Release of GNU Ghostscript 4.03
From: "L. Peter Deutsch"
Subject: Release of GNU Ghostscript 4.03
Date: Fri, 1 May 1998 20:35:36 GMT
Newsgroups: gnu.ghostscript.bug
GNU Ghostscript 4.03 is now available from
ftp://mirror.cs.wisc.edu/pub/mirrors/ghost/gnu/gs403/*.gz
Except for licensing terms (GPL instead of AFPL) and the fact that better
fonts are available now than at the time Aladdin Ghostscript 4.03 was
released, GNU Ghostscript 4.03 is identical to Aladdin Ghostscript 4.03.
GNU Ghostscript 4.03 has the following principal new features relative to
GNU Ghostscript 3.33. This is not a complete list of new features or
changes: consult the current.txt and NEWS files for details.
New switches:
- -dFIXEDMEDIA freezes the initial size of the initial window or page;
attempts to change it with setpagedevice will be treated according
to the Policies entry for PageSize. -g (but not -sPAPERSIZE=)
implies -dFIXEDMEDIA.
- -dFIXEDRESOLUTION freezes the initial resolution; attempts to change
it with setpagedevice will be ignored. -r implies
-dFIXEDRESOLUTION.
- -dLOCALFONTS loads Type 1 fonts into the current VM, for
compatibility with Adobe printers.
- -dNOFONTMAP suppresses loading the Fontmap, for environments that
rely entirely on FONTPATH and/or compiled-in fonts.
- -dNOPROMPT suppresses the end-of-page prompts (but still waits for
the user to type a newline after each page).
- -dSHORTERRORS makes error messages more Adobe-compatible.
- -sFONTMAP=filename specifies the name of the Fontmap file.
- -sSUBSTFONT=fontname substitutes the given font for all unknown fonts,
rather than using an intelligent substitution algorithm.
- -P says look in `.' first for fonts and startup files.
- -P- says *don't* look in `.' first for fonts and startup files.
- -uname un-defines name (cancelling -d or -s).
New scripts and utilities:
- pdf2ps input.pdf output.ps
- Converts PDF to PostScript, similar to Adobe's Acrobat
Exchange.
- ps2pdf input.ps output.pdf
- Converts PostScript to PDF, similar to Adobe's Acrobat
Distiller. (It doesn't do a very good job just yet.)
- pdf2dsc.ps
- Converts PDF to fake DSC-compliant PostScript code.
setpagedevice is (finally) implemented.
AccurateScreens is now implemented.
PostScript Type 42 (embedded TrueType) fonts are fully supported (but the
output quality is not very good, because the current TrueType rasterizer
ignores hints). Real TrueType fonts (.TTF) are also supported if
Ghostscript is compiled with the ttfont feature included (which is the
default on MS Windows platforms).
The driver interface has been expanded so that drivers can capture graphical
"objects" at a high level rather than as rasters. See drivers.txt and
gxdevice.h for details. Note that this interface is experimental and
subject to change.
On Unix systems, if your system has libpng and/or libgz installed, switches
in the Ghostscript makefiles allow you to use the installed libraries
instead of having to compile your own copies.
The MS Windows and OS/2 configurations now include the PDF interpreter.
The PDF interpreter now accepts PDF 1.1 files and some PDF 1.2 files. PDF
to PostScript conversion works properly. The Rotate key in PDF files is
implemented.
The library has a new API that allows feeding strings to the interpreter in
arbitrary chunks. See imain.h for details.
Anti-aliased characters are available under X Windows. Use the x11alpha
device instead of x11. Anti-aliased text and graphics are also available
for PBM output and for display output on MS Windows.
It is now possible to store band lists in RAM instead of on files. See the
definition of cl_impl in lib.mak.
An experimental RasterOp extension is implemented. See language.txt. Note
that this is subject to change.
--
L. Peter Deutsch | Aladdin Enterprises :::: ghost@aladdin.com
203 Santa Margarita Ave. | tel. +1-650-322-0103 (AM only); fax +1-650-322-1734
Menlo Park, CA 94025 | http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/index.html
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