- Invoking Ghostscript
- Input from a pipe
- Selecting an output device
- How Ghostscript finds files
- Summary of environment variables
- Using Ghostscript with PDF files
- Notes on specific platforms
- Switches
- Improving performance
- Debugging
- Appendix: Paper sizes known to Ghostscript
- Appendix: X default font mappings
For other information, see the Ghostscript overview, the new user's documentation on previewers and, if necessary, how to install Ghostscript.
The command line to invoke Ghostscript is essentially the same on all systems, although the name of the executable program itself may differ among systems. For instance, to invoke Ghostscript on Unix:
gs [switches] {filename 1} ... [switches] {filename N} ...
Ghostscript's name on different systems
System Ghostscript's name
Unix gs VMS gs DOS & MS Windows 3 gs386 MS Windows 95/98 gswin32 MS Windows 95/98 command line gswin32c OS/2 gsos2
Note, though, that on a system with a windowed graphical user interface, it's common to use Ghostscript through a previewer, so you should read the section about previewers in the documentation for new users.
Ghostscript is capable of interpreting PostScript, encapsulated PostScript (EPS), DOS EPS (EPSF), and -- if the executable was built for it -- Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). The interpreter reads and executes the files in sequence, using the method described under "File searching" to find them. After doing this, it reads further lines of PostScript language commands from the primary input stream, normally the keyboard, interpreting each line separately. To quit the interpreter, type "quit". The interpreter also quits gracefully if it encounters end-of-file or control-C.
The interpreter recognizes many switches. A switch may appear anywhere in the command line, and applies to all files named after it on the line. Many of the switches include "=" followed by a parameter. (However, with the DOS executable gs386.exe in the standard Ghostscript distribution, you must use "#" rather than "=", because of a strange design decision in the Watcom C/C++ run-time library used to build it.)
You can get a brief help message by invoking Ghostscript with the -h or -? switch, like this:
gs -h
gs -?
(Of course, for "gs" use the right command for your system.) The message shows for this executable
As noted above, one normally specifies input with file names on the command line. However, one can also "pipe" input into Ghostscript by using the special file name "-" or "-_", for instance
{some program producing PS} | gs {...options...} -
{some program producing PS} | gs {...options...} -_
These switches differ from a named file in two respects:
The difference between "-" and "-_" is that "-" reads the input one character at a time, which is useful for programs such as GSview that generate input for Ghostscript dynamically and watch for some response, whereas "-_" reads the input in blocks, which is more efficient for ordinary (batch) execution.
Ghostscript may be built to handle multiple output devices, and it normally opens and directs output to the first one built in. Ghostscript's gs -h help message lists the output devices known to the executable. Once you invoke Ghostscript you can also find out what devices are available by "devicenames ==" at its command prompt.
A little more information about devices appears near the beginning of the files devs.mak (for drivers that are considered "part of" Ghostscript and are maintained by the maintainers of the main Ghostscript code) and contrib.mak (for user-contributed drivers) used to build Ghostscript. (If you got Ghostscript under the Aladdin Free Public License, the person or place from which you got it is also required to make the source code available to you; if you got it under the GNU General Public License (GPL), see the GNU General Public License for more information.)
To use device xyz as the initial output device, use the command-line switch
-sDEVICE=xyz
Note that this switch must precede the name of the first input file, and only its first use has any effect. For example, for printer output in a configuration that includes an Epson printer driver, instead of just "gs myfile.ps" you might use
gs -sDEVICE=epson myfile.ps
Alternatively, once you invoke Ghostscript and have its own command prompt you can type
(epson) selectdevice
(myfile.ps) run
All output then goes to the Epson printer instead of the display until you do something to change devices. You can switch devices at any time by using the selectdevice procedure, for instance like one of these:
(vga) selectdevice
(epson) selectdevice
A third possibility is to define an environment variable GS_DEVICE with the name of your desired default device. The order of precedence for these alternatives, highest to lowest, is:
selectdevice Highest precedence (command line) GS_DEVICE (first device built in) Default; lowest precedence
Some printers can print at several different resolutions, letting you balance resolution against printing speed. To select the resolution on such a printer, use the -r switch:
gs -sDEVICE=printer -rXRESxYRES
For example, on Epson-compatible printers you have these choices:
gs -sDEVICE=epson -r60x72 9-pin lowest resolution fastest -r240x72 highest slowest -r60x60 24-pin lowest fastest -r360x180 highest slowest
If you select a printer as the output device, Ghostscript also allows you to control where the device sends its output. On DOS and MS Windows systems, output normally goes directly to the printer (PRN); on Unix or VMS systems normally to a temporary file for later printing. To send the output to a file, use the -sOutputFile= switch (for compatibility with older versions of Ghostscript, -sOUTPUTFILE= also works). For instance, to direct all output into the file ABC.xyz, use
gs -sOutputFile=ABC.xyz
The file name follows the PostScript convention that if a name begins with %, the name must be in the form %filedevice or %filedevice%file. The legal values of filedevice are system-dependent, but the following have consistent meanings across systems:
"%{filedevice}%{file}" in -sOutputFile=
filedevice Meaning
%os%xyz An ordinary file named xyz %pipe%cmd (if supported) A pipe to an instance of the command cmd %stdout The standard output file
Note that because of this, if you want to specify a file name that actually begins with %, you must specify the %os% filedevice explicitly: e.g., for output to a file named %abc, you need to specify -sOutputFile=%os%%abc. Note also that on DOS and MS Windows systems, the % character has a special meaning for the command processor (shell), so you will have to double it, e.g., for a pipe on MS Windows,
gs -sOutputFile=%%pipe%%cmd
You can also tell Ghostscript to put each page of output in a separate file. To send output to a series of files each representing a single page, use in the filename the printf format specifier "%d" (or its extended form like "%02d"); for instance
"%{n}d" in -sOutputFile=
Output specification Produces the series of 1-page files
-sOutputFile=ABC%d.xyz ABC1.xyz ... ABC10.xyz ... -sOutputFile=ABC%03d.xyz ABC001.xyz ... ABC010.xyz ...
As noted above, on DOS and MS Windows systems, you will have to double the % character, e.g.,
gs -sOutputFile=ABC%%03d.xyz
On Unix and (32-bit) MS Windows systems you can use this switch to send output directly to a pipe. For example, to pipe the output to lpr, use the command
gs -sOutputFile=\|lpror, as noted above,
gs -sOutputFile=%pipe%lpr
(doubling the % characters on MS Windows systems, as noted above.) You can also send output to standard output for piping in the usual way supported by the system:
gs -sOutputFile=- -q | ...or, as noted above,
gs -sOutputFile=%stdout -q | ...
(again, doubling the % character on MS Windows systems.) In this case you must also use the -q switch to prevent Ghostscript from writing messages to standard output which become mixed with the intended output stream.
File formats like PCX and PBM are also "devices". When you select a file format as the "device", you must also specify an output file, for instance
gs -sDEVICE=pcxmono -sOutputFile=xyz.pcx
Here, as with printable files, you can use "%d" ("%%d" on DOS and MS Windows) to specify one page per output file.
There is a special bbox "device" that just prints the bounding box of each page. You select it in the usual way:
gs -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=bbox
It prints the output in a format like this:
%%BoundingBox: 14 37 570 719 %%HiResBoundingBox: 14.308066 37.547999 569.495061 718.319158
Currently, it always prints the bounding box on stderr; eventually, it should also recognize -sOutputFile=.
Note that this device, like other devices, has a resolution and a (maximum) page size. As for other devices, the product (resolution x page size) is limited to approximately 500K pixels. By default, the resolution is 4000 DPI and the maximum page size is approximately 125", or approximately 9000 default (1/72") user coordinate units. If you need to measure larger pages than this, you must reset both the resolution and the page size in pixels, e.g.,
gs -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=bbox -r100 -g500000x500000
Ghostscript is distributed configured to use U.S. letter paper as its default page size. There are two ways to select other paper sizes from the command line:
-sPAPERSIZE=a4
-sPAPERSIZE=legal
-dDEVICEWIDTHPOINTS=w -dDEVICEHEIGHTPOINTS=h
Individual documents can (and often do) specify a paper size, which takes precedence over the default size. To force a specific paper size and ignore the paper size specified in the document, select a paper size as just described, and also include the -dFIXEDMEDIA switch on the command line.
You can change the installed default paper size in installing Ghostscript or later, by editing the initialization file gs_init.ps. Find the consecutive lines
% Optionally choose a default paper size other than U.S. letter.
% (a4)
Then to make A4 the default paper size, uncomment the second line to change this to
% Optionally choose a default paper size other than U.S. letter.
(a4)
For a4 you can substitute any paper size Ghostscript knows.
When looking for initialization files (gs_*.ps, pdf_*.ps), font files, the Fontmap file, and files named on the command line, Ghostscript first tests whether the file name specifies an explicit directory.
Testing a file name for an explicit directory
System Does the name ...
Unix Begin with /, ./ or ../ ? DOS or MS Windows Have : as its second character, or begin with /, \, ./, ../, .\, or ..\ ? VMS Contain a node, device, root, or directory specification?
If the test succeeds, the file name specifies an explicit directory and Ghostscript tries to open the file using the name given. Otherwise it tries directories in this order:
GS_LIB_DEFAULT, GS_LIB, and the -I parameter may specify either a single directory or a list of directories separated by a character appropriate for the operating system (":" on Unix systems, "," on VMS systems, and ";" on DOS systems). We think that trying the current directory first is a very bad idea -- it opens serious security loopholes and can lead to very confusing errors if one has more than one version of Ghostscript in one's environment -- but when we attempted to change it, users insisted that we change it back. You can disable looking in the current directory first by using the -P- switch.
Note that Ghostscript does not use this file searching algorithm for the run or file operators: for these operators, it simply opens the file with the name given. To run a file using the searching algorithm, use runlibfile instead of run.
Ghostscript uses a completely different rule for looking for files containing PostScript Level 2 "resources": per the Adobe documentation, it concatenates together
To look up fonts, after exhausting the search method described in the next section, it concatenates together
Note that even though the system parameters are named "somethingDir", they are not just plain directory names: they have "/" on the end, so that they can be concatenated with the category name or font name.
Ghostscript has a slightly different way to find the file containing a font with a given name. This rule uses not only the search path defined by -I, GS_LIB, and GS_LIB_DEFAULT as described above, but also the directory that is the value of the FontResourceDir system parameter, and an additional list of directories that is the value of the GS_FONTPATH environment variable (or the value provided with the -sFONTPATH= switch, if present).
At startup time, Ghostscript reads in the Fontmap files in every directory on the search path (or in the list provided with the -sFONTMAP= switch, if present): these files are catalogs of fonts and the files that contain them. (See the documentation of fonts for details.) Then, when Ghostscript needs to find a font that isn't already loaded into memory, it goes through a series of steps.
Differences between search path and font path
Search path Font path
-I switch -sFONTPATH= switch GS_LIB and GS_LIB_DEFAULT environment variables GS_FONTPATH environment variable Consulted first Consulted only if search path and FontResourceDir don't provide the file. Font-name-to-file-name mapping given in Fontmap files; aliases are possible, and there need not be any relation between the font name in the Fontmap and the FontName in the file. Font-name-to-file-name mapping is implicit -- the FontName in the file is used. Aliases are not possible. Only fonts and files named in Fontmap are used. Every Type 1 font file in each directory is available; if TrueType fonts are supported (the ttfont.dev feature was included when the executable was built), they are also available.
If you are using one of the following types of computer, you may wish to set the environment variable GS_FONTPATH to the value indicated so that Ghostscript will automatically acquire all the installed Type 1 (and, if supported, TrueType) fonts (but see below for notes on systems marked with "*"):
Suggested GS_FONTPATH for different systems
System type GS_FONTPATH
Digital Unix /usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1Adobe Ultrix /usr/lib/DPS/outline/decwin HP-UX 9 /usr/lib/X11/fonts/type1.st/typefaces IBM AIX /usr/lpp/DPS/fonts/outlines
/usr/lpp/X11/lib/X11/fonts/Type1
/usr/lpp/X11/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/DPSNeXT /NextLibrary/Fonts/outline * SGI IRIX /usr/lib/DPS/outline/base
/usr/lib/X11/fonts/Type1SunOS 4.x
(NeWSprint only)newsprint_2.5/SUNWsteNP/reloc/$BASEDIR/NeWSprint/
small_openwin/lib/fonts** SunOS 4.x /usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/outline ** Solaris 2.x /usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/outline VMS SYS$COMMON:[SYSFONT.XDPS.OUTLINE]
* On SGI IRIX systems, you must use Fontmap.SGI in place of Fontmap or Fontmap.GS, because otherwise the entries in Fontmap will take precedence over the fonts in the FONTPATH directories.
** On Solaris systems simply setting GS_FONTPATH or using -sFONTPATH= may not work, because for some reason some versions of Ghostscript can't seem to find any of the Type1 fonts in /usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/outline. (It says: "15 files, 15 scanned, 0 new fonts". We think this problem has been fixed in Ghostscript version 6.0, but we aren't sure because we've never been able to reproduce it.) See Fontmap.Sol instead. Also, on Solaris 2.x it's probably not worth your while to add Sun's fonts to your font path and Fontmap. The fonts Sun distributes on Solaris 2.x in the directories
/usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/Type1
/usr/openwin/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/outlineare already represented among the ones distributed as part of Ghostscript; and on some test files, Sun's fonts have been shown to cause incorrect displays with Ghostscript.
These paths may not be exactly right for your installation; if the indicated directory doesn't contain files whose names are familiar font names like Courier and Helvetica, you may wish to ask your system administrator where to find these fonts.
Adobe Acrobat comes with a set of fourteen Type 1 fonts, on Unix typically in a directory called .../Acrobat3/Fonts. There is no particular reason to use these instead of the corresponding fonts in the Ghostscript distribution (which are of just as good quality), except to save about a megabyte of disk space, but the installation documentation explains how to do it on Unix and on DOS (where you can also use Adobe Type Manager fonts).
Where Ghostscript puts temporary files
Platform Filename Location
DOS and OpenVMS _temp_XX.XXX Current directory OS/2 gsXXXXXX Current directory Unix gs_XXXXX /tmp
You can change in which directory Ghostscript creates temporary files by setting the TMPDIR or TEMP environment variable to the name of the directory you want used. Ghostscript currently doesn't do a very good job of deleting temporary files if it exits because of an error; you may have to delete them manually from time to time.
Ghostscript is normally built (except on 16-bit DOS platforms) to interpret both PostScript and PDF files, examining each file to determine automatically whether its contents are PDF or PostScript. All the normal switches and procedures for interpreting PostScript files also apply to PDF files, with a few exceptions. In addition, the pdf2ps utility uses Ghostscript to convert PDF to (Level 2) PostScript.
Using the "-" or "-_" switch you can provide PDF input from a file, but not from a pipe, because the PDF language, unlike the PostScript language, inherently requires random access to the file, while a pipe is always sequential. That is,
gs -_ < somefile.pdf (is permissible) {some program producing PDF} | gs -_ (is not permissible)
Occasionally you may try to read or print a *.pdf file that Ghostscript doesn't recognize as PDF, even though the same file can be opened and interpreted by an Adobe Acrobat viewer. This can happen when, for instance, a PDF file produced on a Macintosh is carelessly moved to another kind of system, leaving now-useless Macintosh-specific data before the standard header. Ghostscript can't read these files because they don't conform to the PDF standard, Adobe's Portable Document Format Reference Manual, version 1.2, which states:
The first line of a PDF file specifies the version number of the PDF specification to which the file adheres.... [T]he first line of a 1.2-conforming PDF file should be %PDF-1.2.
However, in an appendix the manual also says that Adobe
Acrobat viewers are very liberal in their check for a valid PDF header. All viewers allow the header to appear anywhere in the first 1,000 bytes of the file.
Ghostscript doesn't do this: it expects PDF files to conform to the standard, because that's how it recognizes them among other formats it handles, unlike Acrobat viewers which need deal only with PDF and can therefore afford to be more liberal with PDF. So if you encounter a file with useless characters before the header and you want to use it with Ghostscript, you can fix it by stripping the extra characters from before the standard header. The file should begin with exactly the characters
PDF files are binary, not text, so be careful to edit the file as a binary, not as text. On Unix, after determining the length of the useless prefix string, which you can do with od, you can use tail to strip them off. For instance:
od -c Macintosh.pdf | more ;# shows that %PDF occurs after 128 characters
tail +128c Macintosh.pdf >Legal.pdf
On PCs and other systems you can use the hexl program distributed with GNU emacs to convert the PDF file to editable text form. After editing, hexl can convert the text form back to binary.
The Ghostscript distribution includes some Unix shell scripts to use with Ghostscript in different environments. These are all user-contributed code, so if you have questions, please contact the user identified in the file, not Aladdin Enterprises or artofcode LLC.
$ gs == "$disk:[directory]gs.exe"
where the "disk" and "directory" specify where the Ghostscript executable is located. For instance,
$ gs == "$dua1:[ghostscript]gs.exe"
$ define ghostscript_device dua1:[ghostscript_510]
$ define gs_lib ghostscript_device:
If the "directory" name ends with a closing square bracket "]", it is taken to refer to a real directory, for instance
$ define gs_lib dua1:[ghostscript]
$ define gs_lib disk:[directory]
allows Ghostscript to find its initialization files in the Ghostscript
directory even if that's not where the executable resides.
$ gs -Isys$login:
Ghostscript sees the switch as -isys$login, which doesn't work. To preserve the case of switches, quote them like this:
$ gs "-Isys$login:"
$ convert/fdl=streamlf.fdl input-file output-file
where the contents of the file STREAMLF.FDL are
FILE
ORGANIZATION sequential
RECORD
BLOCK_SPAN yes
CARRIAGE_CONTROL carriage_return
FORMAT stream_lf
$ set file/attribute=(rfm:stmlf)
If you are using on an X Windows display, you can set it up with the node name and network transport, for instance
$ set display/create/node="doof.city.com"/transport=tcpip
and then run Ghostscript by typing gs at the command line.
You must add gs\bin and gs\lib to the PATH, where gs is the top-level Ghostscript directory.
You must add gs\bin and gs\lib to the PATH, where gs is the top-level Ghostscript directory.
gs386 prologue.ini myfile.ps
-sDEVICE=svga16 -dDisplayMode=NNN
where NNN is the display mode number in decimal. Here are modes for some popular display chipsets; the ones that use the default value are marked "*". If your card's chipset doesn't appear on this list, or if you try the value here and it doesn't work, please send the name of the chipset and its correct display mode to <bug-gs@aladdin.com> to include in future releases.
Display modes for PC display chipsets
Chipset Decimal Hex
Acumos AVGA2, AVGA3 88 0x58 Advance Logic AL2101 43 0x2B Ahead V5000 113 0x71 ATI VGAWONDER, Graphics Ultra etc. 84 0x54 Chips and Technologies 106 0x6A Cirrus Logic CL-GD 500/600 100 0x64 Cirrus Logic GD 5422 88 0x58 Compaq VGA 89 0x59 CTI 106 0x6A * Genoa 5xxx, Sigma VGA 41 0x29 Genoa 6xxx 106 0x6A MXIC MX 68010 85 0x55 NCR 77C22 88 0x58 OAK Technologies OTI-067, OTI-077, OTI037C 82 0x52 OAK Technologies OTI037C w/ NEL BIOS 91 0x5B * Orchid Prodesigner 41 0x29 Paradise 88 0x58 Poach 106 0x6A Primus 42 0x2A Realtek RT 3106 31 0x1F Tecmar 22 0x16 Trident 8900 91 0x5B * Tseng ET-3000, ET-4000 41 0x29 * VEGA 41 0x29 Video 7 SVGA 98 0x62 WD90C11 92 0x5C Western Digital 88 0x58
Ghostscript looks for the following resources under the program name ghostscript and class name Ghostscript; the ones marked "**" are calculated from display metrics:
X Windows resources
Name Class Default
background Background white foreground Foreground black borderColor BorderColor black borderWidth BorderWidth 1 geometry Geometry NULL xResolution Resolution ** yResolution Resolution ** useExternalFonts UseExternalFonts true useScalableFonts UseScalableFonts true logExternalFonts LogExternalFonts false externalFontTolerance ExternalFontTolerance 10.0 palette Palette Color maxGrayRamp MaxGrayRamp 128 maxRGBRamp MaxRGBRamp 5 maxDynamicColors MaxDynamicColors 256 useBackingPixmap UseBackingPixmap true useXPutImage UseXPutImage true useXSetTile UseXSetTile true regularFonts RegularFonts See "X fonts" symbolFonts SymbolFonts See "X fonts" dingbatFonts DingbatFonts See "X fonts"
Ghostscript*geometry: 595x842-0+0 Ghostscript*xResolution: 72 Ghostscript*yResolution: 72
Then merge these resources into the X server's resource database:
xrdb -merge ~/.Xdefaults
The "use..." resources exist primarily to work around bugs in X servers.
To use native X11 fonts, Ghostscript must map PostScript font names to the XLFD font names. The resources regularFonts (fonts available in standard or ISO-Latin-1 encoding), symbolFonts (using Symbol encoding), and dingbatFonts (using Dingbat encoding) give the name mapping for different encodings. The XLFD font name in the mapping must contain 7 dashes; the X driver adds the additional size and encoding fields to bring the total number of dashes in the font name to 14. See the appendix "X default font mappings" for the full list of default mappings.
Users who switch regularly between different X servers may wish to use the "*" wild card in place of the foundry name (itc, monotype, linotype, b&h, or adobe); users who do not switch X servers should leave the explicit foundry in the name, since it speeds up access to fonts.
Ghostscript takes advantage of the "HP XLFD Enhancements," if available, to use native X11 fonts for fonts that are anamorphically scaled, rotated, or mirrored. If the changes have been installed to the X or font server, they are automatically used when appropriate.
Font files distributed with Ghostscript can be used on X Windows displays. You can find full instructions in the documentation on fonts.
In addition to the device parameters recognized by all devices, Ghostscript's X driver provides parameters to adjust its performance. Users will rarely need to modify these. Note that these are parameters to be set with the -d switch in the command line (e.g., -dMaxBitmap=10000000), not resources to be defined in the ~/.Xdefaults file.
Because of bugs in the SCO Unix kernel, Ghostscript will not work if you select direct screen output and also allow it to write messages on the console. If you are using direct screen output, redirect Ghostscript's terminal output to a file.
Unless otherwise noted, these switches can be used on all platforms.
Note that by "library files" here we mean all the files identified using the search rule under "How Ghostscript finds files" above: Ghostscript's own initialization files, fonts, and files named on the command line.
/XYZ 35 def
whereas -sXYZ=35 is equivalent to
/XYZ (35) def
Note that the initialization file gs_init.ps makes systemdict read-only, so the values of names defined with -D, -d, -S, and -s cannot be changed -- although, of course, they can be superseded by definitions in userdict or other dictionaries. However, device parameters set this way (PageSize, Margins, etc.) are not read-only, and can be changed by code in PostScript files.
As noted above, -d and -s define initial values for PostScript names. Some of these names are parameters that control the interpreter or the graphics engine. You can also use -d or -s to define a value for any device parameter of the initial device (the one defined with -sDEVICE=, or the default device if this switch is not used). For example, since the ppmraw device has a numeric GrayValues parameter that controls the number of bits per component, -sDEVICE=ppmraw -dGrayValues=16 will make this the default device and set the number of bits per component to 4 (log2(16)).
Ghostscript attempts to find an optimum balance between speed and memory consumption, but there are some cases in which you may get a very large speedup by telling Ghostscript to use more memory.
The information here describing the debugging switches is probably interesting only to developers. The -Z switch applies only if the interpreter was built for a debugging configuration. In the table below, the first column is a debugging switch, the second is an equivalent switch (if any) and the third is its usage.
Switches used in debugging | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Switch | Equivalent | |||
| -A | -Z@ | Fill empty storage with a distinctive bit pattern for debugging | ||
| -A- | -Z-@ | Turn off -A | ||
| -Bsize | Run all subsequent files named on the command line (except for -F) through the run_string interface, using a buffer of size bytes | |||
| -B- | Turn off -B: run subsequent files (except for -F) directly in the normal way | |||
| -E | -Z# | Turn on tracing of error returns from operators | ||
| -E- | -Z-# | Turn off -E | ||
| -Ffile | Execute the file with -B1 temporarily in effect | |||
| -Kn | Limit the total amount of memory that the interpreter can have allocated at any one time to nK bytes. n is a positive decimal integer. | |||
| -Mn | Force the interpreter's allocator to acquire additional memory in units of nK bytes, rather than the default (currently 20K on DOS systems, 50K on Unix). n is a positive decimal integer, on DOS systems no greater than 63. | |||
| -Nn | Allocate space for nK names, rather than the default (normally 64K). n may be greater than 64 only if EXTEND_NAMES was defined when the interpreter was compiled . | |||
| -Zxxx -Z-xxx | Turn debugging printout on (off). Each of the xxx
characters selects an option. Case is significant: "a" and
"A" have different meanings.
The following switch affects what is printed, but does not select specific items for printing:
These switches select debugging options other than what should be printed:
| |||
The paper sizes known to Ghostscript are defined at the beginning of the initialization file gs_statd.ps; see the comments there for more details about the definitions. The table here lists them by name and size. gs_statd.ps defines their sizes exactly in points, and the dimensions in inches (at 72 points per inch) and centimeters shown in the table are derived from those, rounded to the nearest 0.1 unit. A guide to international paper sizes can be found at
http://www.twics.com/~eds/papersize.html
Paper sizes known to Ghostscript | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. standard | ||||||||||||||
| Inches | cm | Points | ||||||||||||
| Name | W | × | H | W | × | H | W | × | H | |||||
| 11x17 | 11.0 | 17.0 | 27.9 | 43.2 | 792 | 1224 | 11×17in portrait | |||||||
| ledger | 17.0 | 11.0 | 43.2 | 27.9 | 1224 | 792 | 11×17in landscape | |||||||
| legal | 8.5 | 14.0 | 21.6 | 35.6 | 612 | 1008 | ||||||||
| letter | 8.5 | 11.0 | 21.6 | 27.9 | 612 | 792 | ||||||||
| lettersmall | 8.5 | 11.0 | 21.6 | 27.9 | 612 | 792 | ||||||||
| archE | 36.0 | 48.0 | 91.4 | 121.9 | 2592 | 3456 | ||||||||
| archD | 24.0 | 36.0 | 61.0 | 91.4 | 1728 | 2592 | ||||||||
| archC | 18.0 | 24.0 | 45.7 | 61.0 | 1296 | 1728 | ||||||||
| archB | 12.0 | 18.0 | 30.5 | 45.7 | 864 | 1296 | ||||||||
| archA | 9.0 | 12.0 | 22.9 | 30.5 | 648 | 864 | ||||||||
| ISO standard | ||||||||||||||
| a0 | 33.1 | 46.8 | 84.0 | 118.8 | 2380 | 3368 | ||||||||
| a1 | 23.4 | 33.1 | 59.4 | 84.0 | 1684 | 2380 | ||||||||
| a2 | 16.5 | 23.4 | 42.0 | 59.4 | 1190 | 1684 | ||||||||
| a3 | 11.7 | 16.5 | 29.7 | 42.0 | 842 | 1190 | ||||||||
| a4 | 8.3 | 11.7 | 21.0 | 29.7 | 595 | 842 | ||||||||
| a4small | 8.3 | 11.7 | 21.0 | 29.7 | 595 | 842 | ||||||||
| a5 | 5.8 | 8.3 | 14.9 | 21.0 | 421 | 595 | ||||||||
| a6 | 4.1 | 5.8 | 10.5 | 14.9 | 297 | 421 | ||||||||
| a7 | 2.9 | 4.1 | 7.4 | 10.5 | 210 | 297 | ||||||||
| a8 | 2.1 | 2.9 | 5.2 | 7.4 | 148 | 210 | ||||||||
| a9 | 1.5 | 2.1 | 3.7 | 5.2 | 105 | 148 | ||||||||
| a10 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 2.6 | 3.7 | 74 | 105 | ||||||||
| isob0 | 39.4 | 55.7 | 100.0 | 141.4 | 2836 | 4008 | ||||||||
| isob1 | 27.8 | 39.4 | 70.7 | 100.0 | 2004 | 2836 | ||||||||
| isob2 | 19.7 | 27.8 | 50.0 | 70.7 | 1418 | 2004 | ||||||||
| isob3 | 13.9 | 19.7 | 35.3 | 50.0 | 1002 | 1418 | ||||||||
| isob4 | 9.8 | 13.9 | 25.0 | 35.3 | 709 | 1002 | ||||||||
| isob5 | 7.0 | 9.8 | 17.7 | 25.0 | 501 | 709 | ||||||||
| c0 | 36.1 | 51.1 | 91.7 | 129.7 | 2600 | 3677 | ||||||||
| c1 | 25.5 | 36.1 | 64.8 | 91.7 | 1837 | 2600 | ||||||||
| c2 | 18.0 | 25.5 | 45.8 | 64.8 | 1298 | 1837 | ||||||||
| c3 | 12.8 | 18.0 | 32.4 | 45.8 | 918 | 1298 | ||||||||
| c4 | 9.0 | 12.8 | 22.9 | 32.4 | 649 | 918 | ||||||||
| c5 | 6.4 | 9.0 | 16.2 | 22.9 | 459 | 649 | ||||||||
| c6 | 4.5 | 6.4 | 11.4 | 16.2 | 323 | 459 | ||||||||
| JIS standard | ||||||||||||||
| jisb0 | 103.0 | 145.6 | ||||||||||||
| jisb1 | 72.8 | 103.0 | ||||||||||||
| jisb2 | 51.5 | 72.8 | ||||||||||||
| jisb3 | 36.4 | 51.5 | ||||||||||||
| jisb4 | 25.7 | 36.4 | ||||||||||||
| jisb5 | 18.2 | 25.7 | ||||||||||||
| jisb6 | 12.8 | 18.2 | ||||||||||||
| ISO/JIS switchable | ||||||||||||||
| b0 (see * below) | ||||||||||||||
| b1 (see * below) | ||||||||||||||
| b2 (see * below) | ||||||||||||||
| b3 (see * below) | ||||||||||||||
| b4 (see * below) | ||||||||||||||
| b5 (see * below) | ||||||||||||||
| Other | ||||||||||||||
| flsa | 8.5 | 13.0 | 21.6 | 33.0 | 612 | 936 | U.S. foolscap | |||||||
| flse | 8.5 | 13.0 | 21.6 | 33.0 | 612 | 936 | European foolscap | |||||||
| halfletter | 5.5 | 8.5 | 14.0 | 21.6 | 396 | 612 | ||||||||
*Note: Initially the B paper sizes are the ISO sizes, e.g., b0 is the same as isob0. Running the file lib/jispaper.ps makes the B paper sizes be the JIS sizes, e.g., b0 becomes the same as jisb0.
AvantGarde-Book: -Adobe-ITC Avant Garde Gothic-Book-R-Normal--\n\
AvantGarde-BookOblique: -Adobe-ITC Avant Garde Gothic-Book-O-Normal--\n\
AvantGarde-Demi: -Adobe-ITC Avant Garde Gothic-Demi-R-Normal--\n\
AvantGarde-DemiOblique: -Adobe-ITC Avant Garde Gothic-Demi-O-Normal--\n\
Bookman-Demi: -Adobe-ITC Bookman-Demi-R-Normal--\n\
Bookman-DemiItalic: -Adobe-ITC Bookman-Demi-I-Normal--\n\
Bookman-Light: -Adobe-ITC Bookman-Light-R-Normal--\n\
Bookman-LightItalic: -Adobe-ITC Bookman-Light-I-Normal--\n\
Courier: -Adobe-Courier-Medium-R-Normal--\n\
Courier-Bold: -Adobe-Courier-Bold-R-Normal--\n\
Courier-BoldOblique: -Adobe-Courier-Bold-O-Normal--\n\
Courier-Oblique: -Adobe-Courier-Medium-O-Normal--\n\
Helvetica: -Adobe-Helvetica-Medium-R-Normal--\n\
Helvetica-Bold: -Adobe-Helvetica-Bold-R-Normal--\n\
Helvetica-BoldOblique: -Adobe-Helvetica-Bold-O-Normal--\n\
Helvetica-Narrow: -Adobe-Helvetica-Medium-R-Narrow--\n\
Helvetica-Narrow-Bold: -Adobe-Helvetica-Bold-R-Narrow--\n\
Helvetica-Narrow-BoldOblique: -Adobe-Helvetica-Bold-O-Narrow--\n\
Helvetica-Narrow-Oblique: -Adobe-Helvetica-Medium-O-Narrow--\n\
Helvetica-Oblique: -Adobe-Helvetica-Medium-O-Normal--\n\
NewCenturySchlbk-Bold: -Adobe-New Century Schoolbook-Bold-R-Normal--\n\
NewCenturySchlbk-BoldItalic: -Adobe-New Century Schoolbook-Bold-I-Normal--\n\
NewCenturySchlbk-Italic: -Adobe-New Century Schoolbook-Medium-I-Normal--\n\
NewCenturySchlbk-Roman: -Adobe-New Century Schoolbook-Medium-R-Normal--\n\
Palatino-Bold: -Adobe-Palatino-Bold-R-Normal--\n\
Palatino-BoldItalic: -Adobe-Palatino-Bold-I-Normal--\n\
Palatino-Italic: -Adobe-Palatino-Medium-I-Normal--\n\
Palatino-Roman: -Adobe-Palatino-Medium-R-Normal--\n\
Times-Bold: -Adobe-Times-Bold-R-Normal--\n\
Times-BoldItalic: -Adobe-Times-Bold-I-Normal--\n\
Times-Italic: -Adobe-Times-Medium-I-Normal--\n\
Times-Roman: -Adobe-Times-Medium-R-Normal--\n\
ZapfChancery-MediumItalic: -Adobe-ITC Zapf Chancery-Medium-I-Normal--
Symbol: -Adobe-Symbol-Medium-R-Normal--
ZapfDingbats: -Adobe-ITC Zapf Dingbats-Medium-R-Normal--
For Sun's X11/NeWS one can use the OpenWindows scalable fonts instead, which gives good output for any point size. In this environment, the relevant section of the resource file should look like this:
Ghostscript.regularFonts: \
AvantGarde-Book: -itc-avantgarde-book-r-normal-- \n\
AvantGarde-BookOblique: -itc-avantgarde-book-o-normal-- \n\
AvantGarde-Demi: -itc-avantgarde-demi-r-normal-- \n\
AvantGarde-DemiOblique: -itc-avantgarde-demi-o-normal-- \n\
Bembo: -monotype-bembo-medium-r-normal-- \n\
Bembo-Bold: -monotype-bembo-bold-r-normal-- \n\
Bembo-BoldItalic: -monotype-bembo-bold-i-normal-- \n\
Bembo-Italic: -monotype-bembo-medium-i-normal-- \n\
Bookman-Demi: -itc-bookman-demi-r-normal-- \n\
Bookman-DemiItalic: -itc-bookman-demi-i-normal-- \n\
Bookman-Light: -itc-bookman-light-r-normal-- \n\
Bookman-LightItalic: -itc-bookman-light-i-normal-- \n\
Courier: -itc-courier-medium-r-normal-- \n\
Courier-Bold: -itc-courier-bold-r-normal-- \n\
Courier-BoldOblique: -itc-courier-bold-o-normal-- \n\
Courier-Oblique: -itc-courier-medium-o-normal-- \n\
GillSans: -monotype-gill-medium-r-normal-sans- \n\
GillSans-Bold: -monotype-gill-bold-r-normal-sans- \n\
GillSans-BoldItalic: -monotype-gill-bold-i-normal-sans- \n\
GillSans-Italic: -monotype-gill-normal-i-normal-sans- \n\
Helvetica: -linotype-helvetica-medium-r-normal-- \n\
Helvetica-Bold: -linotype-helvetica-bold-r-normal-- \n\
Helvetica-BoldOblique: -linotype-helvetica-bold-o-normal-- \n\
Helvetica-Narrow: -linotype-helvetica-medium-r-narrow-- \n\
Helvetica-Narrow-Bold: -linotype-helvetica-bold-r-narrow-- \n\
Helvetica-Narrow-BoldOblique: -linotype-helvetica-bold-o-narrow-- \n\
Helvetica-Narrow-Oblique: -linotype-helvetica-medium-o-narrow-- \n\
Helvetica-Oblique: -linotype-helvetica-medium-o-normal-- \n\
LucidaBright: -b&h-lucidabright-medium-r-normal-- \n\
LucidaBright-Demi: -b&h-lucidabright-demibold-r-normal-- \n\
LucidaBright-DemiItalic: -b&h-lucidabright-demibold-i-normal-- \n\
LucidaBright-Italic: -b&h-lucidabright-medium-i-normal-- \n\
LucidaSans: -b&h-lucida-medium-r-normal-sans- \n\
LucidaSans-Bold: -b&h-lucida-bold-r-normal-sans- \n\
LucidaSans-BoldItalic: -b&h-lucida-bold-i-normal-sans- \n\
LucidaSans-Italic: -b&h-lucida-medium-i-normal-sans- \n\
LucidaSans-Typewriter: -b&h-lucidatypewriter-medium-r-normal-sans- \n\
LucidaSans-TypewriterBold: -b&h-lucidatypewriter-bold-r-normal-sans- \n\
NewCenturySchlbk-BoldItalic: -linotype-new century schoolbook-bold-i-normal-- \n\
NewCenturySchlbk-Bold: -linotype-new century schoolbook-bold-r-normal-- \n\
NewCenturySchlbk-Italic: -linotype-new century schoolbook-medium-i-normal-- \n\
NewCenturySchlbk-Roman: -linotype-new century schoolbook-medium-r-normal-- \n\
Palatino-Bold: -linotype-palatino-bold-r-normal-- \n\
Palatino-BoldItalic: -linotype-palatino-bold-i-normal-- \n\
Palatino-Italic: -linotype-palatino-medium-i-normal-- \n\
Palatino-Roman: -linotype-palatino-medium-r-normal-- \n\
Rockwell: -monotype-rockwell-medium-r-normal-- \n\
Rockwell-Bold: -monotype-rockwell-bold-r-normal-- \n\
Rockwell-BoldItalic: -monotype-rockwell-bold-i-normal-- \n\
Rockwell-Italic: -monotype-rockwell-medium-i-normal-- \n\
Times-Bold: -linotype-times-bold-r-normal-- \n\
Times-BoldItalic: -linotype-times-bold-i-normal-- \n\
Times-Italic: -linotype-times-medium-i-normal-- \n\
Times-Roman: -linotype-times-medium-r-normal-- \n\
Utopia-Bold: -adobe-utopia-bold-r-normal-- \n\
Utopia-BoldItalic: -adobe-utopia-bold-i-normal-- \n\
Utopia-Italic: -adobe-utopia-regular-i-normal-- \n\
Utopia-Regular: -adobe-utopia-regular-r-normal-- \n\
ZapfChancery-MediumItalic: -itc-zapfchancery-medium-i-normal-- \n
Ghostscript.dingbatFonts: \
ZapfDingbats: -itc-zapfdingbats-medium-r-normal--
Ghostscript.symbolFonts: \
Symbol: --symbol-medium-r-normal--
Copyright © 1996, 2000 Aladdin Enterprises. All rights reserved.
This file is part of AFPL Ghostscript. See the Aladdin Free Public License (the "License") for full details of the terms of using, copying, modifying, and redistributing AFPL Ghostscript.
Ghostscript version 7.03, 20 October 2001