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1994-12-22
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Copyright (C) 1989, 1992, 1993 Aladdin Enterprises. All rights reserved.
This file is part of Ghostscript.
Ghostscript is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY. No author or distributor accepts responsibility
to anyone for the consequences of using it or for whether it serves any
particular purpose or works at all, unless he says so in writing. Refer
to the Ghostscript General Public License for full details.
Everyone is granted permission to copy, modify and redistribute
Ghostscript, but only under the conditions described in the Ghostscript
General Public License. A copy of this license is supposed to have been
given to you along with Ghostscript so you can know your rights and
responsibilities. It should be in a file named COPYING. Among other
things, the copyright notice and this notice must be preserved on all
copies.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
*****************************************************
* This file describes version 2.6.1 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.
The primary contact for Ghostscript is:
Aladdin Enterprises
P.O. box 60264
Palo Alto, CA 94306
voice (415)322-0103
fax (415)322-1734
...{uunet,decwrl}!aladdin!ghost
ghost@aladdin.com
L. Peter Deutsch, president of Aladdin Enterprises, was the original
creator, and is the primary developer and maintainer, of Ghostscript.
Aladdin Enterprises owns the copyright in Ghostscript; Ghostscript is
distributed with the GNU General Public License, and is also available for
commercial licensing.
The Ghostscript language interpreter and library are written entirely
in C, with some assembly-language accelerators for MS-DOS platforms.
Currently, Ghostscript is known to run on the following platform
families:
- IBM PC and compatibles with EGA, VGA, SuperVGA, or compatible
graphics under MS-DOS 3.1, 3.3, or 5.0, with or without
Microsoft Windows 3.0 or 3.1;
- IBM PC and compatibles under OS/2 2.0 and 2.1;
- A wide variety of Unix systems using X Windows version 11,
release 3, 4, and 5, including Sun-3, Sun-4, Sun-386i,
Sun SPARCStation 1 and 2; generic 80386 machines running 386/ix,
ISC Unix, and SCO Unix; H-P 9000/300 and 9000/800;
DECStation 2100 and 3100; VAX running Ultrix; Sequent Symmetry;
Convex C1 and C2; Tektronix 4300; SGI Iris Indigo;
- Sun workstations (Sun-3, SPARC, Sun-386i) running SunView;
- VAX, VMS with X11R3/4/5 and gcc. (Ghostscript currently is
not compatible with the DEC C compilers, because they
interpret the ANSI C standard in a way different from all
other known compilers.)
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: text and graphics output
interfere with each other.
Other platforms
---------------
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 on a port to the Apple Macintosh, contact
Martin Fong (mwfong@nisc.sri.com). (Aladdin Enterprises will be
offering a Macintosh port in early 1993.)
- For information on a port to the Acorn Archimedes, contact
David Elworthy (David.Elworthy@cl.cam.ac.uk).
- For information on two different ports to Win-OS/2, contact
Gershon Elber (gershon@gr.cs.utah.edu) and/or Jim Yang
(jyang@daedalus.caltech.edu).
- For information on a port to the Atari ST, contact Tim
Gallivan (timg@landau.ph.utexas.edu).
********
******** Related work
********
There are 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 (rlh2@ukc.ac.uk).
There is a freely available MS Windows screen previewer based on
Ghostscript, called Ghostview for Windows. For information on Ghostview
for Windows, contact Russell Lang (rjl@monu1.cc.monash.edu.au).
A set of patches and additions for 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, contact
Mr. Norio Katayama (katayama@nacsis.ac.jp).
Thomas Wolff (wolff@inf.fu-berlin.de) is working on extending the
Hershey fonts to include international characters.
********
******** Documentation overview ********
********
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.
When you receive Ghostscript, you should start by reading:
> README - this file.
> readme.doc - information about problems and major changes 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.
Especially for new users
------------------------
If you are a new user of Ghostscript, you should read:
> use.doc - information about to install and use Ghostscript. This
information is also contained in gs.1 - a `man' page for Ghostscript.
> devices.doc - more detailed information about 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 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).
Especially for developers
-------------------------
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 in conjunction with a
commercial product, you should read the COPYING license carefully,
and you should also read:
> commprod.doc - additional clarification of the circumstances under
which Ghostscript can be distributed with a commercial product.
Other files
-----------
> 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 release.
> 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.
********
******** Trouble reporting ********
********
Aladdin Enterprises doesn't have the resources to respond to questions
from general users of Ghostscript. If you have problems with Ghostscript,
and you have access to Usenet news, we suggest you post your question to
gnu.ghostscript.bug. There are hundreds of Ghostscript user sites