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NAME

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

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
       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 (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  documentation  for  complete
       information. 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, 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.

       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
       "-sOutputFile=" switch with "%d" in a filename template:

            -sOutputFile=foo%d.xyz

       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".

       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
       systems, 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

            -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
       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"
              operator) 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

       -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
              -dDEVICEYRESOLUTION=number2.  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.

       -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
              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.

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

       -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
              output 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. On a Debian system they are in /usr.

       /usr/share/ghostscript/#.##/*
              Startup files, utilities, and basic font definitions

       /usr/share/fonts/type1/gsfonts/*
              More font definitions

       /usr/share/doc/ghostscript/examples/*
              Ghostscript demonstration files

       /usr/share/doc/ghostscript/*
              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:

       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.  They are
           "/usr/share/ghostscript/#.##" on a Debian system.

       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
              display 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.

BUGS

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

VERSION

       This document was last revised for Ghostscript version 8.71.

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.