Menlo Park, California, U.S.A. All rights reserved.
Full ghostscript documentation is in !Ghostscr.6_01.doc, take a look at Readme/htm. All the documentation is in HTML format.
Some example files are in !Ghostscr.6_01.examples
Some Risc OS specific notes:
Double clicking on the !Ghostscr application opens up the docs directory within the application - take a look at Readme/htm for an overview of Ghostscript and pointers to the rest of the documentation. There are no RiscOS specific notes in msin documentation.
INSTALLATION
------------
Problems are most commonly encountered with this port of Ghostscript when it has not been installed correctly. The application must be installed in a filing system supporting more 77 files per directory and long filenames. raFS and XFiles have both been used succesfully with Ghostscript.
Correct installation results in one application, called !Ghostscr, containing 6 files (!Boot, !Run, !Help, !Sprites, gs and ghost) and 3 directories (5_50, fonts and bin).
i.e. !Ghostscr-.
|- !Boot
|- !Run
|- !Help
|- !Sprites
|- gs
|- ghost
|
|- 6_01
|- fonts
`- bin
Do not empty the contents of '5_50' or 'fonts' into the main application directory.
Another problem can be memory, gs seems to need at least 2Mb and preferably more. In all the aliases defined in this application the wimpslot is set to roughly 2Mb (2000K).
The application makes a very basic check to see if the installation is correct. This check might be fooled if you have deliberately changed the configuration - sorry, though the check is quite easy to disable (in !GhostScr.!Boot).
RECONFIGURATION
----------------
The support and font files may be put in different directories - so that Ghostscript will find the files you must set the system variable - GS_LIB - to a comma separated list of paths to the directories holding the files (just like a normal RiscOS path variable - with a dot as the last part of each path). This also allows the installation check to work with mutiple directories.
OUTPUT DIRECTORIES
------------------
By default, if no output file is specified, Ghostscript will put it's output in <Wimp$ScrapDir>, the file will not have the correct filetype. If you set <GhostscriptScrap$Dir> (or <TEMP>, in order to keep with the variables specified in the documentation) then this directory will be used instead, the filename will still be an automatically chosen temporary name and not have the correct filetype. If an output filename is specified and one of the helper aliases is used (i.e. ps2bmp) the file will be given the correct filetype, if one exists.
Ghostscript supports output of individual pages to separate files.
When specifying the output file use %d as part of the filename. The occurrence of %d will be replaced by the current page number.
PRE-DEFINED CONVERSIONS
----------------------
The main ghostscript application is simply called 'gs'. Type 'gs -h' in a task window to get a list of a few of the options available and a full list of the supported devices.
Aliases are pre-defined for converting to RISC OS Sprite files, PDF, PS, BMP, JPEG, PBM, PCX, PNG, SGI and TIFF formats. All these aliases use 'gs' with appropriate options.
To use one of these conversions type into a taskwindow, or at the command prompt:
ps2<format> <input file> <output file>
optionally followed by extra ghostscript options, for example '-r<res>' to set a specific resolution or '-sPapersize=<new size>' to set a specific paper size.
The input file may be a PDF document as well as a Postscript file.
Other pre-defined conversions include:
pdf2dsc - make an index of a PDF file
pdf2ps - convert a PDF file to Postscript
ps2ascii - extract ASCII text from a PostScript file
ps2ps - convert a Postscript file to Postscript, using appropriate flags
should allow conversion between Level 1 and Level 2 etc.
If you want to try anthing else, take a look at the 'Use/htm' file in the docs directory.
OUTPUT DIRECT TO A PRINTER
--------------------------
In the docs directory the file called 'Devices/htm' has good coverage of the options available for specific printers (as well as one or two of the image output formats).
A specific driver is chosen with the -sDevice=<Enter device name here> switch, e.g. -sDevice=cdj500
Extra parameters are generally given with the -d switch, e.g. -dBitsPerPixel=24
Using 'parallel:' as the output path should send the output data directly to the parallel port, avoiding the need to use a potentially huge intermediate file.
ANYTHING ELSE
-------------
The 'IfThere' command is used in this application. This is in the !Boot application on my RiscPC. I hope everybody using Ghostscript has a copy! If not then I will modify the various parts of the application accordingly.
The main distribution site for this RISC OS port of ghostscript is http://www.acornusers.org/ghostscript.
For changes to Ghostscript see !Ghostscr.6_01.doc.Current/htm
Changes to the RISC OS port, between 5.50 and 6.01 include:
Addition of the RISC OS Sprite output device.
Tidying of RISC OS specific code ready for inclusion into main GS source.
This RISC OS port was made by Graham Jones - Graham.Jones@sharp.co.uk
