<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"><html><head><title>Background information for new users of Ghostscript</title><!-- $Id: New-user.htm,v 1.30.2.2 2002/02/01 05:31:25 raph Exp $ --><!-- Originally: new-user.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>Background information for new users of Ghostscript</h1> <!-- [1.1 end headline] ==================================================== --> <!-- [1.2 begin table of contents] ========================================= --> <h2>Table of contents</h2> <ul><li><a href="#Overview">An overview of Ghostscript</a><ul><li><a href="#Find_Ghostscript">How is Ghostscript licensed?  Where can I find it?</a><ul><li><a href="#AFPL_gs">AFPL Ghostscript (formerly Aladdin Ghostscript)</a><li><a href="#GNU_gs">GNU Ghostscript</a><li><a href="#Commercial_gs">Commercial versions</a></ul><li><a href="#Third-party_libraries">Libraries obtained from other parties</a><li><a href="#Support">What if I want support?</a><li><a href="#Commercial_use">What about commercial use?</a><li><a href="#Platforms">What platforms does Ghostscript run on?</a><ul><li><a href="#Third-party_platforms">Ports done by users</a></ul></ul><li><a href="#Related_work">Related work</a><ul><li><a href="#Drivers">Drivers</a><li><a href="#Previewers">Previewers</a><ul><li><a href="#Previewer_X">Previewers for X Windows</a><li><a href="#Previewer_DOS-Win">Previewers for DOS and MS Windows</a><li><a href="#Previewer_Linux">A previewer for Linux</a></ul><li><a href="#Fonts">Fonts</a><li><a href="#Related_programs">Related programs</a></ul><li><a href="#Need_help">If you need help</a><ul><li><a href="#Reporting_problems">Reporting problems</a></ul><li><a href="#Contacting_us">Contacting Ghostscript headquarters</a><li><a href="#How_to_help">How you can help improve Ghostscript</a><li><a href="#Acknowledgments">Acknowledgements</a></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="Overview"></a>An overview of Ghostscript</h2> <p>Ghostscript is the name of a set of software that provides: <ul><li>An interpreter for the <b>PostScript</b><small><sup>TM</sup></small>language and the Adobe <b>Portable Document Format</b> (<b>PDF</b> --sometimes confused with Acrobat, Adobe's PDF browser and editor product); <li>Input modules (utilities) for reading a variety of raster formats,including <b>CMYK</b>, <b>GIF</b>, <b>JFIF</b> (<b>JPEG</b>), <b>MIFF</b>,<b>PBM</b>/<b>PGM</b>/<b>PPM</b>, and <b>PCX</b>; <li>Output modules (drivers) for a wide variety of window systems (includingX Windows and Microsoft Windows), raster file formats, and printers, as wellas a PDF output module that implements functions similar to Adobe'sAcrobat<small><sup>TM</sup></small> Distiller<small><sup>TM</sup></small>product; and <li>The Ghostscript library, a set of procedures to implement the graphicsand filtering capabilities that are primitive operations in the PostScriptlanguage and in PDF.</ul> <p>In simple terms, this means that Ghostscript can read a PostScript or PDFfile and display the results on the screen or convert them into a form youcan print on a non-PostScript printer. Especially together with severalpopular <a href="#Previewers">previewers</a>, with Ghostscript you can viewor print an entire document or even isolated pages, even if your computerdoesn't have Display PostScript and your printer doesn't handle PostScriptitself. <h3><a name="Find_Ghostscript"></a>How is Ghostscript licensed?  Where can I find it?</h3> <p>Ghostscript is a copyrighted work (artofcode LLC owns the copyright);it is not shareware or in the public domain.  Different versions of it aredistributed with three different licenses: <h4><a name="AFPL_gs"></a>AFPL Ghostscript (formerly AladdinGhostscript)</h4> <p>Versions entitled "AFPL Ghostscript", or older versions called "AladdinGhostscript"), are distributed with a license called the <ahref="Public.htm">Aladdin Free Public License</a> that allows free use,copying, and distribution by end users, but does not allow commercialdistribution.  For information on obtaining the current version ofGhostscript with this license please visit our website at <blockquote><a href="http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/" class="offsite">http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/</a></blockquote> <p>AFPL ghostscript is also available directly from our ftp mirrors as <blockquote><a href="ftp://mirror.cs.wisc.edu/pub/mirrors/ghost/AFPL/" class="offsite">ftp://mirror.cs.wisc.edu/pub/mirrors/ghost/AFPL/</a>gs###/ghostscript#.##</blockquote> <p>where "#.##" and "###" are the version number with and without punctuation, for instance "5.50" and "550",or under AFS by direct reference to <blockquote>/afs/cs.wisc.edu/p/mirror/pub/mirrors/ghost/AFPL/</blockquote> <p>Finally, you can search for other sites, perhaps nearer to your location, that provide ftp access to Ghostscript using an ftp searchservice such as <blockquote><a href="http://ftpsearch.lycos.com/"class="offsite">http://ftpsearch.lycos.com/</a></blockquote> <p>General search engines like <blockquote><a href="http://www.google.com/"class="offsite">http://www.google.com/</a><br><a href="http://www.altavista.com/"class="offsite">http://www.altavista.com/</a></blockquote> <p>may also be useful, but in searching for files they are likely to providemany unusable references mixed in among the useful ones. <p>If you haven't convenient access to the Internet, you can order AFPLGhostscript on a CD along with some useful related programs anddocumentation.  <b>Please note</b> that this is not "commercial licensing":you are still getting freely redistributable software, with no support andno warranty.  For more information write to <a href="#GSview">RussellLang</a> or see <blockquote><a href="http://www.ghostgum.com.au/cd.htm" class="offsite">http://www.ghostgum.com.au/cd.htm</a></blockquote> <h4><a name="GNU_gs"></a>GNU Ghostscript</h4> <p>Versions entitled "GNU Ghostscript" are distributed with the GNU <ahref="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">General Public License</a>,which allows free use, and free copying and redistribution under certainconditions (including, in some cases, commercial distribution).  GNUGhostscript versions are usually released shortly after the <em>next</em>AFPL Ghostscript version; for example, GNU Ghostscript 5.10 was releasedshortly after Aladdin Ghostscript 5.50.  You can always get the currentversion of GNU Ghostscript by Internet FTP from <blockquote><a href="ftp://mirror.cs.wisc.edu/pub/mirrors/ghost/gnu/" class="offsite">ftp://mirror.cs.wisc.edu/pub/mirrors/ghost/gnu/</a></blockquote> <p>or under AFS by direct reference to <blockquote>/afs/cs.wisc.edu/p/mirror/pub/mirrors/ghost/gnu/current/</blockquote> <p>or from any of the many GNU distribution sites.  The GNU home ftp site is <blockquote><a href="ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/"class="offsite">ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/</a></blockquote> <p>For a more complete list of sites, including sites outside the U.S., writeto <a href="mailto:gnu@gnu.org">gnu@gnu.org</a>.  The<a href="Commprod.htm#FSF-address">Free Software Foundation</a> makes GNUGhostscript available on tape and CD-ROM. <p><a name="CTAN"></a>Both AFPL and GNU versions are also available from sites in theComprehensive TeX Archive Network (CTAN), in a tree based at/tex-archive/support/ghostscript/, which you can find at these principalCTAN distribution sites ("participating hosts") as of mid-1998: <blockquote><table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr>	<td><ahref="ftp://ctan.tug.org/tex-archive/support/ghostscript/"class="offsite">ftp://ctan.tug.org/tex-archive/support/ghostscript/</a>	<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;	<td>Massachusetts, U.S.A.<tr>	<td><a href="ftp://ftp.dante.de/tex-archive/support/ghostscript/"class="offsite">ftp://ftp.dante.de/tex-archive/support/ghostscript/</a>	<td>&nbsp;	<td>Deutschland<tr>	<td><ahref="ftp://ftp.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/support/ghostscript/"class="offsite">ftp://ftp.tex.ac.uk/tex-archive/support/ghostscript/</a>	<td>&nbsp;	<td>United Kingdom</table></blockquote> <p>CTAN has more than fifty mirror sites around the world.  For informationabout CTAN sites, including how to use them over the World Wide Web, visit<a href="http://www.ctan.org/" class="offsite">ctan.org</a> or getthe file <b><tt>CTAN.sites</tt></b> from any CTAN server, forinstance <blockquote><a href="ftp://ctan.tug.org/tex-archive/CTAN.sites" class="offsite">ftp://ctan.tug.org/tex-archive/CTAN.sites</a></blockquote> <h4><a name="Commercial_gs"></a>Commercial versions</h4> <p>Finally, Ghostscript is also available for commercial licensing.  See"<a href="#Commercial_use">What about commercial use?</a>" for details. <p>AFPL Ghostscript and GNU Ghostscript come with <b>NO WARRANTY</b> and<b>NO SUPPORT</b>.  If you have a question or a problem to report, pleasesee "<a href="#Need_help">If you need help</a>" for information about whatto do. <hr> <h3><a name="Third-party_libraries"></a>Libraries obtained from other parties</h3> <p>The Ghostscript source code distribution, and the Ghostscript executablecode, include libraries obtained from other parties.  All the source filesmentioned in this section are in the Ghostscript and third-party librarysource kits.  The documentation of <a href="Make.htm">how to buildGhostscript</a> tells <a href="Make.htm#Acquiring">where to get theselibraries</a> and <a href="Make.htm#Unpack">how to unpack them</a>. <blockquote><dl><dt>The <a href="http://www.ijg.org/" class="offsite">Independent JPEGGroup</a> (IJG)library<dd>The executable versions of Ghostscript are based in part on the work ofthe Independent JPEG Group.  For more information, see<b><tt>jpeg.mak</tt></b> in the main Ghostscript source directory and<b><tt>README</tt></b> in the <b><tt>jpeg</tt></b> subdirectory of theGhostscript source code <dt>The <a href="http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/"class="offsite">Portable NetworkGraphics</a> (PNG) library created by Dave Martindale, Guy Eric Schalnat,Paul Schmidt, and Tim Wegner, of Group 42, Inc.<dd>For more information, see <b><tt>libpng.mak</tt></b> in the mainGhostscript source directory, and <b><tt>README</tt></b> and<b><tt>png.h</tt></b> in the <b><tt>libpng</tt></b> subdirectory of theGhostscript source code. <dt>The <a href="http://www.info-zip.org/pub/infozip/zlib/"class="offsite">zlib</a> librarycreated by Jean-loup Gailly and Mark Adler<dd>For more information, see <b><tt>zlib.mak</tt></b> in the mainGhostscript source directory, and <b><tt>README</tt></b> in the<b><tt>zlib</tt></b> subdirectory of the Ghostscript source code.</dl></blockquote> <p>These libraries do <b>NOT</b> fall under either the GNU License or theAladdin Free Public License; they come with their own licenses,which also allow free use and redistribution under appropriatecircumstances and which appear in the files mentioned just above.  Theselibraries are entirely original works of their respective authors, and areprovided <strong>AS IS</strong> with <strong>NO WARRANTY</strong> and <strong>NO SUPPORT</strong>. <hr> <h3><a name="Support"></a>What if I want support?</h3> <p>Neither artofcode LLC nor any organization known to us currently offersGhostscript support for end-users -- that is, for people or companies whojust want to use Ghostscript and not redistribute it as part of a product.Companies that include Ghostscript in their products under a commerciallicense (see next section) may offer support to end-users, but it would besupport for the company's own product, not for Ghostscript <em>per se</em>. <p>Nothing in the GNU or AFPL licenses prevents anyone from providingsupport for Ghostscript, either free or commercial.  We would be happy toinclude in the Ghostscript documentation the contact information for anyonewho wants to offer such support. <hr> <h3><a name="Commercial_use"></a>What about commercial use?</h3> <p>GNU Ghostscript may not be incorporated into commercial products whichforbid copying or for which customers cannot obtain source code for no morethan the cost of reproduction, although it may be distributed ("aggregated")with commercial products; AFPL Ghostscript may not be incorporated intocommercial products at all, and may be distributed commercially only underextremely limited circumstances.  However, Ghostscript is also available forcommercial licensing, which in addition to the right to incorporateGhostscript into commercial products includes support, a limited warranty,high-quality fonts, and other benefits.  For more information aboutcommercial licensing of Ghostscript, please contact our commercialdistribution partner, the only entity legally authorized to distributeGhostscript <em>per se</em> on any terms other than the GNU or AFPLlicenses: <blockquote><address>Licensing Information<br>Artifex Software Inc.<br>101 Lucas Valley Road, Suite 110<br>San Rafael, CA 94903  U.S.A.<br>+1-415-492-9861 Voice<br>+1-415-492-9862 Fax<br><a href="mailto:info@artifex.com">info@artifex.com</a><br><a href="http://www.artifex.com/">http://www.artifex.com/</a></address></blockquote> <p>Artifex does not offer commercial support as a separate service; support isavailable only to OEM licensees (that is, licensees who redistributeGhostscript in a product). <hr> <h3><a name="Platforms"></a>What platforms does Ghostscript run on?</h3> <p>Ghostscript is written entirely in C (with some optional assembly-languageaccelerators for DOS platforms), with special care taken to make it runproperly on systems of either byte order ("low-endian" and "high-endian")and of various word lengths.  GNU Ghostscript is known to run on thefollowing platform families: <ul><li>A wide variety of Unix systems using X Windows version 11, releases 4, 5,and 6, including <ul compact><li>Sun-3, Sun-4, Sun-386i, Sun SPARCStation with SunOS 4 and Solaris 2.[56]<li>Generic Intel-based systems running Linux, 386/ix, 386BSD, FreeBSD, ISC Unix, SCO Unix, and Solaris<li>H-P 9000/300 and 9000/800<li>DECStation 2100, 3100, and 5xxx<li>Alpha systems running Digital Unix<li>VAX running Ultrix<li>Sequent Symmetry<li>Convex C1 and C2<li>Tektronix 4300<li>SGI Iris Indigo<li>4.4BSD Unix systems (FreeBSD on Intel)<li>NetBSD on Intel, Sun SPARC, Motorola M68K (Apple, Amiga, Sun, H-P), and VAX</ul> <li>Sun workstations running SunView <li>VAX and Alpha systems running OpenVMS with X11 compiled witheither DEC C or gcc</ul> <p>AFPL Ghostscript is known to run on all of the above, and additionallyon the following platform families: <ul><li>IBM PC and compatibles with EGA, VGA, SuperVGA, or compatible graphicsunder MS-DOS 3.1, 3.3, 5.0, or 6.22, and Microsoft Windows 3.1, NT, 95, or98; <li>IBM PC and compatibles under DR DOS 6.0; <li>IBM PC and compatibles under OS/2 2.0, 2.1 and Warp 3.0. <li>Apple Macintosh with System 7 or later, both Motorola 680x0 and PowerPCnative. For specific information on the Macintosh implementation, see <blockquote><a href="http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/macos/" class="offsite">http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/macos/</a></blockquote></ul> <p>It is very likely that Ghostscript will run under other versions of DOS,and other versions of Unix that support X11, but it has not been tested inthese environments.  (Ghostscript does not run well on PC-compatibles withHercules display cards, since text and graphics output interfere with eachother, but you can work around this by redirecting the text output to a file.) <h4><a name="Third-party_platforms"></a>Ports done by users</h4> <p>Ghostscript has been ported to a number of platforms by users, who arewilling to be contacted about problems on those specific platforms: <dl><dt><b>NeXT</b><dd>For information and possibly precompiled binaries for NeXT machines,contact Alan Barclay in the U.K. at +44-1224-591779 (voice and fax).</dl> <dl><dt><b>Amiga</b><dd>For information on a port to the Amiga, contact Andreas Maschke&lt;<a href="mailto:epgbc@cluster6.urz.uni-halle.de">epgbc@cluster6.urz.uni-halle.de</a>&gt;.This port includes drivers by Andreas Heitmann for <blockquote><table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td>IFF<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;<td>file format<tr><td>RETINA<td>&nbsp;<td>graphics board<tr><td>INTUI<td>&nbsp;<td>Amiga window system</table></blockquote></dl> <dl><dt><b>SMS/QDOS</b><dd>For information on a port to the SMS/QDOS operating system, contact<blockquote><address>Jonathan R. Hudson<br>+44-1703-867843 telephone and fax<br><a href="mailto:jrh@jrhudson.demon.co.uk">jrh@jrhudson.demon.co.uk</a><br>http://www.jrhudson.demon.co.uk/</address></blockquote> <p>The Web site has precompiled binaries, and the port includes includes drivers for: <blockquote><table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr>	<td>pic:	<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;	<td>native graphics format	<td>&nbsp;&nbsp;	<td>(PIC, 1-, -2, 4-, 8-colour formats)<tr>	<td>qfax:	<td>&nbsp;	<td>fax files	<td>&nbsp;	<td>(1D, 2D normal and fine)</table></blockquote></dl> <dl><dt><b>Plan 9</b><dd>For source boddles and precompiled binaries for the operating systemPlan 9 from Bell Labs, contact Nigel Roles&lt;<a href="mailto:ngr@cotswold.demon.co.uk">ngr@cotswold.demon.co.uk</a>&gt;.or check <blockquote><a href="http://www.cotswold.demon.co.uk/dist/gs/" class="offsite">http://www.cotswold.demon.co.uk/dist/gs/</a></blockquote></dl>

Lines 1–500 of 989. Load more