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<title>Information specifically about the current release</title>
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Information specifically about Ghostscript 6.0
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<h2>Table of contents</h2>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li><a href="#New_features">New features (since release 5.50)</a>
<li><a href="#Changes">Changes (since release 5.50)</a>
<li><a href="#Known_problems">Known problems</a>
<ul>
<li><a href="#Usage">Usage</a>
<li><a href="#Limitations">Limitations</a>
<li><a href="#Graphics_bugs">Graphics bugs</a>
<li><a href="#Non_graphics_bugs">Non-graphics bugs</a>
</ul>
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<p>For other information, see the <a href="Readme.htm">Ghostscript
overview</a>.
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<h1><a name="New_features"></a>New features (since release 5.50)</h1>
<p>
(This is not a complete list of new features: see <a href="News.htm">the
news</a> for details.)
<p>
Ghostscript now handles essentially all of PostScript LanguageLevel 3 and
PDF 1.3 (Acrobat 4.x compatibility). See <a
href="Language.htm"><b>Language.htm</b></a> for details.
<p>
The PDF writer now implements most of the Acrobat (TM) Distiller parameters
for compressing and downsampling images.
<p>
The PDF writer now recognizes nearly all varieties of pdfmark, other than
the Distiller 3.0 "named object" pdfmarks and the Distiller 4.0 "document
structure" pdfmarks.
<p>
The PDF writer now handles text in all fonts, not just the 14 built-in ones,
and implements the Distiller parameters affecting font embedding and
subsetting. (It still usually converts double-byte fonts to bitmaps.)
<p>
16- and 24-bit X Windows displays are now fully supported.
<p>
You now need only the header files and shared libraries, not the source
code, if you want to use precompiled versions of the jpeg, libpng, or zlib
libraries.
<p>
The syntax
<b><tt>%</tt></b><em>iodevice</em><b><tt>%</tt></b><em>filename</em> is now
supported with the <b><tt>-sOutputFile=</tt></b> switch, allowing you to
send raster output to a piped command.
<p>
You can now use MMK or MMS to build Ghostscript on OpenVMS systems.
<p>
For driver writers, there are improved facilities for planar output,
rasterizing directly into a driver-provided buffer, detecting bands that are
all white or that only use a subset of the colorants, and providing CRDs
from the driver.
<p>
The driver API now includes facilities for passing high-level text
operations, completing the set of high-level operations (bitmap images and
vector graphics were implemented in 5.50). See <a href="Drivers.htm">the
documentation</a> for details.
<p>
Ghostscript as a dynamically linked library is now supported on the Mac as
well as on Windows.
<p>
GNU readline was supported in most of the beta distributions for 6.0, but
was removed at the last minute because of objections from the Free Software
Foundation. Please see <a href="Make.htm#GNU_readline">here</a> for more
information.
<h1><a name="Changes"></a>Changes (since release 5.50)</h1>
<h2>Directories and build procedure</h2>
<p>
The files in the release now have a more complex directory structure. In
the table below, <em>top</em> refers to the top-level directory,
<b><tt>gs</tt></b><em>n.nn</em>.
<p>
The <em>top</em><b><tt>/</tt></b> is where you create a link to the
appropriate makefile in <em>top</em><b><tt>/src/</tt></b>. On all systems
other than MS Windows, the build procedure does not write into this
directory.
<p>
The files included in the Ghostscript release now are found in five
subdirectories.
<ul>
<li><em>top</em><b><tt>/src/</tt></b> contains the C/C++ source code, the
makefiles, and all other files needed to build the program. The build
procedure reads from this directory but does not write into it. Nothing in
this directory is needed at run time.
<li><p><em>top</em><b><tt>/lib/</tt></b> contains PostScript and script
files needed at run time. The build procedure reads from this directory but
does not write into it. The contents of this directory are needed at run
time and are copied by the Unix <b><tt>make install</tt></b> command.
<li><em>top</em><b><tt>/doc/</tt></b> contains documentation. Copied by
<b><tt>make install</tt></b>.
<li><em>top</em><b><tt>/man/</tt></b> contains Unix <b><tt>man</tt></b>
pages. Copied by <b><tt>make install</tt></b>.
<li><em>top</em><b><tt>/examples/</tt></b> contains sample PostScript and
PDF files. Copied by <b><tt>make install</tt></b>.
</ul>
<p>
The build procedure creates two additional subdirectories,
<em>top</em><b><tt>/obj/</tt></b> (or <b><tt>debugobj</tt></b> or
<b><tt>pgobj</tt></b>) and <em>top</em><b><tt>/bin/</tt></b>. See the
documentation on <a href="Make.htm">how to build Ghostscript</a> for more
information.
<h2>Other changes</h2>
<p>
If you are a developer working with the Ghostscript code in any way other
than writing or modifying drivers, please read all of the "Incompatible
changes" sections of the <a href="News.htm">release news</a> for important
information.
<h1><a name="Known_problems"></a>Known problems</h1>
<p>
See the <a href="News.htm">release news</a> for details.
<h2><a name="Usage"></a>Usage</h2>
<p>
On a DOS system, interrupting the interpreter by typing control-C doesn't
restore the display mode.
<h2><a name="Limitations"></a>Limitations</h2>
<p>
<b><tt>serialnumber</tt></b> returns the same value in all copies.
<p>
Some floating point exceptions terminate the interpreter, rather than
producing a <b><tt>limitcheck</tt></b> error.
<p>
The <b><tt>DCTEncode</tt></b> filter disregards the <b><tt>Blend</tt></b>
parameter, and uses different <b><tt>QuantTables</tt></b> and
<b><tt>HuffTables</tt></b> from Adobe's.
<p>
The DCT filters do not support nonintegral sample ratios. Also,
<b><tt>DCTEncode</tt></b> will not create files with Sum(HS×VS)>10
(regardless of the value of the <b><tt>Relax</tt></b> parameter) because
they violate the JPEG standard; but <b><tt>DCTDecode</tt></b> will read
such files.
<p>
The size of the execution stack cannot be changed dynamically. (However,
the sizes of the operand and dictionary stacks can be changed.)
<p>
<b><tt>Separation</tt></b> and <b><tt>DeviceN</tt></b> color spaces are
implemented, but devices that actually produce color separations are not
supported: these color spaces always use the alternate space. The special
color separations <b><tt>All</tt></b> and <b><tt>None</tt></b>, and the
primary separations (<b><tt>Red</tt></b>, <b><tt>Green</tt></b>, etc.), are
not supported.
<p>
<b><tt>execform</tt></b> and <b><tt>ucache</tt></b> are implemented, but
they do not actually do any caching; <b><tt>setucacheparams</tt></b> and
<b><tt>ucachestatus</tt></b> are dummies. (This only impacts performance,
not functionality.)
<p>
The <b><tt>image</tt></b> operator honors the <b><tt>Interpolate</tt></b>
flag in the image dictionary only for ImageType 1 and 3 images, only if the
combined transformation (<b><tt>ImageMatrix</tt></b> + CTM) doesn't involve
rotation, skewing, or X-reflection, and only for certain scalings and color
spaces; <b><tt>imagemask</tt></b> doesn't honor <b><tt>Interpolate</tt></b>
at all.
<p>
Some path-building operations that would generate a device coordinate
larger than +/-2^<small><sup>19</sup></small> will cause a
limitcheck. However, the common ones (<b><tt>[r]moveto</tt></b>,
<b><tt>[r]lineto</tt></b>, <b><tt>[r]curveto</tt></b>, <b><tt>closepath</tt></b>) will not.
<h2><a name="Graphics_bugs"></a>Graphics bugs</h2>
<p>
There are no known graphics bugs in this release.
<h2><a name="Non_graphics_bugs"></a>Non-graphics bugs</h2>
<p>
The <b><tt>definefont</tt></b> operator (Subrs (type 1 fonts)) expects
arrays but won't accept packed arrays.
<p>
Syntax errors occurring within a binary token do not produce the error
message specified by the Adobe documentation.
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<p>Copyright © 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 Aladdin Enterprises. All rights reserved.
<p>This file is part of AFPL Ghostscript. See the
<a href="Public.htm">Aladdin Free Public License</a> (the "License") for
full details of the terms of using, copying, modifying, and redistributing
AFPL Ghostscript.
<p>
Ghostscript version 6.50, 2 December 2000
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