Ghostscript

If you want to get a handle on printing under Unix, you should get to know Ghostscript. As mentioned before, most Unix programs that print generate PostScript output. Ghostscript is a PostScript interpreter that includes these features:

  • Bitmap rendering from PostScript code in several different output formats

  • PostScript file filtering

  • Reading and writing to PDF format

  • Document previewing

To get a feel for how Ghostscript works, run it with a file and no other arguments:

gs file.ps

In addition to getting a preview window showing the first page of the file, you should also see this message back at your terminal window:

>>showpage, press <return> to continue<<

As the prompt suggests, pressing return pages through the file. After reaching the ...

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