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.\" $Id: gs.1,v 1.38 2005/10/20 19:46:55 ray Exp $

.TH GS 1 "20 October 2005" 8.53 Ghostscript \" -*- nroff -*-

.SH NAME

gs \- Ghostscript (PostScript and PDF language interpreter and previewer)

.SH SYNOPSIS

\fBgs\fR [ \fIoptions\fR ] [ \fIfiles\fR ] ... \fB(Unix, VMS)\fR

.br

\fBgswin32c\fR [ \fIoptions\fR ] [ \fIfiles\fR ] ... \fB(MS Windows)\fR

.br

\fBgswin32\fR [ \fIoptions\fR ] [ \fIfiles\fR ] ... \fB(MS Windows 3.1)\fR

.br

\fBgsos2\fR [ \fIoptions\fR ] [ \fIfiles\fR ] ... \fB(OS/2)\fR

.de TQ

.br

.ns

.TP \\$1

..

.SH DESCRIPTION

The \fBgs\fR (\fBgswin32c\fR, \fBgswin32\fR, \fBgsos2\fR)

command invokes \fBGhostscript\fR, an interpreter of Adobe Systems'

\fBPostScript\fR(tm) and \fBPortable Document Format\fR (PDF) languages.

\fBgs\fR 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).

.PP

The interpreter recognizes many option switches, some of which are described

below. Please see the usage documenation for complete information. Switches

may appear anywhere in the command line and apply to all files thereafter.

Invoking Ghostscript with the \fB\-h\fR or \fB\-?\fR 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.

.PP

Ghostscript may be built to use many different output devices.  To see

which devices your executable includes, run "\fBgs -h\fR".  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

.PP

.nf

	gs myfile.ps

.fi

.PP

You can also check the set of available devices from within Ghostscript:

invoke Ghostscript and type

.PP

.nf

	devicenames ==

.fi

.PP

but the first device on the resulting list may not be the default device

you determine with "\fBgs -h\fR".  To specify "AbcXyz" as the

initial output device, include the switch

.PP

.nf

	\-sDEVICE=AbcXyz

.fi

.PP

For example, for output to an Epson printer you might use the command

.PP

.nf

	gs \-sDEVICE=epson myfile.ps

.fi

.PP

The "\-sDEVICE=" switch must precede the first mention of a file to print,

and only the switch's first use has any effect.

.PP

Finally, you can specify a default device in the environment variable

\fBGS_DEVICE\fR.  The order of precedence for these alternatives from

highest to lowest (Ghostscript uses the device defined highest in the list)

is:

.PP

Some devices can support different resolutions (densities).  To specify

the resolution on such a printer, use the "\-r" switch:

.PP

.nf

	gs \-sDEVICE=<device> \-r<xres>x<yres>

.fi

.PP

For example, on a 9-pin Epson-compatible printer, you get the

lowest-density (fastest) mode with

.PP

.nf

	gs \-sDEVICE=epson \-r60x72

.fi

.PP

and the highest-density (best output quality) mode with

.PP

.nf

	gs \-sDEVICE=epson \-r240x72.

.fi

.PP

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

.PP

.nf

	\-sOutputFile=foo.xyz

.fi

.PP

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:

.PP

.nf

	\-sOutputFile=foo%d.xyz

.fi

.PP

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".

.PP

On Unix and MS Windows systems you can also send output to a pipe.  For example, to

pipe output to the "\fBlpr\fR" command (which, on many Unix systems,

directs it to a printer), use the option

.PP

.nf

	\-sOutputFile=%pipe%lpr

.fi

.PP

Note that the '%' characters need to be doubled on MS Windows to avoid 

mangling by the command interpreter.

.PP

You can also send output to standard output:

.PP

.nf

	\-sOutputFile=\-

.fi

or

.nf

	\-sOutputFile=%stdout%

.fi

.PP

In this case you must also use the \fB\-q\fR switch, to prevent Ghostscript

from writing messages to standard output.

.PP

To select a specific paper size, use the command line switch

.PP

.nf

	-sPAPERSIZE=<paper_size>

.fi

.PP

for instance

.PP

.nf

	-sPAPERSIZE=a4

.fi

or

.nf

	-sPAPERSIZE=legal

.fi

.PP

Most ISO and US paper sizes are recognized. See the usage documenatation for

a full list, or the definitions in the initialization file "gs_statd.ps".

.PP

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.

.PP

For example, using one of the example files distributed with Ghostscript,

.PP

.nf

	gs \-sDEVICE=bbox golfer.ps

.fi

.PP

prints out

.PP

.nf

	%%BoundingBox: 0 25 583 732

	%%HiResBoundingBox: 0.808497 25.009496 582.994503 731.809445

.fi

.SH OPTIONS

.TP

.BI \-\- " 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, \fBbefore\fR running the file.  When Ghostscript

finishes executing the file, it exits back to the shell.

.TP

.BI \-D name = token

.TQ

.BI \-d name = token

Define a name in "systemdict" with the given definition.  The token must be

exactly one token (as defined by the "token" operator) and may contain no

whitespace.

.TP

.BI \-D name

.TQ

.BI \-d name

Define a name in "systemdict" with value=null.

.TP

.BI \-S name = string

.TQ

.BI \-s name = string

Define a name in "systemdict" with a given string as value.  This is

different from \fB\-d\fR.  For example, \fB\-dname=35\fR is equivalent to the

program fragment

.br

	/name 35 def

.br

whereas \fB\-sname=35\fR is equivalent to

.br

	/name (35) def

.TP

.B \-q

Quiet startup: suppress normal startup messages, and also do the

equivalent of \fB\-dQUIET\fR.

.TP

.BI \-g number1 x number2

Equivalent to \fB\-dDEVICEWIDTH=\fR\fInumber1\fR and

\fB\-dDEVICEHEIGHT=\fR\fInumber2\fR.  This is for the benefit of devices

(such as X11 windows) that require (or allow) width and height to be

specified.

.TP

.BI \-r number

.TQ

.BI \-r number1 x number2

Equivalent to \fB\-dDEVICEXRESOLUTION=\fR\fInumber1\fR and

\fB\-dDEVICEYRESOLUTION=\fR\fInumber2\fR.  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.

.TP

.BI \-I directories

Adds the designated list of directories at the head of the

search path for library files.

.TP

.B \-

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.

.PP

Note that the normal initialization file "gs_init.ps" makes "systemdict"

read-only, so the values of names defined with \fB\-D\fR, \fB\-d\fR,

\fB\-S\fR, or \fB\-s\fR cannot be changed (although, of course, they can be

superseded by definitions in "userdict" or other dictionaries.)

.SH "SPECIAL NAMES"

.TP

.B \-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.

.TP

.B \-dNOCACHE

Disables character caching.  Useful only for debugging.

.TP

.B \-dNOBIND

Disables the "bind" operator.  Useful only for debugging.

.TP

.B \-dNODISPLAY

Suppresses the normal initialization of the output device.

This may be useful when debugging.

.TP

.B \-dNOPAUSE

Disables the prompt and pause at the end of each page.  This may be

desirable for applications where another program is driving Ghostscript.

.TP

.B \-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.

.TP

.B \-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

important files.

.TP

.B \-dWRITESYSTEMDICT

Leaves "systemdict" writable.  This is necessary when running special

utility programs such as \fBfont2c\fR and \fBpcharstr\fR, which must bypass

normal PostScript access protection.

.TP

.BI \-sDEVICE= device

Selects an alternate initial output device, as described above.

.TP

.BI \-sOutputFile= filename

Selects an alternate output file (or pipe) for the initial output

device, as described above.

.SH FILES

.PP

The locations of many Ghostscript run-time files are compiled into the

executable when it is built.  On Unix these are typically based in

\fB/usr/local\fR, but this may be different on your system.  Under DOS they

are typically based in \fBC:\\GS\fR, but may be elsewhere, especially if

you install Ghostscript with \fBGSview\fR.  Run "\fBgs -h\fR" to find the

location of Ghostscript documentation on your system, from which you can

get more details.

.TP

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

Startup files, utilities, and basic font definitions

.TP

.B /usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts/*

More font definitions

.TP

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

Ghostscript demonstration files

.TP

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

Diverse document files

.SH "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:

.TP 4

1.

the directories specified by the \fB\-I\fR switches in the command

line (see below), if any;

.TP

2.

the directories specified by the \fBGS_LIB\fR environment variable,

if any;

.TP

3.

the directories specified by the \fBGS_LIB_DEFAULT\fR macro in the

Ghostscript makefile when the executable was built.  When \fBgs\fR is built

on Unix, \fBGS_LIB_DEFAULT\fR is usually

"/usr/local/share/ghostscript/#.##:/usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts"

where "#.##" represents the Ghostscript version number.

.PP

Each of these (\fBGS_LIB_DEFAULT\fR, \fBGS_LIB\fR, and \fB\-I\fR parameter)

may be either a single directory or a list of directories separated by

":".

.SH ENVIRONMENT

.TP

.B GS_OPTIONS

String of options to be processed before the command line options

.TP

.B GS_DEVICE

Used to specify an output device

.TP

.B GS_FONTPATH

Path names used to search for fonts

.TP

.B GS_LIB

Path names for initialization files and fonts

.TP

.B  TEMP

Where temporary files are made

.SH X RESOURCES

Ghostscript, or more properly the X11 display device, looks for the 

following resources under the program name "Ghostscript":

.TP

.B borderWidth

The border width in pixels (default = 1).

.TP

.B borderColor

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

.TP

.B geometry

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

.TP

.B xResolution

The number of x pixels per inch (default is computed from \fBWidthOfScreen\fR

and \fBWidthMMOfScreen\fR).

.TP

.B yResolution

The number of y pixels per inch (default is computed from

\fBHeightOfScreen\fR and \fBHeightMMOfScreen\fR).

.TP

.B useBackingPixmap

Determines whether backing store is to be used for saving display window

(default = true).

.PP

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:

.PP

.nf

	Ghostscript*geometry:	 612x792\-0+0

	Ghostscript*xResolution: 72

	Ghostscript*yResolution: 72

.fi

.PP

Then merge these resources into the X server's resource database:

.PP

.nf

	% xrdb \-merge ~/.Xresources

.fi

.SH SEE ALSO

The various Ghostscript document files (above), especially \fBUse.htm\fR.

.SH BUGS

See the Usenet news group comp.lang.postscript.

.SH VERSION

This document was last revised for Ghostscript version 8.53.

.SH AUTHOR

artofcode LLC and Artifex Software, bug-gs at ghostscript.com, 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.