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GS(1)									 GS(1)

NAME
       gs - Aladdin Ghostscript (PostScript and PDF language interpreter)

SYNOPSIS
       gs [ options ] [ files ] ...

DESCRIPTION
       Ghostscript  is	a programming language similar to Adobe Systems' Post‐
       Script and PDF languages, which are in turn similar to Forth.  Gs reads
       files  in  sequence  and	 executes them as Ghostscript programs.	 After
       doing this, it reads further input from the  standard  input.   If  the
       file  -	is  named, however, it represents the standard input, which is
       read in order and not after the files on the command line.   Each  line
       is  interpreted	separately.  The `quit' command, or end-of-file, exits
       the interpreter.

       The interpreter recognizes several switches described below, which  may
       appear anywhere in the command line and apply to all files thereafter.

       The  -h	or  -?	 options give help and list the available devices; the
       default is plan9, which produces compressed image  files	 suitable  for
       viewing	with  page(1)  (but note that page(1) will invoke gs automati‐
       cally; see its manual).

       Ghostscript may be built with  multiple	output	devices.   Ghostscript
       normally	 opens	the first one and directs output to it.	 To use device
       xyz as the initial output device, include the switch
	    -sDEVICE=xyz
       in the command line.  This switch must  precede	the  first  PostScript
       file  and only its first invocation has any effect.  Output devices can
       also be selected by the word selectdevice in the input language, or  by
       setting	the  environment  variable GS_DEVICE.  The order of precedence
       for these alternatives, highest to lowest, is:
	    selectdevice
	    (command line)
	    GS_DEVICE
	    plan9

       Normally, output goes directly to a scratch file.  To send  the	output
       to a series of files foo1.xyz, foo2.xyz, etc., use the switch
	    -sOutputFile=foo%d.xyz
       The  %d	may be any printf (see fprintf(2)) format specification.  Each
       file will receive one page of output.  If the file name begins  with  a
       pipe  character,	 the output will be sent as standard input to the fol‐
       lowing pipeline.	 For example,
	    -sOutputFile=|lp
       Specifying the file - will send the files to standard output; this also
       requires enabling the -q option.

   Initialization files
       When  looking for the initialization files (gs_*.ps), the files related
       to fonts, or the file for the run operator, Ghostscript first looks for
       the  file  (if it doesn't start with a slash) in the current directory,
       then in these directories in the following order:

       1.     Any directories specified by -I switches	in  the	 command  line
	      (see below);

       2.     Any directories specified by the GS_LIB environment variable;

       3.     The directories /sys/lib/ghostscript, /sys/lib/ghostscript/font,
	      and /sys/lib/postscript/font.

       The GS_LIB or -I parameters may be a single directory or a  colon-sepa‐
       rated list.

   Options
       -- filename arg1 ...
	      Take  the	 next  argument	 as a file name as usual, but take all
	      remaining arguments (even if they have  the  syntactic  form  of
	      switches) and define the name ARGUMENTS in userdict (not system‐
	      dict) as an array of those strings,  before  running  the	 file.
	      When  Ghostscript	 finishes executing the file, it exits back to
	      the shell.

       -Dname=token
       -dname=token
	      Define a name in systemdict  with	 the  given  definition.   The
	      token must be exactly one token (as defined by the `token' oper‐
	      ator) and must not contain any white space.

       -Dname
       -dname Define a name in systemdict with value=null.

       -Sname=string
       -sname=string
	      Define a name in systemdict with a given string as value.	  This
	      is  different  from -d.  For example, -dname=35 is equivalent to
	      the program fragment
		   /name 35 def
	      whereas -sname=35 is equivalent to
		   /name (35) def

       -q     Quiet startup: suppress normal startup messages, and also do the
	      equivalent of -dQUIET.

       -gnumber1xnumber2
	      Equivalent  to -dDEVICEWIDTH=number1 and -dDEVICEHEIGHT=number2.
	      This is for the benefit of devices, such as windows, that	 allow
	      width and height to be specified.

       -rnumber
       -rnumber1xnumber2
	      Equivalent    to	 -dDEVICEXRESOLUTION=number1   and   -dDEVICE‐
	      YRESOLUTION= number2.  This is for the benefit of devices,  such
	      as printers, that support multiple X and Y resolutions.  If only
	      one number is given, it is used for both X and Y resolutions.

       -Idirectories
	      Adds the designated list of  directories	at  the	 head  of  the
	      search path for library files.

       Note that gs_init.ps makes systemdict read-only, so the values of names
       defined with -D/d/S/s cannot be changed (although, of course, they  can
       be superseded by definitions in userdict or other dictionaries.)

   Special names
       -dBATCH
	      Exit after the last file has been processed.  This is equivalent
	      to listing quit.ps at the end of the list of files.

       -dDISKFONTS
	      Causes individual character outlines to be loaded from the  disk
	      the  first  time	they  are  encountered.	 (Normally Ghostscript
	      loads all the character outlines when it loads  a	 font.)	  This
	      may  allow loading more fonts into RAM, at the expense of slower
	      rendering.

       -dNOCACHE
	      Disables character caching.  Only useful for debugging.

       -dNOBIND
	      Disables the `bind' operator.  Only useful for debugging.

       -dNODISPLAY
	      Suppresses the normal initialization of the output device.  This
	      may be useful when debugging.

       -dNOPAUSE
	      Disables the prompt and pause at the end of each page.  This may
	      be  desirable  for  applications	where  another	program	 (e.g.
	      page(1)) is `driving' Ghostscript.

       -dSAFER
	      Disables	the deletefile and renamefile operators, and the abil‐
	      ity to open files in any mode other than read-only.  This may be
	      desirable	 for  spoolers or other sensitive environments.	 Files
	      in the /fd directory may still be opened for writing.

       -dWRITESYSTEMDICT
	      Leaves systemdict writable.  This is necessary when running spe‐
	      cial  utility  programs  such as font2c and pcharstr, which must
	      bypass normal PostScript access protection.

       -sDEVICE=device
	      Selects an alternate initial output device, as described above.

       -sOutputFile=filename
	      Selects an alternate output file (or pipe) for the initial  out‐
	      put device, as described above.

FILES
       /sys/lib/ghostscript/*
	      Startup-files, utilities, examples, and basic font definitions.

       /sys/lib/ghostscript/fonts/*
	      Additional font definitions.

SOURCE
       /sys/src/cmd/gs

SEE ALSO
       page(1), ps2pdf(1)
       The  Ghostscript	 document  files  in doc and man subdirectories of the
       source directory.

BUGS
       The treatment of standard input is non-standard.

									 GS(1)
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