7/29/2019 Ghostscript Black Box Magic

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Ghostscript Black Box Magic

What is Ghostscript?

For those not familiar, Ghostscript ( gs ) , strictly defined, is a so-called PostScript interpreter, and many programs use gs forPostScript conversions and import/export. Ghostscript has become one of the core building blocks of OSS software. It would be hardto imagine modern OSS distributions and software without it.

Likewise, Scribus uses Ghostscript, sometimes taking advantage of the most sophisticated features that are available only in the latestversions. Scribus uses gs for three purposes, the first one being the import of rasterized EPS files and certain DCS files into imageframes . The second feature that requires gs is the Print Preview , and the third one is the Barcode Generator.

If gs is not installed on your systemor Scribus cant find the gs executable, the features mentioned before wont work, and Scribuswill display a warning each time it is being launched:

In case gs has been installed on your computer, but Scribus cant find it, you can add the path to the gs exceutable file in the ScribusPreferences .

We always encourage you to have the latest Ghostscript available for your system.

Installing Ghostscript

Linux/UNIX

As mentioned above, Ghostscript is required by many applications, including the printing subsystem. Thus, its unlikely that it isntinstalled on your system. If, for any reason, gs isnt available on your systemor your systemis being shipped with a version thatstoo old (you should at least use Ghostscript 8.6 with Scribus), you can download a tarball fromthe gs website. Be careful todownload Ghostscript itself, not ghostpdl, whose source code is in the same directory. Then follow the build instructions in the tarballand install it.

WindowsSee the general information about Scribus on Windows for further details.

Mac OS X

There are different ways to install Ghostscript for Mac OS X, but unfortunately, none of themseems to be as easy as most Mac usersare used to:

You can download a ZIP archive with four DMGs of gs for various OS X versions. Please read the related info file to decidewhich version you need.

You can install gs via Fink .The most current releases of Ghostscript are always available via MacPorts .Finally, you can, of course, download the latest source code and compile Ghostscript yourself.

OS/2 and eComStation

See the general information about Scribus on OS/2 and eComStation for further details.

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