Last-modified: 1995/09/29 Version: 0.56 -- Ghostscript -- Answers to questions (the gnu.ghostscript.bug FAQ 0.56) Russell Lang rjl@aladdin.com (previously maintained by Christoph Strozyk, chris@ins.de) This FAQ is formatted as a digest. Most news readers can skip from one question to the next by pressing control-G. Changes since the last version are marked with a '|' in the table of contents and in the sections in the text-only format of the FAQ. This is a collection of common questions posted to the gnu.ghostscript.bug newsgroup. This latest version of this FAQ should be available from the Ghostscript WWW page http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/index.html and also from ftp://ftp.cs.wisc.edu/ghost/gsfaq.txt Please send corrections or submissions to "rjl@aladdin.com". Mark the Subject as Ghostscript FAQ. Table of Contents 1 General Questions 1.1 What is Ghostscript? |1.2 What is the current version of Ghostscript? 1.3 What is the difference between Aladdin Ghostscript and GNU Ghostscript? 1.4 Where can I get Ghostscript? 1.5 Where can I get patches for Ghostscript? 1.6 Which USENET newsgroups are relevant to Ghostscript? 1.7 Why do my fonts look ugly at larger point sizes? 1.8 How do I display a particular page? 1.9 ZapfDingbats gives "/invalidfont in -dicttype-" with gs 2.6.1. 1.10 Without FTP access to the Internet. How can I get Ghostscript? 1.11 Why won't Aladdin Ghostscript read piped PDF files? |1.12 How do you display PDF files with Ghostview? 2 Platform specific Questions 2.1 HPUX 2.2 DEC ALPHA AXP 2.3 UnixWare 1.0 2.4 SCO Unix (ODT3.0) 2.5 X Windows 2.5.1 Why do I get a "Malformed color property" message under X Windows? 2.5.2 Why do I get "Can't allocate backing pixmap" messages? 2.5.3 Why do I get white or black rectangles where characters should appear? 2.6 DOS 2.6.1 Borland C, on my DOS system using GS.EXE, why do I get a 'limitcheck in setdevice' or 'VMerror in setdevice' error message? 2.6.2 Watcom C 9.0x, I can't compile gs, wmake has a memory problem. Is the makefile too big? 2.7 MS Windows 2.7.1 MS Windows GSview cannot execute GSWIN. 3 Device specific Questions 3.1 Why isn't GIF supported in Ghostscript? 3.2 The spacing of characters / words / margins on the display is wrong, what can I do? 3.3 On my H-P LaserJet, why do I only get a partial page of output, or a single page gets split across two sheets? ~Subject: 1 General Questions ~Subject: 1.1 What is Ghostscript Ghostscript is a software package that interprets Adobe's PostScript (TM) language, including a few additional features. For further information read the file language.doc from the current Ghostscript distribution. For informations on PostScript read the comp.lang.postscript FAQ. It is available by anonymous ftp to ftp://wilma.cs.brown.edu/pub/comp.lang.postscript/FAQ.txt in ASCII, and there are also LaTeX, DVI, and PostScript formats. ~|Subject: 1.2 What is the current version of Ghostscript? There are two versions of Ghostscript currently available. The current Aladdin Ghostscript version is 3.51. The current GNU Ghostscript version is 2.6.2. ~Subject: 1.3 What is the difference between Aladdin Ghostscript and GNU Ghostscript. Aladdin Ghostscript is 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. GNU Ghostscript is 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). ~Subject: 1.4 Where can I get Ghostscript? You can get GNU Ghostscript from ftp.cs.wisc.edu (128.105.2.15) from the directory ghost/gnu or from prep.ai.mit.edu. Please try first one of the usual mirrors (for example: germany.eu.net). The URL is ftp://ftp.cs.wisc.edu/ghost/gnu You can get Aladdin Ghostscript from ftp://ftp.cs.wisc.edu/ghost/aladdin ~Subject: 1.5 Where can I get patches for Ghostscript ? If there are patches, you can get them from ftp.cs.wisc.edu (128.105.2.15) from the directory ghost or from prep.ai.mit.edu. For the previous GNU Ghostscript release 2.6.1, there are four patches. ~Subject: 1.6 Which USENET newsgroups are relevant to Ghostscript? Discussion about Aladdin Ghostscript and GSview can be found in the USENET newsgroup comp.lang.postscript Discussion about GNU Ghostscript and Ghostview can be found in the USENET newsgroup gnu.ghostscript.bug ~Subject: 1.7 Why do my fonts look ugly at larger point sizes? Many fonts you get with Ghostscript look ugly (jagged text), when you use them at larger sizes. Fonts downloaded as part of the postscript file look fine. This is because the fonts comming with Ghostscript are overworked bitmapped fonts. The solutions is to get high quality fonts, for example the Adobe Type Manager fonts. Also third-party Type 1 fonts from Bitstream, URW, Soft Horizons and many other suppliers work. Please read your corresponding font licences. If anybody knows a clearly legitimate source for free fonts, send e-mail to ghost@aladdin.com ~Subject: 1.8 How do I display a particular page? You need a previewer based on Ghostscript. These are described in the Ghostscript README. Some previewers are: Ghostview 1.5 (X11): ftp://ftp.cs.wisc.edu/ghost/gnu/ghostview-1.5.tar.gz GSview for Windows and PM GSview (OS/2) 1.3. ftp://ftp.cs.wisc.edu/ghost/rjl/gsview13.zip ~Subject: 1.9 ZapfDingbats gives "/invalidfont in -dicttype-" with gs 2.6.1. The file gs_dbt_e.ps was not copied to the library directory, due to an error in the ghostscript installation procedure. Copy this file manually to the library directory. (I.e. where the rest of the *.ps files for ghostscript are.) ~Subject: 1.10 Without FTP access to the Internet. How can I get Ghostscript? GNU Ghostscript is included in the GNU distribution from the Free Software Foundation; e-mail to gnu@prep.ai.mit.edu for information on ordering their tapes, floppies, or CD-ROMs. Ghostscript is generally included in less-commercial Unix systems such as Linux and BSDI, and also appears on some freeware CD-ROMs. Some commercial services like Compuserve and Genie, and many privately run bulletin board systems (BBSs), make Ghostscript available for downloading, but their copies are likely to be incomplete or obsolete. If you just want Aladdin Ghostscript and nothing else, and especially if you want it for a MS-DOS or MS Windows environment or if it is important to you that you get the most recent version, you can order it on PC-compatible diskettes directly from its developers: Aladdin Enterprises P.O. box 60264 Palo Alto, CA 94306 U.S.A. fax +1-415-322-1734 e-mail ghost@aladdin.com The current price (including shipping, etc.) is U.S. $58, payable by check or money order (no credit cards); add $30 for express mail. Customers outside the U.S. may need to pay an additional bank handling charge; please contact Aladdin Enterprises for details. ~Subject: 1.11 Why won't Aladdin Ghostscript read piped PDF files? Portable Document Format is a file format which contains forward and backward links. It is not a stream format like PostScript. You cannot pipe PDF files to the stdin of Ghostscript. Instead you must either give the PDF filename on the command line, or use it as the argument of the Ghostscript run command. ~Subject: 1.12 How do you display PDF files with Ghostview? Since Ghostview pipes PostScript files to Ghostscript, you cannot start Ghostview as ghostview file.pdf Instead there are two options: 1. Tanmoy Bhattacharya has written some patches for Ghostview 1.5 that allow it to read and display PDF files. These are available from: ftp://gita.lanl.gov/people/tanmoy/hypertex/gv1.5gs3.33hack.tar.gz 2. Start Ghostview as follows: ghostview -arguments file.pdf quit.ps This will allow you to display a PDF file, but you won't be able to jump to particular pages. Use Tanmoy's code if you want that facility. ~Subject: 2 Platform specific Questions ~Subject: 2.1 HPUX On HP 9000/700 (and other), the HP C-compiler has a bug that is fatal for gs. You must have the latest C compiler patch to compile gs. The patch is PHSS_3015, which results in the following 'what /bin/cc': /bin/cc: HP92453-01 A.09.34 HP C Compiler Further you need the patches PHSS_2199 and PHSS_3537. ~Subject: 2.2 DEC ALPHA AX When you run Ghostscript on AXP (Alpha) machines, text does not appear properly (or does not appear at all) on the screen. Versions of Ghostscript through 2.6.1 have a number of bugs that prevent them from working properly on 64-bit architectures. Versions starting with 3.0 will work properly on 64-bit machines. ~Subject: 2.3 UnixWare 1.0 There is a chance that you can not link gs, because your enviroment is not big enough. You can change the enviroment size with a kernel variable: ARG_MAX. Change this with /etc/conf/idtune and rebuild the kernel. For further reference read the manpages. ~Subject: 2.4 SCO Unix (ODT3.0) There is a chance that you can not link gs, because your enviroment is not big enough. You can change the enviroment size with a parameter in the file /usr/include/sys/param.h and a kernel rebuilt. Tom Kelly about building gs 2.6.1 for SCO ODT 3.0: I have patches for the makefile that allow it to be built without modifying the kernel. The modified makefile can be obtained from ftp://ftp.sco.com/Skunk/src/Tools/gs261/unix-ansi.mak ~Subject: 2.5 X Windows ~Subject: 2.5.1 Why do I get a "Malformed color property" message under X Windows? This is a Ghostscript bug that was fixed by a patch released separately from Ghostscript 2.6.1. See section 1.4 for information about patches. This bug is fixed in GNU Ghostscript 2.6.2. ~Subject: 2.5.2 Why do I get "Can't allocate backing pixmap" messages? Some servers do not implement backing pixmaps properly, or do not have enough memory for them. If you get strange behavior or "out of memory" messages, try setting the useBackingPixmap resource to false. ~Subject: 2.5.3 Why do I get white or black rectangles where characters should appear? Some servers do not implement bitmap/pixmap displaying properly. This may show up as white or black rectangles where characters should appear, or characters may appear in "inverse video" (e.g., white on a black rectangle). If this happens, try setting the useXPutImage resource to false. ~Subject: 2.6 DOS ~Subject: 2.6.1 On my DOS system using GS.EXE (Borland compiler), why do I get a 'limitcheck in setdevice' or 'VMerror in setdevice' error message? On DOS systems using the Borland compiler, if Ghostscript gives you a 'limitcheck in setdevice' error, it may mean Ghostscript's standard buffer size wasn't large enough. Likewise, if Ghostscript gives you a 'VMerror in setdevice' error, it means the buffer size was too large. You can use the -dBufferSpace= switch to set the buffer size to a different value, e.g., -dBufferSpace=50000 The default value is 25000; the smallest value Ghostscript accepts is 10000; the largest valid value is 65000. ~Subject: 2.6.2 Watcom C 9.0x, I can't compile gs, wmake has a memory size problem. Is the makefile too big? wmake.exe is a normal DOS application with a 64K limit. You should ask Watcom for an enhanced mode version, or update to a newer Watcom C version, this problem is fixed there. ~Subject: 2.7 MS Windows ~Subject: 2.7.1 MS Windows GSview cannot execute GSWIN. The most common problem is that you have not set up your ghostscript command line correctly in the "Options | Ghostscript Command" menu item. The GSWIN command should look like: D:\GS\GSWIN -ID:\GS;D:\GS\GSFONTS assuming you installed GSWIN in D:\GS, and your fonts in D:\GS\GSFONTS. ~Subject: 3 Device specific Questions ~Subject: 3.1 Why isn't GIF supported in Ghostscript? L. Peter Deutsch of Aladdin Enterprises writes: Because of actions by CompuServe and Unisys related to a patent that claims to cover the data compression method used in GIF, anyone who distributes any new GIF software (even readers, but definitely software that creates GIF files) after January 1, 1995 may be subject to legal action if they do not get a license from Unisys, and/or unpredictable payment requirements if they do get such a license. I cannot run the risk of having this happen. If you wish to run this risk, you may extract the GIF software (gdevgif.c and a small part of devs.mak) from Aladdin Ghostscript 3.12, which was originally released in 1994. In the next Aladdin Ghostscript release (probably to be numbered 3.40), I am considering including a version of the GIF-generating software that avoids the use of the algorithms allegedly covered by the Welch patent. However, this software would generate uncompressed GIF files that are many times larger than the ones generated by the former version. ~Subject: 3.2 The spacing of characters / words / margins on the display is wrong, what can I do? This is almost always caused by differences between the character widths that were used to format the document and the character widths of the fonts installed in your system. (This only affects the display, and only with window systems, not with DOS.) If this happens, invoke Ghostscript with the -dNOPLATFONTS switch, or (on X Windows) set Ghostscript*useExternalFonts: false in your X resource file. For more information about fonts on the display, please read the first sections of fonts.doc. ~Subject: 3.3 On my H-P LaserJet, why do I only get a partial page of output, or a single page gets split across two sheets? Printing on a Hewlett-Packard LaserJet at full resolution (300 DPI) requires a printer with at least 1.5 Mb of memory. 150 DPI printing requires only .5 Mb. You can select 150 DPI printing with the command line switch -r150 (This is not necessary on DeskJet printers.) Trademarks PostScript (TM) Adobe If you are interested in volunteering to maintain the Ghostscript FAQ, please contact ghost@aladdin.com.