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<title>ps2pdf: PostScript-to-PDF converter</title>
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<b><tt>ps2pdf</tt></b>: PostScript-to-PDF converter
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<h2>Table of contents</h2>
<blockquote><ul>
<li><a href="#Overview">Overview</a>
<li><a href="#Usage">Usage</a>
<li><a href="#Options">Options</a>
<li><a href="#Limitations">Limitations</a>
<li><a href="#Problems">Known problems</a>
<li><a href="#Ps2pdf_vs_AD">Comparison of <b><tt>ps2pdf</tt></b> and Acrobat Distiller</a>
<li><a href="#Acknowledgments">Acknowledgments</a>
</ul></blockquote>
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<p>For other information, see the <a href="Readme.htm">Ghostscript
overview</a>.
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<h1><a name="Overview"></a>Overview</h1>
<b><tt>ps2pdf</tt></b> is a work-alike for nearly all the functionality (but
not the user interface) of Adobe's Acrobat<small><sup>TM</sup></small>
Distiller<small><sup>TM</sup></small> product: it converts PostScript files
to Portable Document Format (PDF) files.
<p>
<b><tt>ps2pdf</tt></b> is implemented as a very small command script (batch
file) that invokes Ghostscript, selecting a special "output device" called
<b><tt>pdfwrite</tt></b>. In order to use <b><tt>ps2pdf</tt></b>, the
<b><tt>pdfwrite</tt></b> device must be included in the makefile when
Ghostscript was compiled; see the <a
href="Make.htm#Features_and_devices">documentation on building
Ghostscript</a> for details: this is currently the case on all platforms, in
Ghostscript as we distribute it.
<hr>
<h1><a name="Usage"></a>Usage</h1>
<p>
The usage for <b><tt>ps2pdf</tt></b> is
<blockquote><b><tt>
ps2pdf</tt></b> <em>[options] input.[e]ps output.pdf</em>
</blockquote>
<p>
or, on Unix systems and some versions of Windows NT and OS/2
<blockquote><b><tt>
ps2pdf</tt></b> <em>input.[e]ps</em>
</blockquote>
<p>
which is equivalent to
<blockquote><b><tt>
ps2pdf</tt></b> <em>input.[e]ps input.pdf</em>
</blockquote>
<p>
There are actually several different <b><tt>ps2pdf</tt></b><em>*</em> scripts:
the name <b><tt>ps2pdf</tt></b> above refers to any of them.
<ul>
<li><b><tt>ps2pdf12</tt></b> will always produce PDF 1.2 output (Acrobat
3-and-later compatible).
<li><b><tt>ps2pdf13</tt></b> will always produce PDF 1.3 output (Acrobat
4-and-later compatible).
<li><b><tt>ps2pdf14</tt></b> will always produce PDF 1.4 output (Acrobat
5-and-later compatible).
<li><b><tt>ps2pdf</tt></b> per se currently produces PDF 1.2 output (Acrobat
3-and-later compatible). However, this may change in the future. If you
care about the compatibility level of the output, use
<b><tt>ps2pdf12</tt></b>, <b><tt>ps2pdf13</tt></b>, or
<b><tt>ps2pdf14</tt></b>, or use the
<b><tt>-dCompatibilityLevel=</tt></b><em>1.x</em> switch in the command
line.
</ul>
<p>
All of these scripts actually call a script named <b><tt>ps2pdfwr</tt></b>
or <b><tt>ps2pdfxx</tt></b>. The Unix <b><tt>ps2pdfwr</tt></b> script
assumes that the Ghostscript executable is named <b><tt>gs</tt></b>; it is
unlikely that you will need to change this. The DOS and MS Windows
<b><tt>ps2pdfxx.bat</tt></b> script uses the value of the
<b><tt>GSC</tt></b> environment variable, if defined, as the name of the
executable; otherwise the script assumes the executable is named
<b><tt>gswin32c</tt></b>. So in these environments, if the executable has a
different name, you must set <b><tt>GSC</tt></b> to the name of the
executable.
<hr>
<h1><a name="Options"></a>Options</h1>
<p>
The <em>options</em> in the command line may include any switches that may
be used with Ghostscript's PostScript and PDF interpreter (see <a
href="Use.htm#Switches">here</a> for a complete list), although almost none
of them are useful with <b><tt>ps2pdf</tt></b>. The following may be
useful:
<dl>
<dt><b><tt>-r</tt></b><em>resolution</em>
<dd>Sets the resolution for pattern fills and for fonts that must be
converted to bitmaps.
<dt><b><tt>-dProcessColorModel=</tt></b><em>device_color_space</em> <dd>Sets
the color space to be used for device-dependent colors in the
output. <em>device_color_space</em> may be <b><tt>/DeviceGray</tt></b>,
<b><tt>/DeviceRGB</tt></b>, or <b><tt>/DeviceCMYK</tt></b>; the default
value is <b><tt>/DeviceRGB</tt></b>.
</dl>
<p>
More importantly, <em>options</em> may include
<b><tt>-d</tt></b><em>parameter</em>=<em>value</em> or
<b><tt>-s</tt></b><em>parameter</em>=<em>string</em> switches for setting
"distiller parameters", Adobe's documented parameters for controlling the
conversion process. The PostScript <b><tt>setdistillerparams</tt></b> and
<b><tt>currentdistillerparams</tt></b> operators are also recognized when
running <b><tt>ps2pdf</tt></b>, and provide an equivalent way to set these
parameters from within the PostScript input file.
<p>
<b><tt>ps2pdf</tt></b> also recognizes the following switches:
<dl>
<dt><b><tt>-dPDFSETTINGS=</tt></b><em>configuration</em>
<dd>Presets the "distiller parameters" to one of four predefined settings:
<ul>
<li><b><tt>/screen</tt></b> selects low-resolution output similar to the
Acrobat Distiller "Screen Optimized" setting.
<li><b><tt>/printer</tt></b> selects output similar to the Acrobat Distiller
"Print Optimized" setting.
<li><b><tt>/prepress</tt></b> selects output similar to Acrobat Distiller
"Prepress Optimized" setting.
<li><b><tt>/default</tt></b> selects output intended to be useful across a
wide variety of uses, possibly at the expense of a larger output file.
</ul>
</dl>
<p>
<b><tt>ps2pdf</tt></b> recognizes all of the Acrobat Distiller 4 parameters
documented in
<a href="http://partners.adobe.com/asn/developer/acrosdk/DOCS/distparm.pdf">
Adobe Technical Note #5151</a>. The following have their proper effect,
except as noted:
<blockquote><table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0>
<tr valign=bottom>
<th align=left>Parameter name
<td>
<th align=left>Initial value
<td>
<th align=left>Notes
<tr> <td colspan=5><hr>
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>ASCII85EncodePages</tt></b><td><td>false
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>AlwaysEmbed</tt></b><td><td>[]
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>AutoFilterColorImages</tt></b><td><td>true<td><td>1
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>AutoFilterGrayImages</tt></b><td><td>true<td><td>1
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>AutoRotatePages</tt></b><td><td>/None<td><td>
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>ColorACSImageDict</tt></b><td><td><< >>
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>ColorDownsampleThreshold</tt></b><td><td>1.5
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>ColorImageDepth</tt></b><td><td>-1
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>ColorImageDict</tt></b><td><td><< >>
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>ColorImageDownsampleType</tt></b><td><td>/Subsample<td><td>3
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>ColorImageResolution</tt></b><td><td>72
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>CompatibilityLevel</tt></b><td><td>1.3
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>CompressPages</tt></b><td><td>true
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>ConvertCMYKImagesToRGB</tt></b><td><td>true
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>CoreDistVersion</tt></b><td><td>4000
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>DefaultRenderingIntent</tt></b><td><td>/Default
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>DownsampleColorImages</tt></b><td><td>false
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>DownsampleGrayImages</tt></b><td><td>false
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>DownsampleMonoImages</tt></b><td><td>false
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>EmbedAllFonts</tt></b><td><td>true
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>EncodeColorImages</tt></b><td><td>true
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>EncodeGrayImages</tt></b><td><td>true
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>EncodeMonoImages</tt></b><td><td>true
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>GrayACSImageDict</tt></b><td><td><< >>
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>GrayDownsampleThreshold</tt></b><td><td>1.5
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>GrayImageDepth</tt></b><td><td>-1
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>GrayImageDict</tt></b><td><td><< >>
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>GrayImageDownsampleType</tt></b><td><td>/Subsample<td><td>3
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>GrayImageResolution</tt></b><td><td>72
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>LockDistillerParams</tt></b><td><td>false
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>LZWEncodePages</tt></b><td><td>false<td><td>2
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>MaxSubsetPct</tt></b><td><td>35
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>MonoDownsampleThreshold</tt></b><td><td>1.5
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>MonoImageDepth</tt></b><td><td>-1
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>MonoImageDict</tt></b><td><td><< >>
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>MonoImageDownsampleType</tt></b><td><td>/Subsample
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>MonoImageFilter</tt></b><td><td>/CCITTFaxEncode
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>MonoImageResolution</tt></b><td><td>300
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>NeverEmbed</tt></b><td><td>[]
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>OPM</tt></b><td><td>0
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>PreserveHalftoneInfo</tt></b><td><td>false
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>PreserveOverprintSettings</tt></b><td><td>false
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>TransferFunctionInfo</tt></b><td><td>/Apply<td><td>4
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>SubsetFonts</tt></b><td><td>true
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>UCRandBGInfo</tt></b><td><td>/Remove
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>UseFlateCompression</tt></b><td><td>true
</table></blockquote>
<p>
(note 1) <b><tt>AutoFilterxxxImages</tt></b> doesn't examine the image to
decide between JPEG and LZW or Flate compression: it uses JPEG compression
if the image has 8 bits per component and does not use an Indexed color
space, and LZW or Flate compression otherwise.
<p>
(note 2) Because of Unisys's threats regarding the Welch patent,
<b><tt>ps2pdf</tt></b> cannot actually use LZW compression: instead, it
treats all requests for LZW compression as calling for Flate compression if
<b><tt>UseFlateCompression</tt></b> is true and
<b><tt>CompatibilityLevel</tt></b> >= 1.2, and ignores them otherwise.
<p>
(note 3) The <b><tt>xxxDownsampleType</tt></b> parameters can also have the
value /Bicubic (a Distiller 4 feature), which is currently treated as
equivalent to /Average.
<p>
(note 4) Currently, the transfer function is always applied. If the
corresponding parameter is set to <b><tt>/Preserve</tt></b>, the function
setting is also copied into the PDF file.
<p>
The following are defined and can be set and queried, but do not have any
effect:
<blockquote><table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0>
<tr valign=bottom>
<th align=left>Parameter name
<td>
<th align=left>Initial value
<td>
<th align=left>Notes
<tr> <td colspan=5><hr>
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>AntiAliasColorImages</tt></b><td><td>false
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>AntiAliasGrayImages</tt></b><td><td>false
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>AntiAliasMonoImages</tt></b><td><td>false
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>Binding</tt></b><td><td>/Left
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>CalCMYKProfile</tt></b><td><td>()
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>CalGrayProfile</tt></b><td><td>()
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>CalRGBProfile</tt></b><td><td>()
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>CannotEmbedFontPolicy</tt></b><td><td>/OK
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>ColorConversionStrategy</tt></b><td><td>/LeaveColorUnchanged
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>ConvertImagesToIndexed</tt></b><td><td>false
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>DetectBlends</tt></b><td><td>true
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>DoThumbnails</tt></b><td><td>false
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>EndPage</tt></b><td><td>-1
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>ImageMemory</tt></b><td><td>500000
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>Optimize</tt></b><td><td>false<td><td>5
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>PreserveOPIComments</tt></b><td><td>false
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>sRGBProfile</tt></b><td><td>()
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>StartPage</tt></b><td><td>1
</table></blockquote>
<p>
(note 5) Optimization (linearization) is implemented with a separate
program, <b><tt>pdfopt</tt></b> <em>input.pdf</em> <em>output.pdf</em>.
<p>
(note 6) Currently, colors for images and shadings are left in the color
space specified in the PostScript input, except for
<b><tt>ConvertCMYKImagesToRGB</tt></b>; the current color in the graphics
state (used for fill, stroke, text, and imagemask) is always converted to
the color space specified by the current value of
<b><tt>ProcessColorModel</tt></b>. The intended behavior is the same as for
Acrobat Distiller, except that if <b><tt>ColorConversionStrategy</tt></b> is
set to <b><tt>/UseDeviceDependentColor</tt></b>, colors are converted to the
color space specified by <b><tt>ProcessColorModel</tt></b> rather than
always to <b><tt>/DeviceRGB</tt></b>.
<p>
The following "job control" parameters are recognized, but have no effect:
<blockquote><table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0>
<tr valign=bottom>
<th align=left>Parameter name
<td>
<th align=left>Initial value
<tr> <td colspan=5><hr>
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>AutoPositionEPSFiles</tt></b><td><td>false
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>CreateJobTicket</tt></b><td><td>false
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>EmitDSCWarnings</tt></b><td><td>false
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>ParseDSCComments</tt></b><td><td>false
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>ParseDSCCommentsForDocInfo</tt></b><td><td>false
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>PreserveCopyPage</tt></b><td><td>false
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>PreserveEPSInfo</tt></b><td><td>false
<tr valign=top><td><b><tt>UsePrologue</tt></b><td><td>false
</table></blockquote>
<hr>
<h1><a name="Limitations"></a>Limitations</h1>
<p>
<b><tt>ps2pdf</tt></b> will sometimes convert text to high-resolution
bitmapped fonts rather than to embedded outline fonts. Currently, this will
always occur when the PostScript file uses CID-keyed or double-byte fonts,
when the input file uses <b><tt>kshow</tt></b>, or in some cases if it uses
fonts with non-standard encodings; it may occur in other cases as well.
<p>
The PDF output always represents the colors of text and graphics in
DeviceGray or DeviceRGB color space (or DeviceCMYK if the
<b><tt>ProcessColorModel</tt></b> parameter has been set to
<b><tt>/DeviceCMYK</tt></b>); all other color spaces are converted to these.
However, for images, it will retain the original color space for DeviceGray,
DeviceRGB, DeviceCMYK, certain CIEBased spaces, and Indexed spaces based on
these.
<p>
<b><tt>ps2pdf</tt></b> will sometimes convert PostScript constructs to
lower-level ones, even if a higher-level construct is available. For
example, if the PostScript file uses <b><tt>charpath</tt></b> to set a
clipping path consisting of text, <b><tt>ps2pdf</tt></b> will write the
clipping path as a path in the PDF file, rather than as text, even though
PDF is able to express clipping with text. This is only a performance
issue, and will be improved incrementally over time.
<p>
<b><tt>ps2pdf</tt></b> ignores the PDF 1.3 (Acrobat 4.x) pdfmarks related to
document content structure: <b><tt>StRoleMap</tt></b>,
<b><tt>StClassMap</tt></b>, <b><tt>StPNE</tt></b>,
<b><tt>StBookmarkRoot</tt></b>, <b><tt>StPush</tt></b>,
<b><tt>StPop</tt></b>, <b><tt>StPopAll</tt></b>, <b><tt>StBMC</tt></b>,
<b><tt>StBDC</tt></b>, <b><tt>EMC</tt></b>, <b><tt>StOBJ</tt></b>,
<b><tt>StAttr</tt></b>, <b><tt>StStore</tt></b>, <b><tt>StRetrieve</tt></b>,
<b><tt>NamespacePush</tt></b>, <b><tt>NamespacePop</tt></b>, and
<b><tt>NI</tt></b>. While this causes some structural information to be
omitted from the output file, the displayed and printed output are normally
not affected.
<p>
<b><tt>ps2pdf</tt></b> currently has only very limited support for PDF 1.4.
It writes out the blend mode, constant alpha, and text knockout graphics
state parameters, and it handles images with soft masks, but it does not
handle transparency groups, or soft masks in the graphics state. (Note that
there is no standard way to specify any of these things in PostScript, so
these statements only apply when the input file is already a PDF 1.4 file.)
<hr>
<h1><a name="Problems"></a>Known problems</h1>
<p>
Distiller parameters should only be saved by <b><tt>save</tt></b> and
restored by <b><tt>restore</tt></b>, but they are also saved by
<b><tt>gsave</tt></b> and restored by <b><tt>grestore</tt></b>.
<p>
Changing the value of the <b><tt>CompressPages</tt></b> parameter after any
marks have been made on the page may cause a crash.
<p>
If you select the <b><tt>pdfwrite</tt></b> driver from the command line
(<b><tt>-sDEVICE=pdfwrite</tt></b>), rather than using one of the
<b><tt>ps2pdf</tt></b> scripts, the output may contain embedded fonts that
are lacking some required information and that Acrobat Reader will not
accept.
<p>
If the input file downloads Type 1 fonts incrementally, the output file may
contain embedded fonts with some information missing from the
FontDescriptor, which may crash Acrobat Reader 4 or produce incorrect
character spacing.
<hr>
<h1><a name="Ps2pdf_vs_AD"></a>Comparison of <b><tt>ps2pdf</tt></b> and
Acrobat Distiller</h1>
<p>
According to users, the greatest benefit of <b><tt>ps2pdf</tt></b> is that
it is more robust than Acrobat Distiller: it will process complex and
difficult PostScript files that Acrobat Distiller is not able to handle.
<p>
For certain documents, <b><tt>ps2pdf</tt></b> is much faster than Adobe
Distiller, and may be suitable for run-time conversions. George White,
a heavy user of <b><tt>ps2pdf</tt></b>, remarks:
<blockquote>
I haven't seen a head to head comparison, but Distiller seems
slower when running on what should be a faster system (for instance,
Distiller on a PPC Mac vs a 25 MHz 68040 NeXT running
<b><tt>ps2pdf</tt></b>), so I think this is fair -- also, one of Mark
Doyle's postings indicated that Distiller was not fast enough for use as a
run-time server. In contrast, I find that I can use <b><tt>ps2pdf</tt></b>
as a post-processor during routine document creation.
</blockquote>
<p>
On the other hand, there are some documents for which <b><tt>ps2pdf</tt></b>
may be much slower than Acrobat Distiller. Caveat user.
<p>
<b><tt>ps2pdf</tt></b> usually produces output that is comparable in size to
the output of Acrobat Distiller; however, it sometimes produces much larger
output, especially if the input file involves pattern fills.
<p>
Many users report that the combination of <b><tt>ps2pdf</tt></b> with
Acrobat is superior to using a generic PostScript viewer
(<b><tt>psview</tt></b> or <b><tt>ghostview</tt></b>), particularly for
documents with many pages where the navigational support in PDF files
reduces the overhead involved in navigating conventional PostScript
documents.
<hr>
<h1><a name="Acknowledgments"></a>Acknowledgments</h1>
<p>
Thanks to George N. White III <<a href="mailto:aa056@chebucto.ns.ca">aa056@chebucto.ns.ca</a>> of the Ocean
Sciences Division of the Bedford Institute of Oceanography in Dartmouth,
Nova Scotia for extensive testing of early versions of
<b><tt>ps2pdf</tt></b>, and for contributing most of this writeup.
<p>
Thanks to Martin Hosken of SIL International <<a
href="http://www.sil.org">http://www.sil.org</a>> for help with testing
<b><tt>ps2pdf</tt></b> with a wide variety of international fonts.
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<p>Copyright © 1996, 2000 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
</font>
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