Copyright (C) 1989, 1995 Aladdin Enterprises. All rights reserved. This file is part of Aladdin Ghostscript. Aladdin Ghostscript is distributed with NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. No author or distributor accepts any responsibility for the consequences of using it, or for whether it serves any particular purpose or works at all, unless he or she says so in writing. Refer to the Aladdin Ghostscript Free Public License (the "License") for full details. Every copy of Aladdin Ghostscript must include a copy of the License, normally in a plain ASCII text file named PUBLIC. The License grants you the right to copy, modify and redistribute Aladdin Ghostscript, but only under certain conditions described in the License. Among other things, the License requires that the copyright notice and this notice be preserved on all copies. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - **************************************************** * This file describes version 3.53 of Ghostscript. * **************************************************** ******** ******** An overview of Ghostscript ******** ******** Ghostscript is the name of a set of software that provides: - An interpreter for the PostScript (TM) language, and - A set of C procedures (the Ghostscript library) that implement the graphics capabilities that appear as primitive operations in the PostScript language. How is Ghostscript licensed? Where can I find it? -------------------------------------------------- Ghostscript is a copyrighted work (Aladdin Enterprises owns the copyright); it is not shareware or in the public domain. Different versions of it are distributed with three different licenses: - Versions entitled "Aladdin Ghostscript" are distributed with a license called the Aladdin Ghostscript Free Public License that allows free use, copying, and distribution by end users, but does not allow commercial distribution. You can always get the current version of Aladdin Ghostscript with this license by Internet FTP from ftp.cs.wisc.edu:/ghost/aladdin/ghostscript*NNNN* or /afs/cs.wisc.edu/public/ghost/aladdin/ghostscript*NNNN* where NNNN is the version number. If you do not have convenient access to the Internet, Aladdin Enterprises can send you Aladdin Ghostscript on PC-compatible diskettes for a small fee; please contact Aladdin for more information. The address and phone number are given later on in this document. Please note that this is not "commercial licensing"; you are still getting free software, with no support and no warranty. - Versions entitled "GNU Ghostscript" are distributed with the GNU General Public License, which allows free use, and free copying and redistribution under certain conditions (including, in some cases, commercial distribution). GNU Ghostscript versions are released approximately a year after the corresponding Aladdin Ghostscript version. You can always get the current version of GNU Ghostscript by Internet FTP from ftp.cs.wisc.edu:/ghost/gnu/ghostscript*NNNN* or /afs/cs.wisc.edu/public/ghost/gnu/ghostscript*NNNN* or from any of the GNU distribution sites, such as ftp.uu.net:/systems/gnu or gatekeeper.dec.com:/pub/GNU; you can also get GNU Ghostscript on tape or CD-ROM from the Free Software Foundation. For a more complete list of sites, including sites outside the U.S., send e-mail to gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu. - Versions of Ghostscript are also available for commercial licensing. See the next section for details. Aladdin Ghostscript and GNU Ghostscript come with NO WARRANTY and NO SUPPORT. If you have a question or a bug to report, please see the section "If you need help" below for information about what to do. The Ghostscript source code distribution includes a library written by the Independent JPEG Group (IJG). This library does NOT fall under either the GNU License or the Aladdin Ghostscript Free Public License; it comes with its own license, which is less restrictive. For more information, please see the README file in the jpeg subdirectory of the Ghostscript source code. The executable versions of Ghostscript are based in part on the work of the Independent JPEG Group. What about commercial use? -------------------------- GNU Ghostscript may not be incorporated into commercial products which forbid copying or for which customers cannot obtain source code for no more than the cost of reproduction, although it may be distributed ("aggregated") with commercial products; Aladdin Ghostscript may not be incorporated into commercial products at all, and may only be distributed commercially under extremely limited circumstances. However, Ghostscript is also available for commercial licensing, which in addition to the right to incorporate Ghostscript into commercial products includes support, a limited warranty, high-quality fonts, and other benefits. For more information about commercial licensing of Ghostscript, please contact Aladdin Enterprises' commercial distribution partners, which are the only entities legally authorized to distribute Ghostscript per se on any terms other than the GNU or Aladdin free licenses: In the U.S. and all parts of the world except Europe: Licensing Information Artifex Software Inc. 454 Las Gallinas Ave., suite 108 San Rafael, CA 94903 U.S.A. voice +1-415-492-9861 fax +1-415-492-9862 e-mail: info@arsoft.com In Europe, as a representative of Artifex Software: Informationstechnik, Netzwerke und Systeme Vertriebs-GmbH Christoph Strozyk Postfach 101312 D-44543 Castrop-Rauxel Germany Tel. +49-2305-356505 Fax. +49-2305-18018 e-mail: chris@ins.de Currently, Artifex does not offer commercial support as a separate service; support is available only to OEM licensees. What platforms does Ghostscript run on? --------------------------------------- Ghostscript is written entirely in C (with some optional assembly-language accelerators for MS-DOS platforms), with special care taken to make it run properly on systems of either byte order and of various word lengths. GNU Ghostscript is known to run on the following platform families: - A wide variety of Unix systems using X Windows version 11, release 4, 5, and 6, including Sun-3, Sun-4, Sun-386i, and Sun SPARCStation; generic 80386/486/Pentium machines running Linux, 386/ix, FreeBSD, ISC Unix, SCO Unix, and Solaris; H-P 9000/300 and 9000/800; DECStation 2100 and 3100; VAX running Ultrix and OSF/1; Sequent Symmetry; Convex C1 and C2; Tektronix 4300; SGI Iris Indigo; 4.4bsd Unix systems (FreeBSD (intel), NetBSD (intel, sparc, m68k (apple, amiga, sun & hp) and vax) and 386BSD (intel)). - Sun workstations (Sun-3, SPARC, Sun-386i) running SunView; - VAX or AXP systems running VMS with X11R4/5 and DEC C or gcc. Aladdin Ghostscript is known to run on all of the above, and additionally the following platform families: - IBM PC and compatibles with EGA, VGA, SuperVGA, or compatible graphics under MS-DOS 3.1, 3.3, 5.0, or 6.22, with or without Microsoft Windows 3.0 or 3.1; - IBM PC and compatibles under DR DOS 6.0; - IBM PC and compatibles under OS/2 2.0, 2.1 and Warp 3.0. - Macintosh with System 7 or later, both 680x0 and PowerPC native. For specific information on the Macintosh implementation, please see http://www.glyphic.com/glyphic/projects/macgs.html It is very likely that Ghostscript will run under other versions of MS-DOS, and other versions of Unix that support X11, but it has not been tested in these environments. (Ghostscript does not run well on PC-compatibles with Hercules display cards, since text and graphics output interfere with each other, but you can work around this by redirecting the text output to a file.) Versions for Microsoft Windows NT and Windows 95 are under development. Ghostscript has also been ported a number of platforms by users, who are willing to be contacted regarding problems on those specific platforms: - For information and possibly precompiled binaries for NeXT machines, contact Alan Barclay , in the U.K. at +44-1224-591779 (voice & fax). - For information on a port to the Amiga, contact Andreas Maschke (epgbc@cluster6.urz.uni-halle.de). This port includes drivers for IFF (file format) RETINA (graphics board) and INTUI (Amiga Window system) by Andreas Heitmann (andreas@gotcha.swb.de). - For information on a port to the Atari ST, contact Tim Gallivan (timg@landau.ph.utexas.edu). - For information on a port to the Acorn Archimedes, contact David Elworthy (David.Elworthy@cl.cam.ac.uk). ******** ******** Related work ******** We know of two freely available X Windows screen previewers based on Ghostscript: Ghostview and GSPreview. For information on Ghostview, contact Tim Theisen (ghostview@cs.wisc.edu). For information on GSPreview, contact Richard Hesketh (rlh@ukc.ac.uk). There is a freely available previewer for OpenVMS (both VAX and AXP) called GhostView-VMS or gv-vms, derived from Tim Theisen's Ghostview 1.5 by Johannes Plass (PLASS@dipmza.physik.Uni-Mainz.DE). Some places you can find it are: WWW: http://www.wku.edu/htbin/fileserv?X11KIT FTP: site: ftp.wku.edu file: VMS/FILESERV/X11Kit.ZIP site: nic.switch.ch file: mirror/vms/spc/macro32/savesets/x11kit.zip site: ada.cenaath.cena.dgac.fr files: DECWINDOWS/XAW3D/ site: axp.psl.ku.dk files: DECWINDOWS/XAW3D/ There is a freely available MS Windows screen previewer based on Ghostscript, called GSView for Windows, and a similar OS/2 previewer called PM GSview. For technical information on GSview for Windows or PM GSview, please contact Russell Lang (rjl@aladdin.com). (Aladdin provides Lang with a mail alias, but Lang is not an employee or agent of Aladdin.) These programs are also available for commercial licensing from Artifex Software Inc. Users have contributed two packages that provide a set of GSview-like commands that MS-DOS users can enter through the keyboard. One is available from ftp.pg.gda.pl:/pub/TeX/GUST/contrib/PS/PS_VIEW/ps_view.ps and is in the public domain. The other is available from puccini.ujf-grenoble.fr:pub/contrib-ps/DOS-PSV/* and appears to be redistributable with no restrictions. A set of additions that provide a usable Kanji capability for Ghostscript version 2.4.1 is available for anonymous FTP from ftp.cs.titech.ac.jp:GNU/gs241j11.tar.Z. For more information, please contact Mr. Norio Katayama (katayama@nacsis.ac.jp). Mr. Katayama is working on adapting this package for newer Ghostscript versions (specifically, for versions 2.6.1 and 3.0), and expects to make the newer version of the package available sometime in early 1995. An extensive list of Unix systems and the fonts available on them is available on http://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe/#PostScript-fonts courtesy of Nelson H. F. Beebe. There is a good free utility "pstotext" that works with Ghostscript to extract plain-text from PostScript files. It is much better than the ps2ascii utility distributed with Ghostscript. You can read the pstotext documentation at: http://www.research.digital.com/SRC/virtualpaper/manpages/pstotext.1.html You can download pstotext from the following URL (after reading and agreeing to the license offered there): http://www.research.digital.com/SRC/virtualpaper/pstotext.html There is no formal technical support for pstotext, but the authors are happy to receive your questions and comments by e-mail at the following locations: http://www.research.digital.com/SRC/virtualpaper/comments.html mailto:mcjones@pa.dec.com mailto:birrell@pa.dec.com For more information about the authors' Virtual Paper project, which attempts to make on-line reading of lengthy material (like research reports, manuals, or entire books) comfortable, read: http://www.research.digital.com/SRC/virtualpaper ******** ******** Documentation overview ******** ******** There is a Ghostscript World Wide Web home page at http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/index.html All the file names mentioned in the documentation, except for README, are in lower case, which is the usual convention for Unix systems. On MS-DOS systems, all file names are actually upper-case. What should I read first? ------------------------- When you receive Ghostscript, you should start by reading: > README - this file. > current.doc - information about problems, and major changes and new features in the current release. If you have used a previous release of Ghostscript, you probably should also read any more recent sections of: > NEWS - a complete, detailed history of changes in the most recent Ghostscript releases. What if I'm a new user? ----------------------- If you are a new user of Ghostscript, you should read: > use.doc - information about to install and use Ghostscript. Some of this information is also contained in gs.1 - a `man' page for Ghostscript. > The catalog at the beginning of devs.mak, which lists all the devices for which Ghostscript is able to produce output (although if you got Ghostscript in binary form, it will only include a subset of these devices). > devices.doc - more detailed information about some specific devices that Ghostscript knows about. > ps2epsi.doc, unix-lpr.doc - more detailed information about some of the shell scripts and batch files distributed with Ghostscript. If you have Aladdin Ghostscript, as opposed to the GNU Ghostscript releases distributed by the Free Software Foundation, you should read (or at least skim through): > public.doc - additional information about Aladdin Ghostscript releases that is not relevant to GNU Ghostscript releases. If you are going to compile Ghostscript, rather than just use an executable you got from somewhere, you should read: > make.doc - how to install, compile and link Ghostscript. If you run into any questions, or if you are going to be using Ghostscript extensively, you should at least skim, and probably eventually read: > fonts.doc - information about the fonts distributed with Ghostscript, including how to add or replace fonts. > language.doc - A description of the Ghostscript language, and its differences from the documented PostScript language. > psfiles.doc - information about the .ps files distributed with Ghostscript (other than fonts). There is also a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) file available on the Internet. See "If you need help" below for the location. What if I'm a developer? ------------------------ If you are going to be writing a new driver for Ghostscript, you should read: > drivers.doc - the interface between Ghostscript and device drivers. > xfonts.doc - the interface between Ghostscript and platform-supplied fonts. (Read drivers.doc first.) If you are considering distributing Ghostscript (either Aladdin or GNU versions) in conjunction with a commercial product, you should read the PUBLIC license carefully, and you should also read: > commprod.doc - additional clarification of the circumstances under which Ghostscript can be distributed with a commercial product. If you intend to use Ghostscript in the form of a DLL under OS/2 or Microsoft Windows, you should read: > dll.doc - documentation on Ghostscript as a DLL. If you intend to use Ghostscript as part of another program and not as a DLL, rather than as a self-contained executable application, you should start by reading: > imain.h - the documented API for Ghostscript not as a DLL. Other files ----------- > devarch.doc - notes on the architecture of device handling in Ghostscript 3.0. > ps2epsi.doc - documentation for the PostScript to EPSI conversion utility. > helpers.doc - a note of thanks to all the people who have helped with Ghostscript development. > hershey.doc - information about the Hershey fonts, which are the basis of some of the Ghostscript fonts. > history*.doc - a history of changes in older Ghostscript releases. > humor.doc - a humorous comment on Ghostscript contributed by a user. > lib.doc - information about the Ghostscript library. > unix-lpr.doc - information about how to integrate Ghostscript with Unix printer spooling. ******** ******** If you need help ******** ******** There is a Frequently Asked Questions file available for Internet anonymous FTP from ftp://ftp.cs.wisc.edu/ghost/gsfaq.txt (i.e., FTP to ftp.cs.wisc.edu, file name /ghost/gsfaq.txt) or /afs/cs.wisc.edu/public/ghost/gsfaq.txt and also available by HTTP (World Wide Web) from http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/gsfaq.html It isn't updated very often, so it may be a little out of date. Aladdin Enterprises doesn't have the resources to respond to questions from users of the freely available versions of Ghostscript. (Responding to questions and bug reports is one of the benefits that Artifex Software provides to commercial users in exchange for the licensing fee.) If you have problems with Ghostscript, and you have access to Usenet news, we suggest you post your question to one of the following Usenet newsgroups: - If your question is about GNU Ghostscript (currently, versions 2.6.1 and below), post it to gnu.ghostscript.bug. If you have access to Internet mail, but not news, send e-mail to bug-ghostscript@prep.ai.mit.edu, which is equivalent to posting to the gnu.ghostscript.bug newsgroup. - If your question is about Aladdin Ghostscript (currently, versions 3.0 and above), post it to comp.lang.postscript. If you have access to Internet mail, but not news, send e-mail to comp.lang.postscript.usenet@decwrl.dec.com, which is equivalent to posting to the comp.lang.postscript newsgroup. (We hope to establish a separate newsgroup for Aladdin Ghostscript in the future, since comp.lang.postscript was not intended for Ghostscript discussion per se.) There are hundreds of Ghostscript user sites all over the world, and often another user will be able to help you. If you are having trouble with a specific device driver, look in the file devs.mak and see if it is a user-maintained driver. If so, please contact the person listed there directly; please do not contact Aladdin Enterprises regarding user-maintained drivers. Aladdin Enterprises does want Ghostscript to be of high quality, so if you have been running Ghostscript and encounter a problem, we encourage you to post bugs to the newsgroups mentioned above. We will consider investigating problems reported to those newsgroups if (and only if) the posted report meets all the following criteria: - You are using the most recent version of Aladdin Ghostscript. - You obtained Ghostscript directly from Aladdin Enterprises, or from the FTP or AFS site on the Internet mentioned above (i.e., not from a bulletin board system or a commercial system such as CompuServe or GEnie). - You have installed Ghostscript successfully, and used it successfully on other input data. - Your problem is reproducible, and you can send us the input data that evokes it (by e-mail, anonymous FTP, or PC diskette). (But please do not send anything unless we ask you for it.) - You post the bug report using the following form, completely filled out: ------snip------snip------snip------snip------snip------snip------snip------ Ghostscript version: Where you got Ghostscript: Hardware you are using: Operating system you are using: (If you compiled Ghostscript yourself) C compiler you are using: (Use as much space as you need for the remaining items.) Symptoms: Suggested fix (if any): Other comments: ------snip------snip------snip------snip------snip------snip------snip------ Bug reports that include suggested fixes are especially welcome. As time permits, Aladdin Enterprises may also respond to e-mail from the following classes of users: - Beta testers who have actually given us at least one report on some beta version supplied to them. - People developing drivers that are for, or applications that are based on, Ghostscript and that will be made freely available. - People who express serious interest in commercial licensing of Ghostscript. Aladdin Enterprises owns or has access to the following hardware and software: Pentium and 486 PCs with color SuperVGA displays; Epson-compatible printer (the printer also is compatible with the IBM Proprinter); various H-P printers; Canon BubbleJet. These systems run both MS-DOS 5.0 and 6.22 and Microsoft Windows 3.1 with Borland C++ 3.1 (and several older versions), and Linux with gcc. SPARCstation, SunOS 4.1, cc and gcc, X11R5 and SunView; both monochrome and color displays. DECstation, Ultrix. IBM RS/6000 and PowerPC, Unix (AIX 3.n). DEC AXP (Alpha), OSF/1. If your problem turns out to be specific to some other hardware or software configuration, it may take longer to track down, since we will have to rely on other users to help. Aladdin's contact information is as follows: Aladdin Enterprises P.O. box 60264 Palo Alto, CA 94306 phone +1-415-322-0103 (8:30 AM - noon, Pacific time) fax +1-415-322-1734 ghost@aladdin.com Please do not contact us if all you want is help with the freely distributed versions of Ghostscript! Ghostscript is free, but our time is not. If you call for help, we will tell you politely that we cannot answer your question. Ghostscript's documentation, while not of commercial end-user quality, has been adequate for thousands of users (for many of whom English is a foreign language), so the answer to your question is very likely in it somewhere. ******** ******** Things you can do to help ******** ******** There are some projects that users could do that are somewhat decoupled from the main body of the code, and that would help improve Ghostscript: - Someone is needed to take responsibility for texinfo and/or man page documentation for Ghostscript. What this would involve is updating this documentation during the beta test period for each release, and sending it to Aladdin to be included in the final fileset. (Aladdin would continue to supply the plain-text documentation as it currently exists.) - Ghostscript needs some good, free, Type 1 (outline) fonts. Karl Berry is working on this, but it might go faster if he got some knowledgeable assistance. Contact karl@cs.umb.edu if you want to help with this. - Adobe has donated the specification of the Display PostScript C API to the X distribution, as well as the client-side implementation. Modifying Ghostscript to interface with this code as a substitute for a Display PostScript server might make Ghostscript a lot more useful, since it would then be "plug compatible" with Display PostScript in an important way. Contact ghost@aladdin.com if you would like to help with this. - Ghostscript should provide compression and decompression filters that use the same algorithms as gzip. This would require restructuring gzip to use Ghostscript's buffer-to-buffer model of stream processing, and simplifying it so that the compression and decompression code could reasonably fit in a single file. Please contact ghost@aladdin.com if you would like to do this. ******** ******** Acknowledgements ******** ******** Ghostscript was originally created, and is primarily developed and maintained, by L. Peter Deutsch, President of Aladdin Enterprises. Special thanks are due to Russell Lang, for the GSview for Windows and PM GSview programs and for contributing most of the code for the Microsoft Windows and OS/2 environments; to Tim Theisen, for the Ghostview program for X Windows and for major contributions to, and ongoing assistance with support of, the code for the X Windows environment; to Martin Fong, for the original port of Ghostscript to the Macintosh, and Mark Lentczner, for the current Macintosh port; and to the Independent JPEG Group, for creating the JPEG DCT library that Ghostscript uses. Special thanks are due to Richard Stallman and the Free Software Foundation for originating the GNU License, for originally motivating the creation of Ghostscript, and for being the primary distributor of GNU Ghostscript on the Internet. The file helpers.doc contains a list of the many other people who have contributed significantly to improving Ghostscript. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - PostScript is a trademark of Adobe Systems, Incorporated.