1GS(1)                             Ghostscript                            GS(1)
2
3
4

NAME

6       gs  -  Ghostscript  (PostScript  and  PDF language interpreter and pre‐
7       viewer)
8

SYNOPSIS

10       gs [ options ] [ files ] ... (Unix, VMS)
11       gswin32c [ options ] [ files ] ... (MS Windows)
12       gswin32 [ options ] [ files ] ... (MS Windows 3.1)
13       gsos2 [ options ] [ files ] ... (OS/2)
14

DESCRIPTION

16       The gs (gswin32c,  gswin32,  gsos2)  command  invokes  Ghostscript,  an
17       interpreter of Adobe Systems' PostScript(tm) and Portable Document For‐
18       mat (PDF) languages.  gs reads "files" in sequence and executes them as
19       Ghostscript programs. After doing this, it reads further input from the
20       standard input stream (normally the keyboard), interpreting  each  line
21       separately.  The  interpreter  exits  gracefully when it encounters the
22       "quit" command (either in a file or from the keyboard), at end-of-file,
23       or at an interrupt signal (such as Control-C at the keyboard).
24
25       The  interpreter  recognizes  many  option  switches, some of which are
26       described below. Please see the usage documentation for complete infor‐
27       mation.  Switches  may appear anywhere in the command line and apply to
28       all files thereafter.  Invoking Ghostscript with the -h  or  -?  switch
29       produces a message which shows several useful switches, all the devices
30       known to that executable, and the search path for  fonts;  on  Unix  it
31       also shows the location of detailed documentation.
32
33       Ghostscript  may be built to use many different output devices.  To see
34       which devices your executable includes, run "gs -h".  Unless you  spec‐
35       ify  a  particular  device, Ghostscript normally opens the first one of
36       those and directs output to it, so if the first one in the list is  the
37       one you want to use, just issue the command
38
39            gs myfile.ps
40
41       You  can  also  check  the  set of available devices from within Ghost‐
42       script: invoke Ghostscript and type
43
44            devicenames ==
45
46       but the first device on the resulting  list  may  not  be  the  default
47       device  you determine with "gs -h".  To specify "AbcXyz" as the initial
48       output device, include the switch
49
50            -sDEVICE=AbcXyz
51
52       For example, for output to an Epson printer you might use the command
53
54            gs -sDEVICE=epson myfile.ps
55
56       The "-sDEVICE=" switch must precede the first  mention  of  a  file  to
57       print, and only the switch's first use has any effect.
58
59       Finally,  you  can specify a default device in the environment variable
60       GS_DEVICE.  The order of precedence for these alternatives from highest
61       to lowest (Ghostscript uses the device defined highest in the list) is:
62
63       Some devices can support different resolutions (densities).  To specify
64       the resolution on such a printer, use the "-r" switch:
65
66            gs -sDEVICE=<device> -r<xres>x<yres>
67
68       For example, on a 9-pin Epson-compatible printer, you get  the  lowest-
69       density (fastest) mode with
70
71            gs -sDEVICE=epson -r60x72
72
73       and the highest-density (best output quality) mode with
74
75            gs -sDEVICE=epson -r240x72.
76
77       If  you  select a printer as the output device, Ghostscript also allows
78       you to choose where Ghostscript sends the output --  on  Unix  systems,
79       usually  to  a temporary file.  To send the output to a file "foo.xyz",
80       use the switch
81
82            -sOutputFile=foo.xyz
83
84       You might want to print each page separately.  To  do  this,  send  the
85       output to a series of files "foo1.xyz, foo2.xyz, ..." using the "-sOut‐
86       putFile=" switch with "%d" in a filename template:
87
88            -sOutputFile=foo%d.xyz
89
90       Each resulting file receives one page of output, and the files are num‐
91       bered in sequence.  "%d" is a printf format specification; you can also
92       use a variant like "%02d".
93
94       On Unix and MS Windows systems you can also send output to a pipe.  For
95       example,  to pipe output to the "lpr" command (which, on many Unix sys‐
96       tems, directs it to a printer), use the option
97
98            -sOutputFile=%pipe%lpr
99
100       Note that the '%' characters need to be doubled on MS Windows to  avoid
101       mangling by the command interpreter.
102
103       You can also send output to standard output:
104
105            -sOutputFile=-
106       or
107            -sOutputFile=%stdout%
108
109       In  this  case  you must also use the -q switch, to prevent Ghostscript
110       from writing messages to standard output.
111
112       To select a specific paper size, use the command line switch
113
114            -sPAPERSIZE=<paper_size>
115
116       for instance
117
118            -sPAPERSIZE=a4
119       or
120            -sPAPERSIZE=legal
121
122       Most ISO and US paper sizes are recognized. See the usage documentation
123       for  a  full  list,  or  the  definitions  in  the  initialization file
124       "gs_statd.ps".
125
126       Ghostscript can do many things other than print or view PostScript  and
127       PDF  files.   For  example,  if  you want to know the bounding box of a
128       PostScript (or EPS) file, Ghostscript provides a special "device"  that
129       just prints out this information.
130
131       For  example,  using  one  of the example files distributed with Ghost‐
132       script,
133
134            gs -sDEVICE=bbox golfer.ps
135
136       prints out
137
138            %%BoundingBox: 0 25 583 732
139            %%HiResBoundingBox: 0.808497 25.009496 582.994503 731.809445
140

OPTIONS

142       -- filename arg1 ...
143              Takes the next argument as a file name as usual, but  takes  all
144              remaining  arguments  (even  if  they have the syntactic form of
145              switches) and defines the name "ARGUMENTS"  in  "userdict"  (not
146              "systemdict")  as  an array of those strings, before running the
147              file.  When Ghostscript finishes executing the  file,  it  exits
148              back to the shell.
149
150       -Dname=token
151       -dname=token
152              Define  a  name  in "systemdict" with the given definition.  The
153              token must be exactly one token (as defined by the "token" oper‐
154              ator) and may contain no whitespace.
155
156       -Dname
157       -dname Define a name in "systemdict" with value=null.
158
159       -Sname=string
160       -sname=string
161              Define  a  name  in  "systemdict"  with a given string as value.
162              This is different from -d.  For example, -dname=35 is equivalent
163              to the program fragment
164                   /name 35 def
165              whereas -sname=35 is equivalent to
166                   /name (35) def
167
168       -P     Makes  Ghostscript  to  look  first in the current directory for
169              library files.  By default, Ghostscript no longer looks  in  the
170              current  directory, unless, of course, the first explicitly sup‐
171              plied directory is "." in -I.  See also the INITIALIZATION FILES
172              section  below,  and  bundled Use.htm for detailed discussion on
173              search paths and how Ghostcript finds files.  -q Quiet  startup:
174              suppress  normal startup messages, and also do the equivalent of
175              -dQUIET.
176
177       -gnumber1xnumber2
178              Equivalent to -dDEVICEWIDTH=number1 and  -dDEVICEHEIGHT=number2.
179              This  is  for  the benefit of devices (such as X11 windows) that
180              require (or allow) width and height to be specified.
181
182       -rnumber
183       -rnumber1xnumber2
184              Equivalent to -dDEVICEXRESOLUTION=number1  and  -dDEVICEYRESOLU‐
185              TION=number2.  This is for the benefit of devices such as print‐
186              ers that support multiple X and Y resolutions.  If only one num‐
187              ber is given, it is used for both X and Y resolutions.
188
189       -Idirectories
190              Adds  the  designated  list  of  directories  at the head of the
191              search path for library files.
192
193       -      This is not really a switch, but indicates to  Ghostscript  that
194              standard  input is coming from a file or a pipe and not interac‐
195              tively from the command line.  Ghostscript reads  from  standard
196              input  until it reaches end-of-file, executing it like any other
197              file, and then continues with processing the command line.  When
198              the  command line has been entirely processed, Ghostscript exits
199              rather than going into its interactive mode.
200
201       Note that the normal initialization file  "gs_init.ps"  makes  "system‐
202       dict"  read-only, so the values of names defined with -D, -d, -S, or -s
203       cannot be changed (although, of course, they can be superseded by defi‐
204       nitions in "userdict" or other dictionaries.)
205

SPECIAL NAMES

207       -dDISKFONTS
208              Causes  individual character outlines to be loaded from the disk
209              the first time  they  are  encountered.   (Normally  Ghostscript
210              loads  all  the  character outlines when it loads a font.)  This
211              may allow loading more fonts into RAM, at the expense of  slower
212              rendering.
213
214       -dNOCACHE
215              Disables character caching.  Useful only for debugging.
216
217       -dNOBIND
218              Disables the "bind" operator.  Useful only for debugging.
219
220       -dNODISPLAY
221              Suppresses the normal initialization of the output device.  This
222              may be useful when debugging.
223
224       -dNOPAUSE
225              Disables the prompt and pause at the end of each page.  This may
226              be  desirable  for applications where another program is driving
227              Ghostscript.
228
229       -dNOPLATFONTS
230              Disables the use of fonts supplied by  the  underlying  platform
231              (for  instance  X  Windows).  This may be needed if the platform
232              fonts look undesirably different from the scalable fonts.
233
234       -dSAFER
235              Disables the "deletefile" and  "renamefile"  operators  and  the
236              ability  to  open  files in any mode other than read-only.  This
237              strongly recommended for spoolers, conversion scripts  or  other
238              sensitive  environments where a badly written or malicious Post‐
239              Script program code must be prevented  from  changing  important
240              files.
241
242       -dWRITESYSTEMDICT
243              Leaves  "systemdict"  writable.   This is necessary when running
244              special utility programs such as font2c and pcharstr, which must
245              bypass normal PostScript access protection.
246
247       -sDEVICE=device
248              Selects an alternate initial output device, as described above.
249
250       -sOutputFile=filename
251              Selects  an alternate output file (or pipe) for the initial out‐
252              put device, as described above.
253

FILES

255       The locations of many Ghostscript run-time files are compiled into  the
256       executable  when  it  is  built.   On Unix these are typically based in
257       /usr/local, but this may be different on your system.  Under  DOS  they
258       are  typically  based in C:\GS, but may be elsewhere, especially if you
259       install Ghostscript with GSview.  Run "gs -h" to find the  location  of
260       Ghostscript  documentation  on your system, from which you can get more
261       details.
262
263       /usr/local/share/ghostscript/#.##/*
264              Startup files, utilities, and basic font definitions
265
266       /usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts/*
267              More font definitions
268
269       /usr/local/share/ghostscript/#.##/examples/*
270              Ghostscript demonstration files
271
272       /usr/local/share/ghostscript/#.##/doc/*
273              Diverse document files
274

INITIALIZATION FILES

276       When looking for the initialization files "gs_*.ps", the files  related
277       to  fonts,  or the file for the "run" operator, Ghostscript first tries
278       to open the file with the name as  given,  using  the  current  working
279       directory  if  no  directory is specified.  If this fails, and the file
280       name doesn't specify an explicit  directory  or  drive  (for  instance,
281       doesn't  contain  "/"  on  Unix  systems or "\" on MS Windows systems),
282       Ghostscript tries directories in this order:
283
284       1.  the directories specified by the -I switches in  the  command  line
285           (see below), if any;
286
287       2.  the  directories  specified  by the GS_LIB environment variable, if
288           any;
289
290       3.  the directories specified by the GS_LIB_DEFAULT macro in the Ghost‐
291           script makefile when the executable was built.  When gs is built on
292           Unix,   GS_LIB_DEFAULT    is    usually    "/usr/local/share/ghost‐
293           script/#.##:/usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts" where "#.##" repre‐
294           sents the Ghostscript version number.
295
296       Each of these (GS_LIB_DEFAULT, GS_LIB, and -I parameter) may be  either
297       a single directory or a list of directories separated by ":".
298

ENVIRONMENT

300       GS_OPTIONS
301              String  of  options  to  be  processed  before  the command line
302              options
303
304       GS_DEVICE
305              Used to specify an output device
306
307       GS_FONTPATH
308              Path names used to search for fonts
309
310       GS_LIB Path names for initialization files and fonts
311
312       TEMP   Where temporary files are made
313

X RESOURCES

315       Ghostscript, or more properly the X11 display  device,  looks  for  the
316       following resources under the program name "Ghostscript":
317
318       borderWidth
319              The border width in pixels (default = 1).
320
321       borderColor
322              The name of the border color (default = black).
323
324       geometry
325              The window size and placement, WxH+X+Y (default is NULL).
326
327       xResolution
328              The  number  of  x  pixels  per  inch  (default is computed from
329              WidthOfScreen and WidthMMOfScreen).
330
331       yResolution
332              The number of y  pixels  per  inch  (default  is  computed  from
333              HeightOfScreen and HeightMMOfScreen).
334
335       useBackingPixmap
336              Determines  whether  backing store is to be used for saving dis‐
337              play window (default = true).
338
339       See the usage document for a more complete list of resources.   To  set
340       these  resources on Unix, put them in a file such as "~/.Xresources" in
341       the following form:
342
343            Ghostscript*geometry:     612x792-0+0
344            Ghostscript*xResolution: 72
345            Ghostscript*yResolution: 72
346
347       Then merge these resources into the X server's resource database:
348
349            % xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources
350

SEE ALSO

352       The various Ghostscript document files (above), especially Use.htm.
353

BUGS

355       See   http://bugs.ghostscript.com/   and   the   Usenet   news    group
356       comp.lang.postscript.
357

VERSION

359       This document was last revised for Ghostscript version 8.70.
360

AUTHOR

362       Artifex  Software,  Inc.  are  the  primary maintainers of Ghostscript.
363       Russell J. Lang, gsview at ghostgum.com.au, is the author  of  most  of
364       the MS Windows code in Ghostscript.
365
366
367
3688.70                             31 July 2009                            GS(1)
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