- published: 07 Feb 2009
- views: 93612
Ghostscript is a suite of software based on an interpreter for Adobe Systems' PostScript and Portable Document Format (PDF) page description languages. Its main purposes are the rasterization of such page description language files, for the display or printing of document pages, and the conversion between PostScript and PDF files.
Ghostscript can be used as a raster image processor (RIP) for raster computer printers—for instance, as an input filter of line printer daemon—or as the RIP engine behind PostScript and PDF viewers.
Ghostscript can also be used as a file format converter, such as PostScript to PDF converter; this is often combined with a PostScript printer driver in "virtual printer" PDF creators. It also supports PDF/A and PDF/X-3.
As it takes the form of a language interpreter, Ghostscript can also be used as a general purpose programming environment.
Ghostscript has been ported to many operating systems, including Unix, Linux, Mac OS, OpenVMS, Microsoft Windows, Plan 9, MS-DOS, FreeDOS, OS/2, Atari TOS and AmigaOS.