Ghostscript
Ghostscript is a suite of software based on an interpreter for Adobe Systems' PostScript and Portable Document Format (PDF) page description languages.
Features
Ghostscript can be used as a raster image processor (RIP) for raster computer printers—for instance, as an input filter of line printer daemon—or as the RIP engine behind PostScript and PDF viewers.
Ghostscript can also be used as a file format converter, such as PostScript to PDF converter; this is often combined with a PostScript printer driver in "virtual printer" PDF creators. It also supports PDF/A and PDF/X-3.[2]
As it takes the form of a language interpreter, Ghostscript can also be used as a general purpose programming environment.
Ghostscript has been ported to many operating systems, including Unix, Linux, Mac OS, OpenVMS, Microsoft Windows, MS-DOS, FreeDOS, OS/2, Atari TOS and AmigaOS.
Frontends
Several graphical user interfaces have been written for use with Ghostscript which permit a user to view a PostScript or PDF file on screen, scroll, page forward and backward, and zoom the text as well as print single or multiple pages.
- Ghostview runs under Unix/X11. Ghostview has an unusual (and arguably counter-intuitive) user interface feature: dragging the mouse over the image pans the image in the opposite direction (the mouse moves the viewport over the image, rather than the image underneath the viewport). The effect is similar to having invisible scroll bars all over the image and is approximately the opposite of panning in Google Maps and other applications.
- gv runs under Unix/X11. gv is a visually improved version of Ghostview. Its behaviour is similar to Ghostview.
- mgv runs under Unix/X11. It is a Motif based front-end to Ghostscript. It features a more conventional user interface, with regular menus, a toolbar, and scrollbars.
- GSview runs under Microsoft Windows, OS/2, and Unix-like operating systems. It is best known for its Windows and OS/2 versions. On UNIX it uses the GTK+ toolkit. Although under a public license, it also employs a nag screen to urge users to register so as to support the development of GSview. The registration fee is A$40. The latest version was released in November 2007. The Ghostscript documentation states, concerning its installation under Windows: "After installing Ghostscript, it is strongly recommended that you install the GSview previewer, which provides an easier to use graphical interface for Ghostscript."[3]
- PDF Blender is a cross-platform application that converts and merges documents to and from PostScript and PDF formats.
- Moonshiner is a graphical front-end for using Ghostscript to convert from PostScript to PDF, aiming to be a Linux work-alike for Adobe's Distiller.
- KGhostView runs under Unix/X11. It is KDE3 port of Ghostview.
- Okular runs under Unix/X11 and Microsoft Windows (using KDE4 for Windows). It is a KDE4 application.
- PDFcreator runs under Microsoft Windows and creates a local printer
History
Ghostscript was originally written by L. Peter Deutsch in 1986 for the GNU Project, and released under the GNU General Public License; later, Deutsch formed Aladdin Enterprises to license Ghostscript under a proprietary license. Ghostscript is currently owned by Artifex Software and maintained by Artifex Software employees and the worldwide user community. The current version of Ghostscript is again available under GPL but Ghostscript can be also licensed for use in proprietary projects for a fee.
Variants
- GPL Ghostscript is the canonical variant available under the GNU General Public License, which is a free software license. Before June 2006, the leading edge of Ghostscript development was distributed as AFPL Ghostscript (formerly named Aladdin Ghostscript) under the Aladdin Free Public License, which restricts commercial use. AFPL Ghostscript is now abandoned.[4]
- GNU Ghostscript is part of the GNU project and is now derived from GPL Ghostscript.
- ESP Ghostscript was distributed by Easy Software Products under the GPL. It was based on GPL Ghostscript and contains several modifications to improve compatibility with ESP's Common Unix Printing System. This version is no longer developed, since it was merged with GPL Ghostscript.[5]
- Ghostscript is the current commercial proprietary version licensed by Artifex Software for inclusion in closed-source products.
The GPL version is also used as the basis for a Display Ghostscript, which adds the functionality needed to fully support Display PostScript.
Free fonts
There are two sets of free fonts supplied for Ghostscript:[6][7][8][9]
- 35 basic PostScript fonts contributed by URW++ Design and Development Incorporated, of Hamburg, Germany in 1996 under the GPL and AFPL.[10][11][12][13][14][15] It is a full set of Type1 fonts similar to the classic Adobe set: Bookman L (Bookman), Century Schoolbook L (New Century Schoolbook), Chancery L (Zapf Chancery), Dingbats (Zapf Dingbats), Gothic L (Avant Garde), Nimbus Mono L (Courier), Nimbus Roman No9 L (Times), Nimbus Sans L (Helvetica), Palladio L (Palatino), Standard Symbols L (Symbol).
- A miscellaneous set including Cyrillic, kana, and fonts derived from the free Hershey fonts, with improvements by Thomas Wolff (such as adding accented characters).
See also
References
- ^ "History of Ghostscript versions 1.n". http://ghostscript.com/doc/current/History1.htm#Version1.0. Retrieved 2007-04-10.
- ^ "ps2pdf: PostScript-to-PDF converter". http://www.ghostscript.com/doc/current/Ps2pdf.htm#PDFX. Retrieved 2011-05-22.
- ^ Installing Ghostscript on MS Windows
- ^ Advogato: Blog for raph
- ^ Article #484: The Grand Unified Ghostscript Officially Released: GPL Ghostscript 8.60 - Common UNIX Printing System
- ^ "Ghostscript SVN - URW fonts". http://code.google.com/p/ghostscript/source/browse/#svn/trunk/urw-fonts. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
- ^ "Debian package - gsfonts". http://packages.debian.org/sid/gsfonts. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
- ^ "Fonts and font facilities supplied with Ghostscript". http://www.ghostscript.com/doc/current/Fonts.htm. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
- ^ "Linux fonts (mostly X11)". 2009-08-15. http://www.sabi.co.uk/Notes/linuxFonts.html. Retrieved 2010-04-21.
- ^ Finally! Good-quality free (GPL) basic-35 PostScript Type 1 fonts., archived from the original on 2002-10-23, http://web.archive.org/web/20021023155414/http://www.geocrawler.com/archives/3/378/1996/5/0/2064811/, retrieved 2010-05-06
- ^ (TXT) Finally! Good-quality free (GPL) basic-35 PostScript Type 1 fonts., http://www.tug.org/fonts/deutsch-urw.txt, retrieved 2010-05-06
- ^ "Fonts and TeX". 2009-12-19. http://www.tug.org/fonts/. Retrieved 2010-05-06.
- ^ (PDF) Five years after: Report on international TEX font projects, 2007, http://www.tug.org/TUGboat/Articles/tb29-1/tb91ludwichowski-fonts.pdf, retrieved 2010-05-06
- ^ (TAR.GZ) ghostscript-fonts-std-4.0.tar.gz - GhostScript 4.0 standard fonts - AFPL license, 1996-06-28, http://mirror.cs.wisc.edu/pub/mirrors/ghost/aladdin/fonts/ghostscript-fonts-std-4.0.tar.gz, retrieved 2010-05-06
- ^ (TAR.GZ) ghostscript-fonts-std-6.0.tar.gz - GhostScript 6.0 standard fonts - GPL license, 1999-12-22, http://mirror.cs.wisc.edu/pub/mirrors/ghost/aladdin/fonts/ghostscript-fonts-std-6.0.tar.gz, retrieved 2010-05-06
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