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GS
!!!GS
NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
INITIALIZATION FILES
X RESOURCES
SWITCHES
SPECIAL NAMES
FILES
ENVIRONMENT
SEE ALSO
BUGS
VERSION
AUTHOR
----
!!NAME


gs - Ghostscript (!PostScript and PDF language interpreter and previewer)
!!SYNOPSIS


__gs__ [[ ''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)__
!!DESCRIPTION


The __gs__ (__gswin32__, __gswin32c__,
__gs386__, __gsos2__) command invokes
__Ghostscript__, an interpreter of Adobe Systems'
__!PostScript__(tm) and __Portable Document Format__
(PDF) languages. __gs__ reads
__


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__
__


     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____


     -sDEVICE=!AbcXyz
For example, for output to an Epson printer you might use the command


     gs -sDEVICE=epson myfile.ps
The


     (epson) selectdevice
(myfile.ps) run
All output then goes to the printer until you select another device with the


     (vga) selectdevice
or


     (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


     gs -sDEVICE=
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


     -sOutputFile=foo.xyz
You might want to print each page separately. To do this, send the output to a series of files


     -sOutputFile=foo%d.xyz
Each resulting file receives one page of output, and the files are numbered in sequence.


On Unix systems you can also send output to a pipe. For
example, to pipe output to the lpr__
__


     -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=a4
or


     -sPAPERSIZE=legal
At this time, the known paper sizes, defined in the initialization file


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


          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 FILES


When looking for the initialization files


1.


the directories specified by the __-I__ switches in the
command line (see below), if any;


2.


the directories specified by the __GS_LIB__ environment
variable, if any;


3.


the directories specified by the __GS_LIB_DEFAULT__ macro
in the Ghostscript makefile when the executable was built.
When __gs__ is built on Unix, __GS_LIB_DEFAULT__ is
usually
__


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 RESOURCES


Ghostscript looks for the following resources under the
program name


__borderWidth__


The border width in pixels (default = 1).


__borderColor__


The name of the border color (default = black).


__geometry__


The window size and placement, WxH+X+Y (default is
NULL).


__xResolution__


The number of x pixels per inch (default is computed from
__!WidthOfScreen__ and
__WidthMMOfScreen__).


__yResolution__


The number of y pixels per inch (default is computed from
__!HeightOfScreen__ and
__HeightMMOfScreen__).


__useBackingPixmap__


Determines whether backing store is to be used for saving
display window (default = true).


See the usage document for a more complete list of
resources. To set these resources on Unix, put them in a
file such as


          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


__--__ ''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
before__ running the file. When
Ghostscript finishes executing the file, it exits back to
the shell.


__-D__''name''__=__''token''


__-d__''name''__=__''token''


Define a name in


__-D__''name''


__-d__''name''


Define a name in


__-S__''name''__=__''string''


__-s__''name''__=__''string''


Define a name in
-d__. For example,
__-dname=35__ is equivalent to the program fragment
/name 35 def
whereas __-sname=35__ is equivalent to
/name (35) def


__-q__


Quiet startup: suppress normal startup messages, and also do
the equivalent of __-dQUIET__.


__-g__''number1''__x__''number2''


Equivalent to __-dDEVICEWIDTH=__''number1'' and
__-dDEVICEHEIGHT=__''number2''. This is for the
benefit of devices (such as X11 windows) that require (or
allow) width and height to be specified.


__-r__''number''


__-r__''number1''__x__''number2''


Equivalent to __-dDEVICEXRESOLUTION=__''number1'' and
__-dDEVICEYRESOLUTION=__''number2''. This is for the
benefit of devices such as printers that support multiple X
and Y resolutions. If only one number is given, it is used
for both X and Y resolutions.


__-I__''directories''


Adds the designated list of directories at the head of the
search path for library files.


__-__


This is not really a switch, but indicates to Ghostscript
that standard input is coming from a file or a pipe and not
interactively from the command line. Ghostscript reads from
standard input until it reaches end-of-file, executing it
like any other file, and then continues with processing the
command line. When the command line has been entirely
processed, Ghostscript exits rather than going into its
interactive mode.


Note that the normal initialization file
-D__,
__-d__, __-S__, or __-s__ cannot be changed
(although, of course, they can be superseded by definitions
in __
!!SPECIAL NAMES


__-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.


__-dNOCACHE__


Disables character caching. Useful only for
debugging.


__-dNOBIND__


Disables the


__-dNODISPLAY__


Suppresses the normal initialization of the output device.
This may be useful when debugging.


__-dNOPAUSE__


Disables the prompt and pause at the end of each page. This
may be desirable for applications where another program is
driving Ghostscript.


__-dNOPLATFONTS__


Disables the use of fonts supplied by the underlying
platform (for instance X Windows). This may be needed if the
platform fonts look undesirably different from the scalable
fonts.


__-dSAFER__


Disables the


__-dWRITESYSTEMDICT__


Leaves
font2c__
and __pcharstr__, which must bypass normal !PostScript
access protection.


__-sDEVICE=__''device''


Selects an alternate initial output device, as described
above.


__-sOutputFile=__''filename''


Selects an alternate output file (or pipe) for the initial
output device, as described above.
!!FILES


The 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__
__


__/usr/local/share/ghostscript/#.##/*__


Startup files, utilities, and basic font
definitions


__/usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts/*__


More font definitions


__/usr/local/share/ghostscript/#.##/examples/*__


Ghostscript demonstration files


__/usr/local/share/ghostscript/#.##/doc/*__


Diverse document files
!!ENVIRONMENT


__GS_OPTIONS__


String of options to be processed before the command line
options


__GS_DEVICE__


Used to specify an output device


__GS_FONTPATH__


Path names used to search for fonts


__GS_LIB__


Path names for initialization files and fonts


__TEMP__


Where temporary files are made
!!SEE ALSO


The various Ghostscript document files (above), especially
__Use.htm__.
!!BUGS


See the Usenet news group comp.lang.postscript.
!!VERSION


This document was last revised for Ghostscript version
6.53.
!!AUTHOR


L. Peter Deutsch
----
30 pages link to gs(1):
This page is a man page (or other imported legacy content). We are unable to automatically determine the license status of this page.
Last edited on Monday, June 3, 2002 11:55:20 pm by "perry"
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