Macintosh Port of Ghostscript

Jeff Schindall, working with Aladdin Enterprises, has updated the port of Ghostscript to the Macintosh.

This port is based on the latest Aladdin Ghostsctript 5.50 release and the Mac GS Viewer 1.0 port by Glypic Technologies and is available now!

NOTE: There are several serious (and so far unresolved) bugs in this release of MacGS.:

On G3/G4 systems MacGS will crash when the MacGS console is moved.
Solution: Never move the console window; or permanently hide the console using the MacGS preferences/settings dialog.

The rendering window may be garbled if your monitor is set higher than 256 Colors.

These bugs will be resolved prior to the next release!

What is Ghostscript

Briefly, Ghostscript is the name of a set of software that provides an interpreter for the PostScript (TM) language (level 2), and a set of C procedures (the Ghostscript library) that implement the graphics capabilities that appear as primitive operations in the PostScript language.

It has been ported to a wide variety of platforms and is distributed in a number of forms. For more information see:

Ghostscript

The Macintosh Port

This is a new Macintosh port of Ghostscript, based on version 5.50. The program offers the ability to preview PostScript files in windows, and save windows as PICT files, all with a Macintosh style interface. It also offers the traditional Ghostscript command line interface. The application can be built with any of the large number of Ghostscript printer and file format devices for rendering.

It is distributed under the Aladdin Ghostscript Free Public License. Both source and compiled versions are available. The compiled versions are for either PowerPC or 68020 or better (no FPU needed) and include some additional devices (tiff, pbm/pgm/ppm, pcx, stcolor and cdj550)

Getting it: MacGS-550 can be gotten via FTP from ftp.cs.wisc.edu in the directory /pub/ghost/aladdin/mac.; The rest of Ghostscript can be found at the same site in the directory /pub/ghost.
Discussion: MacGS-550 is part of the Ghostscript system which is discussed on the Internet news group: comp.lang.postscript. Please direct all discussion of the port there.
Other Reading: Viewing PostScript on a Macintosh by Charles A. Poynton.; The MacGS-550 Manual on-line.; A note about Rendering.; The Ghostscript Web.
Contacts: Aladdin Enterprises can be reached at: ghost@aladdin.com.; Jeff Schindall can be reached at: mac-gs@aladdin.com.

NOTE: There are several serious (and so far unresolved) bugs in this release of MacGS.:

On G3/G4 systems MacGS will crash when the MacGS console is moved.
Solution: Never move the console window; or permanently hide the console using the MacGS preferences/settings dialog.

The rendering window may be garbled if your monitor is set higher than 256 Colors

These bugs will be resolved prior to the next release!