Ghostscript

Ghostscript
Basic data
Maintainer	Raph Levien, L Peter German
developer	Artifex Software Inc.
Publishing year	August 11, 1988
Current  version	9.52 ( March 19, 2020 )
operating system	Linux, Unix, VMS, Windows, macOS, Mac OS Classic, MSDOS, OS / 2, etc. a.
programming language	C.
category	software
License	Dual license system : AGPL-3 + and commercial (Artifex Ghostscript)
German speaking	No
www.ghostscript.com

Ghostscript is a free interpreter of the PostScript (PS) page description language and the Portable Document Format (PDF). Ghostscript provides a programming interface with functions to display and print PostScript and PDF content .

history

In 1986 L Peter Deutsch began developing Ghostscript for the GNU project . He founded Aladdin Enterprises in order to be able to market Ghostscript commercially. To do this, he used his own dual license system , in which he initially published the current version under the Aladdin Free Public License (AFPL). This restricts the commercial use of the software more than the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL), but allows it to be distributed and used free of charge. Companies that want to distribute Ghostscript with their product and either do not agree to the AGPL license conditions or do not want to deliver an outdated version under this license can purchase a commercial license, Artifex Commercial License . In this license, Ghostscript is used in numerous applications from well-known manufacturers such as B. IBM , HP and Xerox integrated.

This licensing policy became a problem when the Common Unix Printing System (CUPS) published by Easy Software Products (ESP) under the GPL was supposed to become the standard printing system for Unix-like operating systems. CUPS is based on PostScript and uses Ghostscript as the software RIP . ESP therefore initiated ESP Ghostscript, a spin-off from AGPL Ghostscript, in order to be able to distribute a version with current important patches for CUPS under the GPL.

Today the Californian company artofcode LLC holds the copyrights. Commercial licensing is done by Artifex Software Inc. Since 2000 Raph Levien as the successor of Peter German maintainer of the project. AFPL Ghostscript was discontinued with version 8.56 (May 31, 2006), so that since then the latest version has always appeared immediately under a GPL variant. The spin-off ESP Ghostscript was finally abandoned with the license change that took place in 2006: GPL Ghostscript 8.57 and ESP Ghostscript 8.15.4 were merged in GPL Ghostscript 8.60, published on August 1, 2007. With version 9.07 of February 14, 2013 the license was changed from the GPL to the AGPL.

use

The main uses of Ghostscript are:

• As a software RIP for rasterizing PostScript or PDF content
• For converting PostScript and PDF content into other (file) formats. PostScript files are predominantly converted into PDF files or pure raster graphics formats
• For testing and debugging PostScript code

Graphic interfaces

There are numerous programs that have already integrated Ghostscript or provide a graphical user interface (GUI) (such as Ghostview or GSView).

The GPL version of Ghostscript served as the basis for Display Ghostscript , a replica of Display PostScript . They can be used to represent graphical interfaces. The project was discontinued (probably in 2000).

Free fonts

Different types of free fonts are provided for Ghostscript:

• The 35 Postscript standard fonts, made available under GPL and AFPL license in 1996 by the URW Type Foundry Hamburg. It is a set of Type 1 fonts similar to the classic Adobe basic font: Bookman L ( Bookman ), Century Schoolbook L ( New Century Schoolbook ), Chancery L ( Zapf Chancery ), Dingbats ( Zapf Dingbats ), Gothic L ( Avant Garde ), Nimbus Mono L ( Courier ), Nimbus Roman No9 L ( Times ), Nimbus Sans L ( Helvetica ), Palladio L ( Palatino ), Standard Symbols L ( Symbol ).
• The GhostPDL package (included in both Ghostscript and the HP PCL and Microsoft XPS implementations ) contains additional character sets, including the URW Type Foundry versions from Garamond , Optima , ITC Avant Garde , Arial , Antique Olive and Univers, and URW Mauritius ( similar in the style of the Postscript font Marigold, but older) and a modified version of the Albertus , known as code A028. When combined with the basic font, they provide a little more than half of the standard Postscript 3 fonts.
• A supplementary font including Cyrillic , Kana and fonts derived from Thomas Wolff from the free Hershey font with improvements such as accented characters .

literature

• Adobe Systems, Inc. (Ed.): PostScript Language Reference. Addison-Wesley, Boston 1999, ISBN 0-201-37922-8 ( as a free PDF download from Adobe Systems, Inc.).
• Adobe Systems, Inc. (Ed.): PDF Reference: Version 1.4. Addison-Wesley, Boston 2001, ISBN 0-201-75839-3 ( a free PDF download from Adobe Systems, Inc.).
• Thomas Merz, Olaf Drümmer : The PostScript & PDF Bible. dpunkt Verlag, Heidelberg 2002, ISBN 3-935320-01-9 .

Web links

• Community page (English)
• GNU project page (English)
• Ghostscript development in the Savannah Project (English)
• original project page with supplementary software (English)
• Artifex homepage (English)
• Setting up the Ghostscript environment under Windows ( Memento from May 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ghostscript.com .
2. ^ Changes in the Most Recent Release of Ghostscript (English) . (accessed on March 20, 2020).
3. ^ The ghostscript Open Source Project on Open Hub: Languages ​​Page . In: Open Hub . (accessed on July 18, 2018).
4. ^ Ghostscript C coding guidelines: "The first Ghostscript code was written in 1986".
5. ↑ Adobe Systems: Annual Report of September 3, 1999: ( Memento of the original of July 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 104 kB) "HP began to ship a clone version of Adobe PostScript in some printers" (presumably Ghostscript, see customer list below). 
6. ↑ Release note on Ghostscript 8.00: "Ghostscript currently powers inkjet RIPs from Best Color GmbH, Xerox XES (in partnership with Caldera Graphics), MacDermid / ColorSpan, and Mutoh America."
7. ^ Raph Levien: An open letter to the Ghostscript development community
8. ↑ heise : "Ghostscript under the GPL" from June 16, 2006
9. ↑ Release note for Ghostscript 8.60
10. ↑ History of Ghostscript versions 9.xx ( Memento of the original from September 24, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
11. ↑ Last known status of the Display Ghostscript project page ( Memento from December 29, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (last release on June 27, 2000)
12. ↑ Display Ghostscript on the GNUstep side: "The GNUstep project has halted development of Display GhostScript".
13. ↑ Ghostscript SVN - URW fonts ( Memento of the original from September 19, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. as TrueType files, accessed August 17, 2015  
14. ↑ Ghostscript SVN - URW fonts ( Memento of the original from July 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. as Type 1 files, accessed August 17, 2015  
15. ↑ Debian package - gsfonts . Retrieved April 21, 2010.
16. ↑ Fonts and font facilities Supplied with Ghostscript . Retrieved April 21, 2010.
17. ↑ Linux fonts (mostly X11) . August 15, 2009. Retrieved April 21, 2010.
18. ↑ Finally! Good-quality free (GPL) basic-35 PostScript Type 1 fonts. ( Memento from October 23, 2002 in the Internet Archive )
19. ↑ Finally! Good-quality free (GPL) basic-35 PostScript Type 1 fonts. (TXT) Retrieved May 6, 2010.
20. ^ Fonts and TeX . December 19, 2009. Retrieved May 6, 2010.
21. ↑ Five years after: Report on international TEX font projects (PDF) 2007. Retrieved on May 6, 2010.
22. ↑ ghostscript-fonts-std-6.0.tar.gz - GhostScript 6.0 standard fonts - AFPL license (TAR.GZ) December 29, 1999. Accessed August 17, 2015.
23. ↑ gnu-gs-fonts-std-6.0.tar.gz - GhostScript 6.0 standard fonts - GPL license (TAR.GZ) December 29, 1999. Accessed August 17, 2015.