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1 perry 1 GS
2 !!!GS
3 NAME
4 SYNOPSIS
5 DESCRIPTION
6 INITIALIZATION FILES
7 X RESOURCES
8 SWITCHES
9 SPECIAL NAMES
10 FILES
11 ENVIRONMENT
12 SEE ALSO
13 BUGS
14 VERSION
15 AUTHOR
16 ----
17 !!NAME
18
19
2 perry 20 gs - Ghostscript (!PostScript and PDF language interpreter and previewer)
1 perry 21 !!SYNOPSIS
22
23
24 __gs__ [[ ''options'' ] [[ ''files'' ] ... __(Unix,
25 VMS)
26 gswin32__ [[ ''options'' ] [[ ''files'' ] ... __(MS
27 Windows)
28 gswin32c__ [[ ''options'' ] [[ ''files'' ] ... __(MS
29 Windows)
30 gs386__ [[ ''options'' ] [[ ''files'' ] ... __(DOS
31 for PC)
32 gsos2__ [[ ''options'' ] [[ ''files'' ] ...
33 __(OS/2)__
34 !!DESCRIPTION
35
36
37 The __gs__ (__gswin32__, __gswin32c__,
38 __gs386__, __gsos2__) command invokes
39 __Ghostscript__, an interpreter of Adobe Systems'
2 perry 40 __!PostScript__(tm) and __Portable Document Format__
1 perry 41 (PDF) languages. __gs__ reads
42 __
43
44
45 The interpreter recognizes several switches described below,
46 which may appear anywhere in the command line and apply to
47 all files thereafter. Invoking Ghostscript with the
48 __-h__ or __-?__ switch produces a message which shows
49 several useful switches, all the devices known to that
50 executable, and the search path for fonts; on Unix it also
51 shows the location of detailed documentation.
52
53
54 Ghostscript may be built able to use many different output
55 devices. To see which devices your executable can use, run
56 gs -h__
57 __
58
59
60 gs myfile.ps
61 You can also check the set of available devices from within Ghostscript: invoke Ghostscript and type
62
63
64 devicenames ==
65 but the first device on the resulting list may not be the default device you determine with gs -h____
66
67
2 perry 68 -sDEVICE=!AbcXyz
1 perry 69 For example, for output to an Epson printer you might use the command
70
71
72 gs -sDEVICE=epson myfile.ps
73 The
74
75
76 (epson) selectdevice
77 (myfile.ps) run
78 All output then goes to the printer until you select another device with the
79
80
81 (vga) selectdevice
82 or
83
84
85 (x11) selectdevice
86 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:
87
88
89 selectdevice
90 (command line)
91 GS_DEVICE
92 (first device in build list)
93 Some printers can print at different resolutions (densities). To specify the resolution on such a printer, use the
94
95
96 gs -sDEVICE=
97 For example, on a 9-pin Epson-compatible printer, you get the lowest-density (fastest) mode with
98
99
100 gs -sDEVICE=epson -r60x72
101 and the highest-density (best output quality) mode with
102
103
104 gs -sDEVICE=epson -r240x72.
105 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
106
107
108 -sOutputFile=foo.xyz
109 You might want to print each page separately. To do this, send the output to a series of files
110
111
112 -sOutputFile=foo%d.xyz
113 Each resulting file receives one page of output, and the files are numbered in sequence.
114
115
116 On Unix systems you can also send output to a pipe. For
117 example, to pipe output to the lpr__
118 __
119
120
121 -sOutputFile=|lpr
122 You can also send output to standard output for piping with the switch
123
124
125 -sOutputFile=-
126 In this case you must also use the __-q__ switch, to prevent Ghostscript from writing messages to standard output.
127
128
129 To select a specific paper size, use the command line
130 switch
131
132
133 -sPAPERSIZE=a_known_paper_size
134 for instance
135
136
137 -sPAPERSIZE=a4
138 or
139
140
141 -sPAPERSIZE=legal
142 At this time, the known paper sizes, defined in the initialization file
143
144
145 Note that the B paper sizes are ISO sizes: for information about using JIS B sizes, see __Use.htm__.
146
147
148 Ghostscript can do many things other than print or view
2 perry 149 !PostScript and PDF files. For example, if you want to know
150 the bounding box of a !PostScript (or EPS) file, Ghostscript
1 perry 151 provides a special
152
153
154 gs -sDEVICE=bbox myfile.ps
155 For example, using one of the example files distributed with Ghostscript,
156
157
158 gs -sDEVICE=bbox golfer.ps
159 prints out
160
161
2 perry 162 %%!BoundingBox: 0 25 583 732
163 %%!HiResBoundingBox: 0.808497 25.009496 582.994503 731.809445
1 perry 164 !!INITIALIZATION FILES
165
166
167 When looking for the initialization files
168
169
170 1.
171
172
173 the directories specified by the __-I__ switches in the
174 command line (see below), if any;
175
176
177 2.
178
179
180 the directories specified by the __GS_LIB__ environment
181 variable, if any;
182
183
184 3.
185
186
187 the directories specified by the __GS_LIB_DEFAULT__ macro
188 in the Ghostscript makefile when the executable was built.
189 When __gs__ is built on Unix, __GS_LIB_DEFAULT__ is
190 usually
191 __
192
193
194 Each of these (__GS_LIB_DEFAULT__, __GS_LIB__, and
195 __-I__ parameter) may be either a single directory or a
196 list of directories separated by __
197 !!X RESOURCES
198
199
200 Ghostscript looks for the following resources under the
201 program name
202
203
204 __borderWidth__
205
206
207 The border width in pixels (default = 1).
208
209
210 __borderColor__
211
212
213 The name of the border color (default = black).
214
215
216 __geometry__
217
218
219 The window size and placement, WxH+X+Y (default is
220 NULL).
221
222
223 __xResolution__
224
225
226 The number of x pixels per inch (default is computed from
2 perry 227 __!WidthOfScreen__ and
1 perry 228 __WidthMMOfScreen__).
229
230
231 __yResolution__
232
233
234 The number of y pixels per inch (default is computed from
2 perry 235 __!HeightOfScreen__ and
1 perry 236 __HeightMMOfScreen__).
237
238
239 __useBackingPixmap__
240
241
242 Determines whether backing store is to be used for saving
243 display window (default = true).
244
245
246 See the usage document for a more complete list of
247 resources. To set these resources on Unix, put them in a
248 file such as
249
250
251 Ghostscript*geometry: 612x792-0+0
252 Ghostscript*xResolution: 72
253 Ghostscript*yResolution: 72
254 Then merge these resources into the X server's resource database:
255
256
257 % xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources
258 !!SWITCHES
259
260
261 __--__ ''filename arg1 ...''
262
263
264 Takes the next argument as a file name as usual, but takes
265 all remaining arguments (even if they have the syntactic
266 form of switches) and defines the name
267 before__ running the file. When
268 Ghostscript finishes executing the file, it exits back to
269 the shell.
270
271
272 __-D__''name''__=__''token''
273
274
275 __-d__''name''__=__''token''
276
277
278 Define a name in
279
280
281 __-D__''name''
282
283
284 __-d__''name''
285
286
287 Define a name in
288
289
290 __-S__''name''__=__''string''
291
292
293 __-s__''name''__=__''string''
294
295
296 Define a name in
297 -d__. For example,
298 __-dname=35__ is equivalent to the program fragment
299 /name 35 def
300 whereas __-sname=35__ is equivalent to
301 /name (35) def
302
303
304 __-q__
305
306
307 Quiet startup: suppress normal startup messages, and also do
308 the equivalent of __-dQUIET__.
309
310
311 __-g__''number1''__x__''number2''
312
313
314 Equivalent to __-dDEVICEWIDTH=__''number1'' and
315 __-dDEVICEHEIGHT=__''number2''. This is for the
316 benefit of devices (such as X11 windows) that require (or
317 allow) width and height to be specified.
318
319
320 __-r__''number''
321
322
323 __-r__''number1''__x__''number2''
324
325
326 Equivalent to __-dDEVICEXRESOLUTION=__''number1'' and
327 __-dDEVICEYRESOLUTION=__''number2''. This is for the
328 benefit of devices such as printers that support multiple X
329 and Y resolutions. If only one number is given, it is used
330 for both X and Y resolutions.
331
332
333 __-I__''directories''
334
335
336 Adds the designated list of directories at the head of the
337 search path for library files.
338
339
340 __-__
341
342
343 This is not really a switch, but indicates to Ghostscript
344 that standard input is coming from a file or a pipe and not
345 interactively from the command line. Ghostscript reads from
346 standard input until it reaches end-of-file, executing it
347 like any other file, and then continues with processing the
348 command line. When the command line has been entirely
349 processed, Ghostscript exits rather than going into its
350 interactive mode.
351
352
353 Note that the normal initialization file
354 -D__,
355 __-d__, __-S__, or __-s__ cannot be changed
356 (although, of course, they can be superseded by definitions
357 in __
358 !!SPECIAL NAMES
359
360
361 __-dDISKFONTS__
362
363
364 Causes individual character outlines to be loaded from the
365 disk the first time they are encountered. (Normally
366 Ghostscript loads all the character outlines when it loads a
367 font.) This may allow loading more fonts into RAM, at the
368 expense of slower rendering.
369
370
371 __-dNOCACHE__
372
373
374 Disables character caching. Useful only for
375 debugging.
376
377
378 __-dNOBIND__
379
380
381 Disables the
382
383
384 __-dNODISPLAY__
385
386
387 Suppresses the normal initialization of the output device.
388 This may be useful when debugging.
389
390
391 __-dNOPAUSE__
392
393
394 Disables the prompt and pause at the end of each page. This
395 may be desirable for applications where another program is
396 driving Ghostscript.
397
398
399 __-dNOPLATFONTS__
400
401
402 Disables the use of fonts supplied by the underlying
403 platform (for instance X Windows). This may be needed if the
404 platform fonts look undesirably different from the scalable
405 fonts.
406
407
408 __-dSAFER__
409
410
411 Disables the
412
413
414 __-dWRITESYSTEMDICT__
415
416
417 Leaves
418 font2c__
2 perry 419 and __pcharstr__, which must bypass normal !PostScript
1 perry 420 access protection.
421
422
423 __-sDEVICE=__''device''
424
425
426 Selects an alternate initial output device, as described
427 above.
428
429
430 __-sOutputFile=__''filename''
431
432
433 Selects an alternate output file (or pipe) for the initial
434 output device, as described above.
435 !!FILES
436
437
438 The locations of many Ghostscript run-time files are
439 compiled into the executable when it is built. On Unix these
440 are typically based in __/usr/local__, but this may be
441 different on your system. Under DOS they are typically based
442 in __C:GS__, but may be elsewhere, especially if you
443 install Ghostscript with __GSview__. Run __gs
444 -h__
445 __
446
447
448 __/usr/local/share/ghostscript/#.##/*__
449
450
451 Startup files, utilities, and basic font
452 definitions
453
454
455 __/usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts/*__
456
457
458 More font definitions
459
460
461 __/usr/local/share/ghostscript/#.##/examples/*__
462
463
464 Ghostscript demonstration files
465
466
467 __/usr/local/share/ghostscript/#.##/doc/*__
468
469
470 Diverse document files
471 !!ENVIRONMENT
472
473
474 __GS_OPTIONS__
475
476
477 String of options to be processed before the command line
478 options
479
480
481 __GS_DEVICE__
482
483
484 Used to specify an output device
485
486
487 __GS_FONTPATH__
488
489
490 Path names used to search for fonts
491
492
493 __GS_LIB__
494
495
496 Path names for initialization files and fonts
497
498
499 __TEMP__
500
501
502 Where temporary files are made
503 !!SEE ALSO
504
505
506 The various Ghostscript document files (above), especially
507 __Use.htm__.
508 !!BUGS
509
510
511 See the Usenet news group comp.lang.postscript.
512 !!VERSION
513
514
515 This document was last revised for Ghostscript version
516 6.53.
517 !!AUTHOR
518
519
520 L. Peter Deutsch
521 ----
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