


GS(1)                      Ghostscript                      GS(1)


NAME
       gs  -  Ghostscript  (PostScript  and  PDF language interpreter and pre-
       viewer)

SYNOPSIS
       gs [ options ] [ files ] ... (Unix, VMS)
       gswin32c [ options ] [ files ] ... (MS Windows)
       gswin32 [ options ] [ files ] ... (MS Windows 3.1)
       gsos2 [ options ] [ files ] ... (OS/2)

DESCRIPTION
       The gs (gswin32c,  gswin32,  gsos2)  command  invokes  Ghostscript,  an
       interpreter of Adobe Systems' PostScript(tm) and Portable Document For-
       mat (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  exits  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  many  option  switches, some of which are
       described below. Please see the usage documenation for complete  infor-
       mation.  Switches  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 to use many different output devices.  To see
       which devices your executable includes, run "gs -h".  Unless you  spec-
       ify  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.




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GS(1)                      Ghostscript                      GS(1)


       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:

       Some devices can support 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 "-sOut-
       putFile=" switch with "%d" in a filename template:

            -sOutputFile=foo%d.xyz

       Each resulting file receives one page of output, and the files are num-
       bered in sequence.  "%d" is a printf format specification; you can also
       use a variant like "%02d".

       On Unix and MS Windows systems you can also send output to a pipe.  For
       example, to pipe output to the "lpr" command (which, on many Unix  sys-
       tems, directs it to a printer), use the option

            -sOutputFile=%pipe%lpr

       Note  that the '%' characters need to be doubled on MS Windows to avoid
       mangling by the command interpreter.

       You can also send output to standard output:

            -sOutputFile=-
       or
            -sOutputFile=%stdout%

       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



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GS(1)                      Ghostscript                      GS(1)


            -sPAPERSIZE=<paper_size>

       for instance

            -sPAPERSIZE=a4
       or
            -sPAPERSIZE=legal

       Most  ISO  and US paper sizes are recognized. See the usage documenata-
       tion for a full list, or the definitions  in  the  initialization  file
       "gs_statd.ps".

       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.

       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

OPTIONS
       -- 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.

       -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" oper-
              ator) and may contain no whitespace.

       -Dname
       -dname Define a name in "systemdict" with value=null.

       -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




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       -q     Quiet startup: suppress normal startup messages, and also do the
              equivalent of -dQUIET.

       -gnumber1xnumber2
              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.

       -rnumber
       -rnumber1xnumber2
              Equivalent  to  -dDEVICEXRESOLUTION=number1 and -dDEVICEYRESOLU-
              TION=number2.  This is for the benefit of devices such as print-
              ers that support multiple X and Y resolutions.  If only one num-
              ber is given, it is used for both X and Y resolutions.

       -Idirectories
              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  interac-
              tively  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 "gs_init.ps" makes "system-
       dict" 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 defi-
       nitions in "userdict" or other dictionaries.)

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 "bind" operator.  Useful only for debugging.

       -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.



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       -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  "deletefile"  and  "renamefile" operators and the
              ability to open files in any mode other  than  read-only.   This
              strongly  recommended  for spoolers, conversion scripts or other
              sensitive  environments  where  a  badly  written  or  malicious
              PostScript  program  code must be prevented from changing impor-
              tant files.

       -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.

       -sOutputFile=filename
              Selects  an alternate output file (or pipe) for the initial out-
              put 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" to find the  location  of
       Ghostscript  documentation  on your system, from which you can get more
       details.

       /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

INITIALIZATION FILES
       When 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 MS Windows systems),
       Ghostscript tries directories in this order:



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       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
           "/usr/local/share/ghostscript/#.##:/usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts"
           where "#.##" represents the Ghostscript version number.

       Each of these (GS_LIB_DEFAULT, GS_LIB, and -I parameter) may be  either
       a single directory or a list of directories separated by ":".

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

X RESOURCES
       Ghostscript, or more properly the X11 display  device,  looks  for  the
       following resources under the program name "Ghostscript":

       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 dis-
              play window (default = true).



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GS(1)                      Ghostscript                      GS(1)


       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

SEE ALSO
       The various Ghostscript document files (above), especially Use.htm.

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

VERSION
       This document was last revised for Ghostscript version 8.63.

AUTHOR
       Artifex  Software,  Inc.  are  the  primary maintainers of Ghostscript.
       Russell J. Lang, gsview at ghostgum.com.au, is the author  of  most  of
       the MS Windows code in Ghostscript.































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