GS

Name

gs -- GhostScript (PostScript and PDF language interpreter)

SYNOPSIS

gs -h | --help

gs [ options ] ps-file [ [ options ] ps-file2 ] ...

DESCRIPTION

The gs command invokes Ghostscript, an interpreter of Adobe Systems' PostScript(tm) and Portable Document Format (PDF) languages. gs reads the files named by ps-file in sequence and executes them as Ghostscript programs. After doing this, it reads further input from the standard input stream (normally the keyboard), interpreting each line separately. The interpreter exits gracefully when it encounters the "quit" command (either in a file or from the keyboard), at end-of-file, or at an interrupt signal (such as Control-C at the keyboard).

Some of GhostScript's options are set via command-line options; others are set as processing parameters, each of which consists of a name and a value.

OPTIONS

-h --help 

Show GhostScript's help, as well as lists of the supported input formats, supported devices, and the search path for gs components.

-q 

Suppress normal startup messages, and also set the processing parameter QUIET.

-c 

Begin interpreting arguments as PostScript code. All following arguments are sent to the interpreter up to the next argument beginning with "-" followed by a non-digit, or with "@". This code is interpolated with the file list, so files specified before -c are interpreted beforehand, and files after -c are interpreted afterwards.

-f 

Specifies a PostScript file to run as its argument. This is equivalent to the ps-file arguments, but is useful for terminating PostScript code as passed via -c.

-d -D 

Set a processing parameter. The "name=value" pair follows immediately after the option, as in "-Dfoo=bar". The values here must be integers or the values "true" or "false". The equals sign and value may be omitted; this is assumed to set the name to "true".

-s -S 

Set a processing parameter to a string value. The "name=value" pair follows immediately after the option, as in "-Sfoo=bar".

-u 

Unset a processing parameter. The name to be unset follows immediately after the option, as in "-ufoo".

-o 

Write rendered output to the named file, and also inhibit pauses and the interactive shell. This is equivalent to setting the processing parameters BATCH and NOPAUSE to true, and OutputFile to the parameter after -o.

-r 

Set the device resolution. The resolution is specified as two numbers separated with an "x", as in "300x150", corresponding to the X and Y axis resolutions, respectively. If a single number is given without an "x", it is treated as the value for both resolutions.

This is equivalent to setting DEVICEXRESOLUTION and DEVICEYRESOLUTION in systemdict.

-g 

Set the device size, in pixels. The size is specified as two numbers separated with an "x", as in "640x480", corresponding to the width and height, respectively.

This is equivalent to setting DEVICEWIDTH and DEVICEHEIGHT in systemdict.

RECOGNIZED PROCESSING PARAMETERS

Processing parameters may have arbitrary names; no limits are placed on the settings that may be made. However, certain settings have meaning to the gs interpreter, and drivers may use other settings. Below is a list of recognized settings that the gs interpreter must respect.

BATCH 

If set to true, do not enter an interactive shell after processing all command-line files.

DEVICE 

Contains the name of the device used to render the page, as a string.

The list of available devices can be discovered with the -h parameter, as described above. At least the following devices must be present: cups (CUPS Raster), ijs, pxlmono, pxlcolor, and opvp (OpenPrinting Vector).

DEVICEHEIGHT 

Contains the height, in pixels, of the output device.

The effect of this setting when the current driver is a vector driver is undefined.

DEVICEHEIGHTPOINTS 

Sets the initial page height, in units of 1/72 of an inch.

DEVICEWIDTH 

Contains the width, in pixels, of the output device.

The effect of this setting when the current driver is a vector driver is undefined.

DEVICEWIDTHPOINTS 

Sets the initial page width, in units of 1/72 of an inch.

DEVICEXRESOLUTION 

Contains the resolution, in pixels per inch, of the X dimension (horizontal) of the output device.

DEVICEYRESOLUTION 

Contains the resolution, in pixels per inch, of the Y dimension (vertical) of the output device.

NOPAUSE 

If set to true, disable the prompt and pause normally displayed after rendering a page.

OutputFile 

Contains the path to the file to which gs should write its output, as a string. This parameter may be set to '-', in which case gs's output is sent to standard output.

PAPERSIZE 

Contains the string representation of the paper size. The ISO paper sizes a0-a10 (plus a4small), isob0-isob6, and c0-c6 are recognized, as are jisb0-jisb6 (JIS standard sizes) and the US paper sizes 11x17, ledger, legal, letter, lettersmall, and archA-archE.

QUIET 

If set to true, suppress routine information comments on standard output.

SAFER 

If set to true, disable several unsafe PostScript features: the deletefile and renamefile operators, piped commands, reading or writing to general files, and changing of certain system settings.

STRICT 

If set to true, disable as many extensions to the Adobe PostScript specification as possible.

EXIT STATUS

gs returns 0 on successful execution. Any other return value indicates an error.

AUTHOR

Jeff Licquia (licquia@linux-foundation.org) wrote this man page for the LSB specification.

Portions of this page were taken from the GhostScript documentation. The maintainer and rights holder for GhostScript is Artifex Software, Inc.