<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"><html><head><title>Information specifically about the current release</title><!-- $Id: Current.htm,v 1.13.2.2 2002/02/01 05:31:24 raph Exp $ --><!-- Originally: current.txt --><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="gs.css" title="Ghostscript Style"></head> <body><!-- [1.0 begin visible header] ============================================ --> <!-- [1.1 begin headline] ================================================== --> <h1>Information specifically about Ghostscript 6.0</h1> <!-- [1.1 end headline] ==================================================== --> <!-- [1.2 begin table of contents] ========================================= --> <h2>Table of contents</h2> <ul><li><a href="#New_features">New features (since release 5.50)</a><li><a href="#Changes">Changes (since release 5.50)</a><li><a href="#Known_problems">Known problems</a> <ul>  <li><a href="#Usage">Usage</a>  <li><a href="#Limitations">Limitations</a>  <li><a href="#Graphics_bugs">Graphics bugs</a>  <li><a href="#Non_graphics_bugs">Non-graphics bugs</a> </ul></ul> <!-- [1.2 end table of contents] =========================================== --> <!-- [1.3 begin hint] ====================================================== --> <p>For other information, see the <a href="Readme.htm">Ghostscriptoverview</a>. <!-- [1.3 end hint] ======================================================== --> <hr> <!-- [1.0 end visible header] ============================================== --> <!-- [2.0 begin contents] ================================================== --> <h2><a name="New_features"></a>New features (since release 5.50)</h2> <p>(This is not a complete list of new features: see <a href="News.htm">thenews</a> for details.) <p>Ghostscript now handles essentially all of PostScript LanguageLevel 3 andPDF 1.3 (Acrobat 4.x compatibility).  See <ahref="Language.htm"><b>Language.htm</b></a> for details. <p>The PDF writer now implements most of the Acrobat (TM) Distiller parametersfor compressing and downsampling images. <p>The PDF writer now recognizes nearly all varieties of pdfmark, other thanthe Distiller 3.0 "named object" pdfmarks and the Distiller 4.0 "documentstructure" pdfmarks. <p>The PDF writer now handles text in all fonts, not just the 14 built-in ones,and implements the Distiller parameters affecting font embedding andsubsetting.  (It still usually converts double-byte fonts to bitmaps.) <p>16- and 24-bit X Windows displays are now fully supported. <p>You now need only the header files and shared libraries, not the sourcecode, if you want to use precompiled versions of the jpeg, libpng, or zliblibraries. <p>The syntax<b><tt>%</tt></b><em>iodevice</em><b><tt>%</tt></b><em>filename</em> is nowsupported with the <b><tt>-sOutputFile=</tt></b> switch, allowing you tosend raster output to a piped command. <p>You can now use MMK or MMS to build Ghostscript on OpenVMS systems. <p>For driver writers, there are improved facilities for planar output,rasterizing directly into a driver-provided buffer, detecting bands that areall white or that only use a subset of the colorants, and providing CRDsfrom the driver. <p>The driver API now includes facilities for passing high-level textoperations, completing the set of high-level operations (bitmap images andvector graphics were implemented in 5.50).  See <a href="Drivers.htm">thedocumentation</a> for details. <p>Ghostscript as a dynamically linked library is now supported on the Mac aswell as on Windows. <p>GNU readline was supported in most of the beta distributions for 6.0, butwas removed at the last minute because of objections from the Free SoftwareFoundation.  Please see <a href="Make.htm#GNU_readline">here</a> for moreinformation. <h2><a name="Changes"></a>Changes (since release 5.50)</h2> <h3>Directories and build procedure</h3> <p>The files in the release now have a more complex directory structure.  Inthe table below, <em>top</em> refers to the top-level directory,<b><tt>gs</tt></b><em>n.nn</em>. <p>The <em>top</em><b><tt>/</tt></b> is where you create a link to theappropriate makefile in <em>top</em><b><tt>/src/</tt></b>.  On all systemsother than MS Windows, the build procedure does not write into thisdirectory. <p>The files included in the Ghostscript release now are found in fivesubdirectories. <ul><li><em>top</em><b><tt>/src/</tt></b> contains the C/C++ source code, themakefiles, and all other files needed to build the program.  The buildprocedure reads from this directory but does not write into it.  Nothing inthis directory is needed at run time. <li><p><em>top</em><b><tt>/lib/</tt></b> contains PostScript and scriptfiles needed at run time.  The build procedure reads from this directory butdoes not write into it.  The contents of this directory are needed at runtime and are copied by the Unix <b><tt>make install</tt></b> command. <li><em>top</em><b><tt>/doc/</tt></b> contains documentation.  Copied by<b><tt>make install</tt></b>. <li><em>top</em><b><tt>/man/</tt></b> contains Unix <b><tt>man</tt></b>pages.  Copied by <b><tt>make install</tt></b>. <li><em>top</em><b><tt>/examples/</tt></b> contains sample PostScript andPDF files.  Copied by <b><tt>make install</tt></b>. </ul> <p>The build procedure creates two additional subdirectories,<em>top</em><b><tt>/obj/</tt></b> (or <b><tt>debugobj</tt></b> or<b><tt>pgobj</tt></b>) and <em>top</em><b><tt>/bin/</tt></b>.  See thedocumentation on <a href="Make.htm">how to build Ghostscript</a> for moreinformation. <h2>Other changes</h2> <p>If you are a developer working with the Ghostscript code in any way otherthan writing or modifying drivers, please read all of the "Incompatiblechanges" sections of the <a href="News.htm">release news</a> for importantinformation. <h2><a name="Known_problems"></a>Known problems</h2> <p>See the <a href="News.htm">release news</a> for details. <h3><a name="Usage"></a>Usage</h3> <p>On a DOS system, interrupting the interpreter by typing control-C doesn'trestore the display mode. <h3><a name="Limitations"></a>Limitations</h3> <p><b><tt>serialnumber</tt></b> returns the same value in all copies. <p>Some floating point exceptions terminate the interpreter, rather thanproducing a <b><tt>limitcheck</tt></b> error. <p>The <b><tt>DCTEncode</tt></b> filter disregards the <b><tt>Blend</tt></b>parameter, and uses different <b><tt>QuantTables</tt></b> and<b><tt>HuffTables</tt></b> from Adobe's. <p>The DCT filters do not support nonintegral sample ratios.  Also,<b><tt>DCTEncode</tt></b> will not create files with Sum(HS&times;VS)&gt;10(regardless of the value of the <b><tt>Relax</tt></b> parameter) becausethey violate the JPEG standard; but <b><tt>DCTDecode</tt></b> will readsuch files. <p>The size of the execution stack cannot be changed dynamically.  (However,the sizes of the operand and dictionary stacks can be changed.) <p><b><tt>Separation</tt></b> and <b><tt>DeviceN</tt></b> color spaces areimplemented, but devices that actually produce color separations are notsupported: these color spaces always use the alternate space.  The specialcolor separations <b><tt>All</tt></b> and <b><tt>None</tt></b>, and theprimary separations (<b><tt>Red</tt></b>, <b><tt>Green</tt></b>, etc.), arenot supported. <p><b><tt>execform</tt></b> and <b><tt>ucache</tt></b> are implemented, butthey do not actually do any caching; <b><tt>setucacheparams</tt></b> and<b><tt>ucachestatus</tt></b> are dummies.  (This only impacts performance,not functionality.) <p>The <b><tt>image</tt></b> operator honors the <b><tt>Interpolate</tt></b>flag in the image dictionary only for ImageType 1 and 3 images, only if thecombined transformation (<b><tt>ImageMatrix</tt></b> + CTM) doesn't involverotation, skewing, or X-reflection, and only for certain scalings and colorspaces; <b><tt>imagemask</tt></b> doesn't honor <b><tt>Interpolate</tt></b>at all. <p>Some path-building operations that would generate a device coordinatelarger than +/-2^<small><sup>19</sup></small> will cause alimitcheck.  However, the common ones (<b><tt>[r]moveto</tt></b>,<b><tt>[r]lineto</tt></b>, <b><tt>[r]curveto</tt></b>, <b><tt>closepath</tt></b>) will not. <h3><a name="Graphics_bugs"></a>Graphics bugs</h3> <p>There are no known graphics bugs in this release. <h3><a name="Non_graphics_bugs"></a>Non-graphics bugs</h3> <p>The <b><tt>definefont</tt></b> operator (Subrs (type 1 fonts)) expectsarrays but won't accept packed arrays. <p>Syntax errors occurring within a binary token do not produce the errormessage specified by the Adobe documentation. <!-- [2.0 end contents] ==================================================== --> <!-- [3.0 begin visible trailer] =========================================== --><hr> <p><small>Copyright &copy; 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 Aladdin Enterprises.All rights reserved.</small> <p><small>This file is part of AFPL Ghostscript.  See the<a href="Public.htm">Aladdin Free Public License</a> (the "License") forfull details of the terms of using, copying, modifying, and redistributingAFPL Ghostscript.</small> <p><small>Ghostscript version 7.04, 31 January 2002 <!-- [3.0 end visible trailer] ============================================= --> </body></html>