \n\
LucidaSans-TypewriterBold: -b&h-lucidatypewriter-bold-r-normal-sans- \n\
NewCenturySchlbk-BoldItalic: -linotype-new century schoolbook-bold-i-normal-- \n\
NewCenturySchlbk-Bold: -linotype-new century schoolbook-bold-r-normal-- \n\
NewCenturySchlbk-Italic: -linotype-new century schoolbook-medium-i-normal-- \n\
NewCenturySchlbk-Roman: -linotype-new century schoolbook-medium-r-normal-- \n\
Palatino-Bold: -linotype-palatino-bold-r-normal-- \n\
Palatino-BoldItalic: -linotype-palatino-bold-i-normal-- \n\
Palatino-Italic: -linotype-palatino-medium-i-normal-- \n\
Palatino-Roman: -linotype-palatino-medium-r-normal-- \n\
Rockwell: -monotype-rockwell-medium-r-normal-- \n\
Rockwell-Bold: -monotype-rockwell-bold-r-normal-- \n\
Rockwell-BoldItalic: -monotype-rockwell-bold-i-normal-- \n\
Rockwell-Italic: -monotype-rockwell-medium-i-normal-- \n\
Times-Bold: -linotype-times-bold-r-normal-- \n\
Times-BoldItalic: -linotype-times-bold-i-normal-- \n\
Times-Italic: -linotype-times-medium-i-normal-- \n\
Times-Roman: -linotype-times-medium-r-normal-- \n\
Utopia-Bold: -adobe-utopia-bold-r-normal-- \n\
Utopia-BoldItalic: -adobe-utopia-bold-i-normal-- \n\
Utopia-Italic: -adobe-utopia-regular-i-normal-- \n\
Utopia-Regular: -adobe-utopia-regular-r-normal-- \n\
ZapfChancery-MediumItalic: -itc-zapfchancery-medium-i-normal-- \n
Ghostscript.dingbatFonts: \
ZapfDingbats: -itc-zapfdingbats-medium-r-normal--
Ghostscript.symbolFonts: \
Symbol: --symbol-medium-r-normal--
Users who switch regularly between different X servers may wish to use the
'*' wild card in place of the foundry name (itc, monotype, linotype, b&h,
or adobe); users who do not switch X servers should leave the explicit
foundry in the name, since it speeds up font accessing.
To set these resources, put them in a file (such as ~/.Xdefaults) in the
following form:
Ghostscript*geometry: -0+0
Ghostscript*xResolution: 72
Ghostscript*yResolution: 72
Then load the defaults into the X server:
% xrdb -merge ~/.Xdefaults
Ghostscript will take advantage of the "HP XLFD Enhancements," if
available, to use native X11 fonts for fonts that are anamorphically
scaled, rotated, or mirrored. If the user has installed these changes to
their X or font server, they will automatically be used when appropriate.
SCO Unix
--------
Because of bugs in the SCO Unix kernel, Ghostscript will not work if you
select direct screen output (gdevsco.c) and also allow it to write messages
on the console. If you are using direct screen output, redirect
Ghostscript's terminal output to a file.
********
******** Switches
********
Unless otherwise noted, these apply to all platforms.
Normal switches
---------------
Input control
-------------
@filename
Causes Ghostscript to read filename and treat its
contents the same as the command line. (This is
intended primarily for getting around MS-DOS's
128-character limit on the length of a command line.)
Switches or file names in the file may be separated by
any amount of white space (space, tab, line break);
there is no limit on the size of the file.
-- filename arg1 ...
-+ filename arg1 ...
Takes the next argument as a file name as usual, but takes
all remaining arguments (even if they have the syntactic
form of switches) and defines the name ARGUMENTS in
userdict (not systemdict) as an array of those strings,
*before* running the file. When Ghostscript finishes
executing the file, it exits back to the shell.
-@ filename arg1 ...
Does the same thing as -- and -+, but expands @filename
arguments.
-
This is not really a switch. It indicates to Ghostscript
that the standard input is coming from a file or a pipe.
Ghostscript reads from stdin until reaching end-of-file,
executing it like any other file, and then continues
processing the command line. At the end of the command
line, Ghostscript exits rather than going into its
interactive mode. NOTE: this switch works only for
PostScript, not for PDF.
-c tokens ...
Interprets arguments, up to the next argument that begins
with - followed by a non-digit or with @, as PostScript
code. For example, if the file quit.ps contains just
the word `quit', the following are equivalent:
quit.ps
and
-c quit
Each argument must be exactly one token, as defined by
the `token' operator.
-ffilename
Execute the given file, even if its name begins with a -
or an @. -f alone does nothing, but it provides a
convenient way to terminate the list of tokens for the -c
switch.
File searching
--------------
Note that by "library files" we mean all the files identified as
using the search rule under "File searching" above: Ghostscript's
own initialization files, fonts, and files named on the command
line.
-Idirectories
Adds the designated list of directories at the head of the
search path for library files.
-P
Makes Ghostscript look first in the current directory for
library files. This is currently the default.
-P-
Makes Ghostscript *not* look first in the current directory
for library files (unless, of course, the first explicitly
supplied directory is `.').
Parameter setting
-----------------
-Dname=token
-dname=token
Define a name in systemdict with the given definition.
The token must be exactly one token (as defined by the
'token' operator) and must not contain any whitespace.
If the token is a non-literal name, it must be true,
false, or null.
-Dname
-dname
Define a name in systemdict with value=true.
-Sname=string
-sname=string
Define a name in systemdict with a given string as value.
This is different from -d. For example,
-dname=35
is equivalent to the program fragment
/name 35 def
whereas
-sname=35
is equivalent to
/name (35) def
-uname
Un-define a name, cancelling -d or -s.
-gnumber1xnumber2
Equivalent to -dDEVICEWIDTH=number1 and
-dDEVICEHEIGHT=number2, specifying the device width and
height in pixels. This is for the benefit of devices (such
as X11 windows and VESA displays) that require (or allow)
width and height to be specified. Note that this causes
documents of other sizes to be clipped, not scaled:
see -dFIXEDMEDIA below.
-rnumber
-rnumber1xnumber2
Equivalent to -dDEVICEXRESOLUTION=number1 and
-dDEVICEYRESOLUTION=number2, specifying the device
horizontal and vertical resolution in pixels per inch. This
is for the benefit of devices (such as printers) that
support multiple X and Y resolutions.
Miscellaneous
-------------
-q
Quiet startup -- suppress normal startup messages,
and also do the equivalent of -dQUIET.
Note that gs_init.ps makes systemdict read-only, so the values of names
defined with -D/d/S/s cannot be changed (although, of course, they can be
superseded by definitions in userdict or other dictionaries.)
Special names
-------------
-dBATCH
causes Ghostscript to exit after processing all files named on the
command line, rather than going into an interactive loop reading PostScript
commands. Equivalent to putting -c quit at the end of the command line.
-dCOLORSCREEN
-dCOLORSCREEN=0
-dCOLORSCREEN=false
On high-resolution devices (at least 150 dpi resolution, or
-dDITHERPPI specified), -dCOLORSCREEN forces the use of separate halftone
screens with different angles for C/M/Y/K or R/G/B if halftones are needed
(this produces the best-quality output); -dCOLORSCREEN=0 uses separate
screens with the same frequency and angle; -dCOLORSCREEN=false forces the
use of a single binary screen. If COLORSCREEN is not specified, the default
is to use separate screens with different angles if the device has fewer
than 5 bits per color, and a single binary screen (which will never actually
be used under normal circumstances) on all other devices.
-dDELAYBIND
causes 'bind' to remember all its invocations, but not actually
execute them until the .bindnow procedure is called. Useful only for
certain specialized packages like pstotext that redefine operators.
-dDISKFONTS
causes individual character outlines to be loaded from the disk the
first time they are encountered. (Normally Ghostscript loads all the
character outlines when it loads a font.) This may allow loading more
fonts into RAM, at the expense of slower rendering. DISKFONTS is only
effective if the diskfont feature was selected in the executable; otherwise
it is ignored.
-dDITHERPPI=lpi
forces all devices to be considered high-resolution, and forces use
of a halftone screen or screens with lpi lines per inch, disregarding the
actual device resolution. Reasonable values for lpi are N/5 to N/20, where
N is the resolution in dots per inch.
-dFIXEDMEDIA
causes the media size to be fixed after initialization, and causes
pages of other sizes or orientations to be clipped. This may be useful when
printing documents on a printer that can handle their requested paper size
but whose default is some other size. Note that -g automatically sets
-dFIXEDMEDIA, but -sPAPERSIZE= does not.
-dFIXEDRESOLUTION
causes the media resolution to be fixed similarly. -r automatically
sets -dFIXEDRESOLUTION.
-dLOCALFONTS
causes Type 1 fonts to be loaded into the current VM, which is
normally local VM, instead of always being loaded into global VM. Only
useful for compatibility with Adobe printers for loading some obsolete
fonts.
-dNOBIND
disables the 'bind' operator. Only useful for debugging.
-dNOCACHE
disables character caching. Only useful for debugging.
-dNOCIE
substitutes DeviceGray and DeviceRGB for CIEBasedA and CIEBasedABC
color spaces respectively. Only useful on very slow systems where color
accuracy is less important.
-dNODISPLAY
initializes Ghostscript with a null device (a device that discards
the output image) rather than the default device or the device selected with
-sDEVICE=. This is usually only useful when running PostScript code whose
purpose is to compute something rather than produce an output image.
-dNOFONTMAP
suppresses the normal loading of the Fontmap file. This may be
useful in environments without a file system.
-dNOFONTPATH
suppresses consultation of GS_FONTPATH. This may be useful for
debugging.
-dNOGC
suppresses the initial automatic enabling of the garbage collector
in Level 2 systems. (The vmreclaim operator is not disabled.) Only useful
for debugging.
-dNOPAUSE
disables the prompt and pause at the end of each page. Normally one
should use this (along with -dBATCH) when producing output on a printer or
to a file; it also may be desirable for applications where another program
is 'driving' Ghostscript.
-dNOPLATFONTS
disables the use of fonts supplied by the underlying platform
(X Windows or Microsoft Windows). This may be needed if the platform
fonts look undesirably different from the scalable fonts.
-dNOPROMPT
disables only the prompt, but not the pause, at the end of each
page. This may be useful on PC displays that get confused if a program
attempts to write text to the console while the display is in a graphics
mode.
-dORIENT1=false
indicates that the file uses a value of 0 to indicate portrait
orientation to setpage[params] rather than the default orientation of 1.
This is needed for some files produced by badly designed applications that
'know' that the output will be printed on certain roll-media printers.
-dQUIET
suppresses routine information comments on stdout. This is
currently necessary when redirecting device output to stdout.
-dSAFER
disables the deletefile and renamefile operators, and the
ability to open files in any mode other than read-only. This may be
desirable for spoolers or other sensitive environments.
-dSHORTERRORS
makes certain error and information messages more Adobe-compatible.
-dWRITESYSTEMDICT
leaves systemdict writable. This is necessary when running
special utility programs such as font2c and pcharstr, which must bypass
normal PostScript access protection.
-sDEVICE=device
selects an alternate initial output device, as described above.
-sFONTMAP=filename1;filename2;...
specifies (an) alternate name(s) for the Fontmap file. Note that
the names are separated by : on Unix systems, by ; on MS-DOS or MS Windows
systems, and by , on VMS systems, just as for search paths.
-sFONTPATH=dir1;dir2;...
specifies a list of directories that will be scanned automatically
for fonts, overriding the GS_FONTPATH environment variable.
-sOutputFile=filename
selects an alternate output file (or pipe) for the initial output
device, as described above.
-sSUBSTFONT=fontname
causes the given font to be substituted for all unknown fonts,
instead of using the normal intelligent substitution algorithm.
Debugging switches
------------------
The -Z switch only applies if the interpreter was built for a
debugging configuration (DEBUG=1 or -DDEBUG selected at compile
time).
-A Fill empty storage with a distinctive bit pattern
for debugging. Equivalent to -Z@.
-A- Turn off -A, equivalent to -Z-@.
-E Turn on tracing of error returns from operators.
Equivalent to -Z#.
-E- Turn off -E, equivalent to -Z-#.
-Mn Force the interpreter's allocator to acquire additional
memory in units of nK, rather than the default (currently
20K on MS-DOS systems, 50K on Unix). n is a positive
decimal integer (not exceeding 63 on MS-DOS systems).
-Nn Allocate space for nK names, rather than the default
(normally 64K). n > 64 is only allowed if the interpreter
was compiled with EXTEND_NAMES defined.
-Zxxx Turn on debugging printout.
-Z-xxx Turn off debugging printout.
Each of the xxx characters selects an option.
Case is significant.
0 = garbage collector, minimal detail
1 = type 1 & type 42 font interpreter
2 = curve subdivider/rasterizer
3 = curve subdivider/rasterizer, detail
4 = garbage collector (strings)
5 = garbage collector (strings, detail)
6 = garbage collector (chunks, roots)
7 = garbage collector (objects)
8 = garbage collector (refs)
9 = garbage collector (pointers)
a = allocator (large blocks only)
A = allocator (all calls)
b = bitmap image processor
B = bitmap images, detail
c = color/halftone mapper
d = dictionary put/undef
D = dictionary lookups
e = external (OS-related) calls
f = fill algorithm (summary)
F = fill algorithm (detail)
g = gsave/grestore[all]
h = halftone renderer
H = halftones, every pixel
i = interpreter, just names
I = interpreter, everything
j = (Japanese) composite fonts
k = character cache & xfonts
K = character cache, every access
l = command lists, bands
L = command lists, everything
m = makefont and font cache
n = name lookup (new names only)
o = outliner (stroke)
O = stroke detail
p = band list paths
P = all paths
q = clipping
r = arc renderer
s = streams
S = scanner
t = tiling algorithm
u = undo saver (for save/restore), finalization
U = undo saver, more detail
v = rectangle fill
V = device-level output
w = compression encoder/decoder
x = transformations
y = Type 1 hints
Y = Type 1 hints, every access
z = trapezoid fill
# = operator error returns
% = externally processed comments
* = image parameters
: = command list, summary only
~ = math functions
The following switches select debugging options other than
printout.
$ = set unused parts of object references to
identifiable garbage values
+ = use minimum-size stack blocks
, = don't use path-based banding
. = use small-memory table sizes even on
large-memory machines
? = validate pointers before, during and after GC,
also before and after save and restore;
also make other allocator validity checks
@ = fill newly allocated, garbage-collected, and
freed storage with a marker (a1, c1, and
f1 respectively)
********
******** Frequently Asked Questions
********
Please consult our FAQ on the World-Wide Web at
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/gsfaq.html
or the text version at
http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/gsfaq.txt
Download Driver Pack
After your driver has been downloaded, follow these simple steps to install it.
Expand the archive file (if the download file is in zip or rar format).
If the expanded file has an .exe extension, double click it and follow the installation instructions.
Otherwise, open Device Manager by right-clicking the Start menu and selecting Device Manager.
Find the device and model you want to update in the device list.
Double-click on it to open the Properties dialog box.
From the Properties dialog box, select the Driver tab.
Click the Update Driver button, then follow the instructions.
Very important: You must reboot your system to ensure that any driver updates have taken effect.
For more help, visit our Driver Support section for step-by-step videos on how to install drivers for every file type.