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Manpages GSSection: Ghostscript " -*- nroff -*- (1)Updated: 13 February 2002 Index Return to Main Contents NAMEgs - Ghostscript (PostScript and PDF language interpreter and previewer)SYNOPSISgs [ options ] [ files ] ... (Unix, VMS)gswin32 [ options ] [ files ] ... (MS Windows) gswin32c [ options ] [ files ] ... (MS Windows) gs386 [ options ] [ files ] ... (DOS for PC) gsos2 [ options ] [ files ] ... (OS/2) DESCRIPTIONThe gs (gswin32, gswin32c, gs386, gsos2) command invokes Ghostscript, an interpreter of Adobe Systems' PostScript(tm) and Portable Document Format (PDF) languages. gs reads "files" in sequence and executes them as Ghostscript programs. After doing this, it reads further input from the standard input stream (normally the keyboard), interpreting each line separately. The interpreter quits gracefully when it encounters the "quit" command (either in a file or from the keyboard), at end-of-file, or at an interrupt signal (such as Control-C at the keyboard).The interpreter recognizes several switches described below, which may appear anywhere in the command line and apply to all files thereafter. Invoking Ghostscript with the -h or -? switch produces a message which shows several useful switches, all the devices known to that executable, and the search path for fonts; on Unix it also shows the location of detailed documentation. Ghostscript may be built able to use many different output devices. To see which devices your executable can use, run "gs -h". Unless you specify a particular device, Ghostscript normally opens the first one of those and directs output to it, so if the first one in the list is the one you want to use, just issue the command
gs myfile.ps You can also check the set of available devices from within Ghostscript: invoke Ghostscript and type
devicenames == but the first device on the resulting list may not be the default device you determine with "gs -h". To specify "AbcXyz" as the initial output device, include the switch
-sDEVICE=AbcXyz For example, for output to an Epson printer you might use the command
gs -sDEVICE=epson myfile.ps The "-sDEVICE=" switch must precede the first mention of a file to print, and only the switch's first use has any effect. Alternatively, in Ghostscript you can type
(epson) selectdevice (myfile.ps) run All output then goes to the printer until you select another device with the "selectdevice" procedure in the PostScript program stream, for example
(vga) selectdeviceor (x11) selectdevice Finally, you can specify a default device in the environment variable GS_DEVICE. The order of precedence for these alternatives from highest to lowest (Ghostscript uses the device defined highest in the list) is:
selectdevice (command line) GS_DEVICE (first device in build list) Some printers can print at different resolutions (densities). To specify the resolution on such a printer, use the "-r" switch:
gs -sDEVICE=<device> -r<xres>x<yres> For example, on a 9-pin Epson-compatible printer, you get the lowest-density (fastest) mode with
gs -sDEVICE=epson -r60x72 and the highest-density (best output quality) mode with
gs -sDEVICE=epson -r240x72. If you select a printer as the output device, Ghostscript also allows you to choose where Ghostscript sends the output -- on Unix systems, usually to a temporary file. To send the output to a file "foo.xyz", use the switch
-sOutputFile=foo.xyz You might want to print each page separately. To do this, send the output to a series of files "foo1.xyz, foo2.xyz, ..." using the "-sOutputFile=" switch with "%d" in a filename template:
-sOutputFile=foo%d.xyz Each resulting file receives one page of output, and the files are numbered in sequence. "%d" is a printf format specification; you can also use a variant like "%02d". On Unix systems you can also send output to a pipe. For example, to pipe output to the "lpr" command (which, on many Unix systems, directs it to a printer), use the switch
-sOutputFile=\|lpr You can also send output to standard output for piping with the switch
-sOutputFile=- In this case you must also use the -q switch, to prevent Ghostscript from writing messages to standard output. To select a specific paper size, use the command line switch
-sPAPERSIZE=a_known_paper_size for instance
-sPAPERSIZE=a4or -sPAPERSIZE=legal At this time, the known paper sizes, defined in the initialization file "gs_statd.ps", are:
Note that the B paper sizes are ISO sizes: for information about using JIS B sizes, see Use.htm. Ghostscript can do many things other than print or view PostScript and PDF files. For example, if you want to know the bounding box of a PostScript (or EPS) file, Ghostscript provides a special "device" that just prints out this information:
gs -sDEVICE=bbox myfile.ps For example, using one of the example files distributed with Ghostscript,
gs -sDEVICE=bbox golfer.ps prints out
%%BoundingBox: 0 25 583 732 %%HiResBoundingBox: 0.808497 25.009496 582.994503 731.809445 INITIALIZATION FILESWhen looking for the initialization files "gs_*.ps", the files related to fonts, or the file for the "run" operator, Ghostscript first tries to open the file with the name as given, using the current working directory if no directory is specified. If this fails, and the file name doesn't specify an explicit directory or drive (for instance, doesn't contain "/" on Unix systems or "\" on DOS systems), Ghostscript tries directories in this order:
Each of these (GS_LIB_DEFAULT, GS_LIB, and -I parameter) may be either a single directory or a list of directories separated by ":". X RESOURCESGhostscript looks for the following resources under the program name "Ghostscript":
See the usage document for a more complete list of resources. To set these resources on Unix, put them in a file such as "~/.Xresources" in the following form:
Ghostscript*geometry: 612x792-0+0 Ghostscript*xResolution: 72 Ghostscript*yResolution: 72 Then merge these resources into the X server's resource database:
% xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources SWITCHES
Note that the normal initialization file "gs_init.ps" makes "systemdict" read-only, so the values of names defined with -D, -d, -S, or -s cannot be changed (although, of course, they can be superseded by definitions in "userdict" or other dictionaries.) SPECIAL NAMES
FILESThe locations of many Ghostscript run-time files are compiled into the executable when it is built. On Unix these are typically based in /usr/local, but this may be different on your system. Under DOS they are typically based in C:\GS, but may be elsewhere, especially if you install Ghostscript with GSview. Run "gs -h" to find the location of Ghostscript documentation on your system, from which you can get more details.
ENVIRONMENT
SEE ALSOThe various Ghostscript document files (above), especially Use.htm.BUGSSee the Usenet news group comp.lang.postscript.VERSIONThis document was last revised for Ghostscript version 6.53.AUTHORL. Peter Deutsch <ghost@aladdin.com> is the principal author of Ghostscript. Russell J. Lang <rjl@aladdin.com> is the author of most of the MS Windows code in Ghostscript.
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