GS(1)                             Ghostscript                            GS(1)



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

SYNOPSIS
       gs [ options ] [ files ] ...

DESCRIPTION
       The gs command invokes Ghostscript, an interpreter  of  Adobe  Systems'
       PostScript(tm)  and Portable Document Format (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 (nor-
       mally the keyboard), interpreting each line separately and output to an
       output  device (may be a file or an X11 window preview, see below). 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 documentation 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 specify a particular device, Ghostscript normally opens the
       first one of those and directs output to it.

       If you have installed the ghostscript-x Debian package and are under X,
       the  default device is an X11 window (previewer), else ghostscript will
       use the bbox device and print on stdout the dimension of the postscript
       file.

       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  Ghost-
       script: 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.

       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".

       You can also send output to a pipe.  For example, to pipe output to the
       "lpr" command (which, on many Unix systems, directs it to  a  printer),
       use the option

            -sOutputFile=%pipe%lpr

       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

            -sPAPERSIZE=<paper_size>

       for instance

            -sPAPERSIZE=a4
       or
            -sPAPERSIZE=legal

       Most ISO and US paper sizes are recognized. See the usage documentation
       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 Ghost-
       script,

            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

       -P     Makes  Ghostscript  to  look  first in the current directory for
              library files.  By default, Ghostscript no longer looks  in  the
              current  directory, unless, of course, the first explicitly sup-
              plied directory is "." in -I.  See also the INITIALIZATION FILES
              section  below,  and  bundled Use.htm for detailed discussion on
              search paths and how Ghostcript finds files.

       -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.

       -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
              Restricts  file operations the job can perform.  Strongly recom-
              mended for spoolers, conversion scripts or other sensitive envi-
              ronments  where  a badly written or malicious PostScript program
              code must be prevented from changing important 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.

SAFER MODE
       The -dSAFER option disables the "deletefile" and "renamefile" operators
       and prohibits opening piped commands ("%pipe%cmd"). Only "%stdout"  and
       "%stderr"  can  be  opened  for  writing. It also disables reading from
       files, except for "%stdin", files given as a command line argument, and
       files  contained in paths given by LIBPATH and FONTPATH or specified by
       the system params /FontResourceDir and /GenericResourceDir.

       This mode also sets the .LockSafetyParams parameter of the initial out-
       put  device  to protect against programs that attempt to write to files
       using the OutputFile device  parameter.  Since  the  device  parameters
       specified  on  the command line, including OutputFile, are set prior to
       SAFER mode, use of "-sOutputFile=..." on  the  command  line  is  unre-
       stricted.

       SAFER mode prevents changing the /GenericResourceDir, /FontResourceDir,
       /SystemParamsPassword, and /StartJobPassword.

       While SAFER mode is not the default, it is the default for many wrapper
       scripts  such  as ps2pdf and may be the default in a subsequent release
       of Ghostscript.  Thus when running programs that need to open files  or
       set  restricted  parameters  you should pass the -dNOSAFER command line
       option or its synonym -dDELAYSAFER.

       When running with -dNOSAFER it is possible to perform a "save" followed
       by  ".setsafe", execute a file or procedure in SAFER mode, and then use
       "restore" to return to NOSAFER mode.  In  order  to  prevent  the  save
       object  from  being  restored  by  the  foreign  file or procedure, the
       ".runandhide" operator should be used to hide the save object from  the
       restricted procedure.

FILES
       The  locations of many Ghostscript run-time files are compiled into the
       executable when it is built.  Run "gs  -h"  to  find  the  location  of
       Ghostscript  documentation  on your system, from which you can get more
       details. On a Debian system they are in /usr.

       /usr/share/ghostscript/[0-9]*.[0.9]*/*
              Startup files, utilities,  and  basic  font  definitions  (where
              [0-9]*.[0.9]* is the ghostscript version)

       /usr/share/fonts/type1/gsfonts/*
              More font definitions from the gsfonts package

       /usr/share/doc/ghostscript/examples/*
              Ghostscript  demonstration  files (if ghostscript-doc package is
              installed)

       /usr/share/doc/ghostscript/*
              Diverse document files  (may  need  to  install  ghostscript-doc
              package)

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), Ghostscript tries directories  in
       this order:

       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 Ghost-
           script makefile when the executable was built.   GS_LIB_DEFAULT  is
           "/usr/share/ghostscript/[0-9]*.[0-9]*/lib" on a Debian system where
           "[0-9]*.[0-9]*" 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).

       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.  On
       Debian you may need to install ghostscript-doc before reading the docu-
       mentation.

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

VERSION
       This document was last revised for Ghostscript version 9.06.

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.



9.06                             8 August 2012                           GS(1)
