Как можно исправить ошибки, связанные с ghostscript.msi?

Document roadmap by theme

What should I read if I’m a new user?

• how to use Ghostscript. This includes both
  a quickstart introduction to the commandline version and more extensive
  reference material.
• detailed information about specific
  devices that Ghostscript can use for output
• more detailed information about how to use Ghostscript under
  Unix with as a filter
  for printing
• for information about known problems or to report a new one,
  please visit bugs.ghostscript.com
  but remember that free versions of Ghostscript come with with
  NO WARRANTY and NO SUPPORT

GPL and commercial Ghostscript

GPL Ghostscript, Artifex Ghostscript and AFPL Ghostscript are different releases.

additional information about GPL Ghostscript
releases that is not relevant to commercial versions.

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:

• about the fonts distributed with
  Ghostscript, including how to add or replace fonts
• a description of the Ghostscript language,
  and its differences from the documented PostScript language
• about the postscript files distributed with
  Ghostscript (other than fonts)

Before building Ghostscript

If you are going to compile Ghostscript from source, rather than just use an executable
you got from somewhere, you may want to read:

how to build Ghostscript and
install it

GhostScript

An essential tool for working with PostScript is GhostScript (or the Free Software Foundation’s GNU Ghostscript ).

GhostScript is a PostScript interpreter and PDF viewer and editor, which can be used for converting between those two and several other file formats, as well as for creating PostScript files from scratch. It is also often used “under the hood” by printer drivers, when printing PostScript output to non-PostScript printers. You can use GhostScript to create virtual PostScript printers, or to print directly to PDF.

Alternatives to GhostScript

GhostScript is a large program with a lot of overhead. For simple viewing of PS files, there are also two related “PostScript preview” apps, GhostView and GSView.

For PostScript files, there are a handful of freeware PostScript viewers, but — since GhostView is free and open source — there isn’t a compelling reason to use them. There is an online PostScript viewer, which might be helpful if you just need to look at something from time to time and don’t want to take the trouble to install GhostView.

Adobe’s Acrobat allows users to work with both PDF and PostScript files, and is the “gold standard” of commercial products in this space.

Resources for Learning GhostScript

• Introduction to Ghostscript, a very quick overview from the University of Wisconsin Computer Science Department.
• Another Introduction to GhostScript, this one with a bit more detail.
• Introduction to GNU GhostScript explains basic GhostScript use, and includes a basic PostScript tutorial as well.
• How to Use Ghostscript, the in-depth official documentation.
• GhostScript User Manual (PDF), a guide to getting GhostScript up and running, excerpted from PostScript & Acrobat/PDF: Applications, Troubleshooting, and Cross-Platform Publishing by Thomas Merz.
• Getting Started With PostScript, is a GhostScript-focused introduction to using PostScript.
• Using Ghostscript to Convert and Combine Files, a quick guide to one of the more common tasks in GhostScript.
• Ghostscript Linux Howto, this is a good overview of using GhostScript in a Linux environment.
• Creating PDF/A output using XeTeX and Ghostscript, is a tutorial for creating PDF/A files, required by some publishers.
• Ghostscript — First 10 Steps explains how to get GhostScript up and running in Windows 10.
• Creating a Virtual PostScript Printer in Windows using Ghostscript explains how to use your existing non-PostScript printer as if it were a PostScript printer, using GhostScript; the tutorial is geared for Windows XP users, but the technique can be adapted for other Windows systems.
• Print to PDF with Ghostscript and RedMon on Windows explains how to use GhostScript to create high-quality PDFs without relying on Adobe’s expensive software; this tutorial covers the same topic, but includes information on earlier Windows versions.

GhostScript Tools

• Ruby-ghostscript is a Ruby wrapper for GhostScript, making it wasy to include a GhostScript binary in your Ruby and Ruby on Rails apps.
• Ghostscript.NET is a managed wrapper around the Ghostscript library, for use with the .NET framework.

Which document contains what?

Here is the list in alphabetic order of Ghostscript documentation,
with explanations of the contents.

API.htm

On MS-Windows and OS/2, Ghostscript is compiled as a dynamic
link library (DLL). On Linux, Ghostscript can be compiled as
a shared object. This describes how to use it. For developers.

C-style.htm

Guidelines and style for C coding, which you should follow
if, for example, you or add or
change something in Ghostscript. For developers.

Commprod.htm

The conditions under which Ghostscript may be distributed in a
commercial context. See also the .

DLL.htm

On OS/2, MS Windows-16 and MS Windows-32 platforms, Ghostscript is
compiled as a dynamic link library (DLL). This describes how to use it.
For developers. This DLL interface is obsolete.
Use instead.

Develop.htm

Code orientation for developers. Contains a detailed breakdown of
the source files by functional group, and overviews of the major
architectural features and services.

Deprecated.htm

Documention for deprecated devices and features. Features described here
will be removed in future versions of Ghostscript.

Devices.htm

Detailed information about some specific devices for which Ghostscript
can produce output. Run «» to see which
devices a particular version of Ghostscript is built to use.

Drivers.htm

Describes the interface between Ghostscript and device drivers. If
you do this, you should also read and use the . Necessary to develop a new driver. For
developers.

Fonts.htm

All
about fonts freely available for Ghostscript, and how to add and use new
fonts. Also describes how to use Ghostscript fonts as X Windows fonts. For
both users and developers.

History*.htm

The history of changes in all Ghostscript releases:

Install.htm

How to install Ghostscript. See also .

Internal.htm

Description of operators that are for internal/developer use only.

Language.htm

The relationship between the Ghostscript interpreter and the
PostScript language as defined by Adobe.

Lib.htm

A description of the Ghostscript library, a set of procedures to
implement the graphics and filtering capabilities that are primitive
operations in the PostScript language and in Adobe Portable Document Format
(PDF). For developers.

Make.htm

How to build Ghostscript executables from the source code. See also
. It’s not necessary to be a highly
experienced developer to build or install Ghostscript, but some experience
is needed.

News.htm

A brief description of the latest release or pre-release of
Ghostscript, and a list of any incompatible changes in it. Changes in older
releases are described in the history files «»,
which are usually installed in the documentation directory. Run
«» to see where that is.

Ps-style.htm

The guidelines and style for postscript coding in Ghostscript. Some
of Ghostscript is implemented in the postscript language itself, and
various utilities and examples are distributed with it. You should
follow these guidelines if you’re extending or modifying those files.
For developers.

Ps2epsi.htm

Detailed information on how to use Ghostscript through
to convert PostScript to Adobe
Encapsulated PostScript Interchange (EPSI) format.

VectorDevices.htm

Detailed information on how to use Ghostscript, GhostPCL and GhostXPS to convert PostScript, PDF, XPS, PCL or PXL input to Adobe
Portable Document Format (PDF), Adobe PostScript Level 2, Adobe Encapsulated PostScript Level 2, Open XML (XPS) or PCL-XL.

Psfiles.htm

A description of the PostScript files (other than font files)
distributed with Ghostscript, including initialization routines, utility
programs, and sample printable files.

thirdparty.htm

Contains a table of «third party libraries» (that is, code from outwith the
Ghostscript/GhostPDL project) that we import to our project and supply in our
releases. Including the purpose they serve, the version we QA and ship, the
license under which the code distributed and the URL for the «upstream»
project.

COPYING

The GNU Affero General Public License, which states the conditions for using
and redistributing GPL Ghostscript.

Readme.htm

This document.

Release.htm

A description of how to prepare and test a Ghostscript release. Of
interest only to developers who want to create new Ghostscript versions for
distribution.

Source.htm

A guide to the Ghostscript source code, for development and debugging.

Unix-lpr.htm

How to set up Ghostscript as a Unix
filter.

Use.htm

Detailed instructions on how to use Ghostscript, including such
matters as designating an output device; choosing a default paper size;
how Ghostscript finds files, including font files; how it uses environment
variables; notes on specific platforms, including the X Window System; and
command-line options.

The Ghostscript library

This document describes the Ghostscript library, a set of procedures
to implement the graphics and filtering capabilities that are primitive
operations in the PostScript language and in Adobe Portable Document Format
(PDF).

Ghostscript is actually two programs: a language interpreter, and a
graphics library. The library provides, in the form of C procedures, all
the graphics functions of the language, that is, approximately those
facilities listed in section 8.1 of the PostScript
Language Reference Manual, starting with the
graphics state operators. In addition, the library provides some
lower-level graphics facilities that offer higher performance in exchange
for less generality.

What is GhostPDF?

GhostPDF is an interpreter built on top of Ghostscript that handles PDF files.
Currently GhostPDF relies on extensions to the PostScript language/imaging model,
and so cannot be used independently of the Ghostscript PostScript interpreter
component. As such GhostPDF is an umbrella term used to refer to both these
extensions and the interpreter code.

Many people (including the authors) frequently just refer to Ghostscript
as supporting PDF and only specifically mention GhostPDF when wanting to make
the distinction between the PostScript and PDF support.

GhostPDF is included in the Ghostscript binaries for various systems available
from www.ghostscript.com/download.
The source can be found in both the Ghostscript and GhostPDL downloads from
the same site.

What is GhostPDF?

GhostPDF is an interpreter built on top of Ghostscript that handles PDF files.
Currently GhostPDF relies on extensions to the PostScript language/imaging model,
and so cannot be used independently of the Ghostscript PostScript interpreter
component. As such GhostPDF is an umbrella term used to refer to both these
extensions and the interpreter code.

Many people (including the authors) frequently just refer to Ghostscript
as supporting PDF and only specifically mention GhostPDF when wanting to make
the distinction between the PostScript and PDF support.

GhostPDF is included in the Ghostscript binaries for various systems available
from www.ghostscript.com/download.
The source can be found in both the Ghostscript and GhostPDL downloads from
the same site.

Фронтенды

Несколько графических интерфейсов пользователя были написаны для использования с Ghostscript, которые разрешают пользователю рассматривать PostScript или файл PDF на экране, свитке, страница вперед и назад, и изменять масштаб изображения текста, а также печатать единственные или многократные страницы.

• Проявите под Unix и Windows. Пользуется libspectre библиотекой, чтобы отдать постскриптум, которому в свою очередь нужен libgs от ghostscript. Текущий пакет Windows Проявляет, идет с libgs версией 8.
• Ghostview работает под Unix/X11.
• GSview бежит под Microsoft Windows, OS/2 и подобными Unix операционными системами. Это является самым известным в своем Windows и версиях OS/2. На UNIX это использует GTK + набор инструментов. Хотя выпущено под Аладдином Бесплатная Общественная Лицензия, это также использует экран ворчания, чтобы убедить пользователей зарегистрироваться, чтобы поддержать развитие GSview. Вступительный взнос составляет 40 A$. GSview защищен авторским правом к различной компании, чем ghostscript, а именно, программное обеспечение Ghostgum. Государства документации Ghostscript, относительно ее установки в соответствии с Windows: «После установки Ghostscript сильно рекомендуется, чтобы Вы установили предварительного зрителя GSview, который обеспечивает более легкое, чтобы использовать графический интерфейс для Ghostscript».
• пробеги GV под Unix/X11. gv — визуально улучшенная версия Ghostview. Его поведение подобно Ghostview.
• KGhostView работает под Unix/X11. Это — порт KDE3 Ghostview.
• mgv бежит под Unix/X11. Это — базируемый фронтенд Мотива к Ghostscript. Это показывает более обычный пользовательский интерфейс, с регулярными меню, панелью инструментов и scrollbars.
• Самогонщик — графический фронтенд для использования Ghostscript, чтобы преобразовать от PostScript до PDF, стремясь быть работой подобно Linux для Производителя алкогольной продукции Adobe.
• Okular работает под Unix/X11 и Microsoft Windows (использующий KDE4 для Windows). Это — применение KDE4.
• Блендер PDF — кросс-платформенное применение, которое преобразовывает и сливает документы и от PostScript и Форматов PDF.
• PS_View бежит в соответствии с Windows, Linux и Mac OS X; это включено в TeX, Живой как неплатеж зритель PostScript на Windows.
• Студия Ghostscript работает в соответствии с Windows. Это — графический фронтенд для использования Ghostscript, чтобы преобразовать между различными форматами, рассмотреть PDF и многостраничные файлы PostScript.

Много заявлений используют Ghostscript, чтобы импортировать или показать файлы PDF (например, IrfanView, Inkscape). Кроме того, большое количество виртуальных принтеров использует Ghostscript, чтобы создать файлы PDF; для неисчерпывающего списка см. Список виртуального программного обеспечения принтера.

What is GhostPDF?

GhostPDF is an interpreter built on top of Ghostscript that handles PDF files.
Currently GhostPDF relies on extensions to the PostScript language/imaging model,
and so cannot be used independently of the Ghostscript PostScript interpreter
component. As such GhostPDF is an umbrella term used to refer to both these
extensions and the interpreter code.

Many people (including the authors) frequently just refer to Ghostscript
as supporting PDF and only specifically mention GhostPDF when wanting to make
the distinction between the PostScript and PDF support.

GhostPDF is included in the Ghostscript binaries for various systems available
from www.ghostscript.com/download.
The source can be found in both the Ghostscript and GhostPDL downloads from
the same site.

What if I’m a developer?

If you are going to do any development on or with Ghostscript at all, you
should at least look at

the roadmap documentation for Ghostscript’s
source files and architecture

If you are going to write a new driver for Ghostscript, you should read

• the guide to the Ghostscript source code
• the interface between Ghostscript and device
  drivers

If you are considering distributing GPL Ghostscript in conjunction
with a commercial product, you should read the
license carefully, and you should also read

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 dynamic link library
(DLL) under OS/2 or Microsoft Windows or in the form of shared object
under Linux, read

documentation on Ghostscript Interpreter API

If you want to use Ghostscript as part of another program—as a callable
PostScript language interpreter—and not as a DLL or as a self-contained
executable application, you should begin by reading

the source file imain.h, the documented
API for Ghostscript not as a DLL

or if you are going to use only the Ghostscript graphics library,

about the structure of the Ghostscript library
and its interfaces

What is GhostPDL?

GhostPDL (Ghost Page Description Languages) is an umbrella term for all
the above technologies. As all the above interpreters are built upon a
single graphics library, there are size and portability benefits to using
two of more of the languages in a given project. A product that
includes more than one such language in a single binary and automatically
chooses between them is sometimes referred to as a «Language Switch» build.

GhostPDL is available both under the GNU Affero GPL license
and for commercial licensing
from Artifex.

The source code for GhostPDL can be found on
www.ghostscript.com/download.

PostScript is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Inc.

PCL is a registered trademark of Hewlett-Packard Company.

Copyright 2000-2020 Artifex Software, Inc. All rights reserved.

This software is provided AS-IS with no warranty, either express or
implied.

This software is distributed under license and may not be copied, modified
or distributed except as expressly authorized under the terms of that
license. Refer to licensing information at https://www.artifex.com
or contact Artifex Software, Inc., 1305 Grant Avenue — Suite 200,
Novato, CA 94945, U.S.A., +1(415)492-9861, for further information.

Ghostscript version 9.52, 19 March 2020

Introduction

This document describes the process for making new Ghostscript releases.
Please note
that while the the license allows anyone to prepare and distribute
releases in accordance with its terms and conditions, this document is
really meant only to document the process used by Artifex Software, Inc.
However, the eventual purpose of this document is to describe
Ghostscript release procedures in enough detail that someone who knows
little about Ghostscript but is generally familiar with the platform on
which the procedure is being carried out can execute the procedures
correctly. So if you add or changing anything to/in this document,
be sure to specify all command lines, file names, etc. in explicit
detail.

If you do plan to make your own distribution, please be aware of some items
you will want to change.

• If you make any significant changes, please edit
  to change
  and from «GPL Ghostscript» to something else,
  in order to avoid confusion with Artifex releases.

• In the same file, you may also want to edit
  to add your own copyright notice (although you must not remove any
  notice that is there).

• You will almost certainly want to edit to
  change the revision date, .

• If you want to change the release number, you must change it in all the
  places listed under
  below.

Installing Ghostscript on Unix

Ghostscript uses the common configure, build and install method common
to many modern software packages. In general the following with suffice
to build ghostscript:

You can set the installation directory by adding --prefix=path
to the configure invocation in the first step. The default prefix is /usr/local,
which is to say the gs executable is installed as /usr/local/bin/gs.

./configure --help

For more detailed information on building Ghostscript see
in
the documentation on building Ghostscript, especially regarding information
on using the older
approach. Whatever configuration method you use, execute «» to install the executable and all the required and
ancillary files after the build is complete.

Fonts

The makefile installs all the files except fonts under the directory
defined in the makefile as . Fonts need to be
installed separately. The fonts should be installed in
{prefix}/share/ghostscript/fonts.
(That is, /usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts/ if you used the default
configuration above.)

If you have Adobe Acrobat installed, you can use the Acrobat fonts
in place of the ones distributed with with Ghostscript by adding the
Acrobat fonts directory to
and removing these fonts from
:

Similarly, you can have ghostscript use other fonts on your system by adding
entries to the fontmap or adding the directories to the GS_FONTMAP environment
variable. See the for more
information.
For example, many linux distributions place fonts under /usr/share/fonts.

Additional notes on Linux

For Linux, you may be able to install or upgrade Ghostscript from
precompiled RPM files using:

However, please note that we do not create RPMs for Ghostscript, and we take
no responsibility for RPMs created by others.

Installing Ghostscript on Unix

Ghostscript uses the common configure, build and install method common
to many modern software packages. In general the following with suffice
to build ghostscript:

You can set the installation directory by adding --prefix=path
to the configure invocation in the first step. The default prefix is /usr/local,
which is to say the gs executable is installed as /usr/local/bin/gs.

./configure --help

For more detailed information on building Ghostscript see
in
the documentation on building Ghostscript, especially regarding information
on using the older
approach. Whatever configuration method you use, execute «» to install the executable and all the required and
ancillary files after the build is complete.

Fonts

The makefile installs all the files except fonts under the directory
defined in the makefile as . Fonts need to be
installed separately. The fonts should be installed in
{prefix}/share/ghostscript/fonts.
(That is, /usr/local/share/ghostscript/fonts/ if you used the default
configuration above.)

If you have Adobe Acrobat installed, you can use the Acrobat fonts
in place of the ones distributed with with Ghostscript by adding the
Acrobat fonts directory to
and removing these fonts from
:

Similarly, you can have ghostscript use other fonts on your system by adding
entries to the fontmap or adding the directories to the GS_FONTMAP environment
variable. See the for more
information.
For example, many linux distributions place fonts under /usr/share/fonts.

Additional notes on Linux

For Linux, you may be able to install or upgrade Ghostscript from
precompiled RPM files using:

However, please note that we do not create RPMs for Ghostscript, and we take
no responsibility for RPMs created by others.

Document roadmap by theme

What should I read if I’m a new user?

• how to use Ghostscript. This includes both
  a quickstart introduction to the commandline version and more extensive
  reference material.
• detailed information about specific
  devices that Ghostscript can use for output
• more detailed information about how to use Ghostscript under
  Unix with as a filter
  for printing
• for information about known problems or to report a new one,
  please visit bugs.ghostscript.com
  but remember that free versions of Ghostscript come with with
  NO WARRANTY and NO SUPPORT

GPL and commercial Ghostscript

GPL Ghostscript, Artifex Ghostscript and AFPL Ghostscript are different releases.

additional information about GPL Ghostscript
releases that is not relevant to commercial versions.

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:

• about the fonts distributed with
  Ghostscript, including how to add or replace fonts
• a description of the Ghostscript language,
  and its differences from the documented PostScript language
• about the postscript files distributed with
  Ghostscript (other than fonts)

Before building Ghostscript

If you are going to compile Ghostscript from source, rather than just use an executable
you got from somewhere, you may want to read:

how to build Ghostscript and
install it

Document roadmap by theme

What should I read if I’m a new user?

• how to use Ghostscript. This includes both
  a quickstart introduction to the commandline version and more extensive
  reference material.
• detailed information about specific
  devices that Ghostscript can use for output
• more detailed information about how to use Ghostscript under
  Unix with as a filter
  for printing
• for information about known problems or to report a new one,
  please visit bugs.ghostscript.com
  but remember that free versions of Ghostscript come with with
  NO WARRANTY and NO SUPPORT

GPL and commercial Ghostscript

GPL Ghostscript, Artifex Ghostscript and AFPL Ghostscript are different releases.

additional information about GPL Ghostscript
releases that is not relevant to commercial versions.

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:

• about the fonts distributed with
  Ghostscript, including how to add or replace fonts
• a description of the Ghostscript language,
  and its differences from the documented PostScript language
• about the postscript files distributed with
  Ghostscript (other than fonts)

Before building Ghostscript

If you are going to compile Ghostscript from source, rather than just use an executable
you got from somewhere, you may want to read:

how to build Ghostscript and
install it

Installing Ghostscript on MS Windows

We usually distribute Ghostscript releases for Windows as a binary installer,
for the convenience of most users.

Windows 95, 98, Me

The last version to be available as a binary for Windows 95/98/Me was 8.60. Although
building from source with Visual Studio 2003 should produce a working binary for those
versions.

Windows NT4, 2000, XP, 2003 or Vista (32-bit)

The installer is normally named
,
where ### is the release number (e.g., 871 for Ghostscript 8.71,
910 for Ghostscript 9.10).

Windows XP x64 edition, 2003 or Vista (64-bit)

The x64 installer is normally named

This is for 64-bit Windows operating systems based on the x64 instruction set.
Do not use this on 64-bit processors running 32-bit Windows.

Installing

To install Ghostscript on Windows, you should run the installer executable.

The installer is NSIS-based (see also Release.htm) and
supports a few standard NSIS options: disables the CRC check,
runs the installer or uninstaller silently,
sets the default installation directory (It must be the last parameter
used in the command line and must not contain any quotes, even if the path
contains spaces. Only absolute paths are supported).

General Windows configuration

The installer includes files in these subdirectories:

The actual executable files for the 32-bit Windows install, in the
subdirectory, are:

For the 64-bit Windows install, also in the
subdirectory, they are:

For printer devices, the default output is the default printer.
This can be modified as follows:

If Ghostscript fails to find an environment variable, it looks for a
registry value of the same name under the key

or if that fails, under the key

where #.## is the Ghostscript version number.

Ghostscript will attempt to load the Ghostscript dynamic link
library in the following order:

• In the same directory as the Ghostscript executable.
• If the environment variable is defined,
  Ghostscript tries to load the Ghostscript dynamic link library (DLL)
  with the name given.
• Using the standard Windows library search method: the directory
  from which the application loaded, the current directory, the Windows
  system directory, the Windows directory and the directories listed in
  the PATH environment variable.

The Ghostscript installer will create registry values
for the environment variables
and .

To uninstall Ghostscript, use the Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs and
remove «Ghostscript #.##» and «Ghostscript Fonts». (The entries may be
called «GPL Ghostscript» or «AFPL Ghostscript», rather than just
«Ghostscript», depending on what version of Ghostscript was installed).
Alternatively, an uninstall shortcut is also available in the Start Menu
group.

Ghostscript leading edge is now GPL!

Posted 7 Jun 2006 by raph

I have some great news to report. The leading edge of Ghostscript development is now under GPL license, as is the latest release, Ghostscript 8.54.

By switching to the GPL, we’re reaffirming our commitment to the free software world. One big reason for this decision was to reduce the lead time between bugs being fixed in the development tree and users seeing the fixes, especially those users dependent on Linux distributions.

Moving forward, we’d also like to resolve the effective fork with «ESP Ghostscript,» so that our development tree is suitable directly for use in Linux distributions without a lot of extra patches. It would be very nice if all the GPL patches could be incorporated into the main tree without any license restrictions (which means that we need copyright assignment), but realistically, we’ll still have to implement an apartheid system of some kind, so that a GPL-only subdirectory exists that gets deleted out of our commercial releases.

Basic PostScript Tutorials

PostScript is more often generated programatically than it is written by hand. So, many people using the language only need to have a basic understanding of it, not an in-depth fluency. If you just need to understand what a PostScript file is and how they work, read through one or two of these and you’ll be off to a great start.

• Brief Postscript Tutorial, a short, but helpful, introduction to the language from computer science classes at Carnegie Mellon University.
• How to Do Simple PostScript Commands, a quick introduction to simple drawing commands.
• A Tutorial Introduction to PostScript, a tutorial on using the language, which also includes quite a bit of useful background and history.
• Tom Trebisky of the Multiple Mirror Telescope Observatory has a somewhat irreverent PostScript Tutorial, which will be especially helpful if you like reasonable explanations for PostScript’s weirdnesses. (“One day long ago, the PostScript authors were sitting around smoking crack.”)
• A Short Introduction to PostScript (PDF), one of the better introductory tutorials, with well-labelled examples and clear explanations — great for visual learners and also those with some basic coding experience.
• Math-Centric PostScript Manual, from the Mathematics Department of the University of British Columbia.
• Adobe’s PostScript Language, and Why “Direct” PostScript Makes Sense, an introduction to the language, with a compelling argument for learning to write PostScript directly, rather than generating with graphics editing software.
• PostScript Tutorial, an example-rich introduction from UC San Diego (also available as a PDF).
• Mostly Maths’ Quick PostScript Tutorial, where you can learn to make a Christmas card decorated with fractal snowflakes; and if you like that, check out L-Systems in PostScript, where you can learn to make dragon curves and other beautiful recursive designs.
• PostScript Video Tutorial in Three Parts: 01 Stack, 02 Arithmetic, 03 Graphics.
• Programming in PostScript Video Tutorial, a talk specifically about PostScript as a programming language, and not just a graphical description language.

Installing Ghostscript on Unix

Ghostscript uses the common configure, build and install method common
to many modern software packages. In general the following with suffice
to build ghostscript:

This last command may need to be performed with super user privileges.

You can set the installation directory by adding
to the configure invocation in the first step. The default prefix is ,
which is to say the gs executable is installed as .

A list of similar configuration options is available via

For more detailed information on building Ghostscript see
in
the documentation on building Ghostscript, especially regarding information
on using the older
approach. Whatever configuration method you use, execute «» to install the executable and all the required and
ancillary files after the build is complete.

Fonts

The makefile installs all the files except fonts under the directory
defined in the makefile as . Fonts need to be
installed separately. The fonts should be installed in
.
(That is, if you used the default
configuration above.)

If you have Adobe Acrobat installed, you can use the Acrobat fonts
in place of the ones distributed with with Ghostscript by adding the
Acrobat fonts directory to
and removing these fonts from
:

Similarly, you can have ghostscript use other fonts on your system by adding
entries to the fontmap or adding the directories to the GS_FONTMAP environment
variable. See the for more
information.

For example, many linux distributions place fonts under .

Additional notes on Linux

For Linux, you may be able to install or upgrade Ghostscript from
precompiled RPM files using:

However, please note that we do not create RPMs for Ghostscript, and we take
no responsibility for RPMs created by others.

Presence on the World Wide Web

Ghostscript’s home page

Ghostscript has a home page on the World Wide Web with helpful information
such as the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions):

Adobe PostScript, Encapsulated
PostScript, and PDF reference documentation

Adobe makes a wealth of technical documentation available over the Web,
including the

PostScript Language Reference Manual (Third Edition); the

Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) Format Specification version 3, including

format; the
PDF Reference manuals.
The Acrobat SDK contains

pdfmark and Acrobat Distiller parameters documentation.
Some of these documents
are also available at Adobe’s ftp
site, but not necessarily under the same filenames.

Other material on the WWW

Much other material about Ghostscript is available on the World Wide Web,
both as web pages and as archived Usenet and mailing list discussions. Use
the well-known search engines to find such material.