Copyright (C) 1989, 1995, 1996 Aladdin Enterprises. All rights reserved. This file is part of GNU Ghostscript. GNU Ghostscript is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY. No author or distributor accepts responsibility to anyone for the consequences of using it or for whether it serves any particular purpose or works at all, unless he says so in writing. Refer to the GNU General Public License for full details. Everyone is granted permission to copy, modify and redistribute GNU Ghostscript, but only under the conditions described in the GNU General Public License. A copy of this license is supposed to have been given to you along with GNU Ghostscript so you can know your rights and responsibilities. It should be in a file named COPYING. Among other things, the copyright notice and this notice must be preserved on all copies. Aladdin Enterprises is not affiliated with the Free Software Foundation or the GNU Project. GNU Ghostscript, as distributed by Aladdin Enterprises, does not depend on any other GNU software. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - This file, language.txt, describes the relationship between the Ghostscript interpreter and the PostScript language. For an overview of Ghostscript and a list of the documentation files, see README. The Ghostscript interpreter, except as noted below, is intended to execute properly any source program written in the (Level 2) PostScript language as defined in the December 1990 printing of the PostScript Language Reference Manual (Second Edition) published by Addison-Wesley (ISBN 0-201-18127-4). However, the interpreter is configurable in ways that can restrict it to various subsets of this language. Specifically, the base interpreter accepts the Level 1 subset of the PostScript language, as defined in the first edition of the PostScript Language Reference Manual, ISBN 0-201-10174-2, Addison-Wesley, 1985, plus the file system, version 25.0 language, and miscellaneous additions listed in sections A.1.6, A.1.7, and A.1.8 of the Second Edition respectively, including allowing a string operand for the 'status' operator. The base interpreter may be configured by adding any combination of the following: - The ability to process PostScript Type 1 fonts. This facility is normally included in the interpreter. - The CMYK color extensions listed in section A.1.4 of the Second Edition (including colorimage). These facilities are only available if the color, dps, or level2 feature was selected at the time that Ghostscript was compiled and linked. - The Display PostScript extensions listed in section A.1.3 of the Second Edition, but excluding the operators listed in section A.1.2. These facilities are only available if the dps feature or the level2 feature was selected at the time that Ghostscript was compiled and linked. - The composite font extensions listed in section A.1.5 of the Second Edition, and the ability to handle Type 0 fonts. These facilities are only available if the compfont feature or the level2 feature was selected at the time that Ghostscript was compiled and linked. - The ability to load TrueType fonts and to handle PostScript Type 42 (encapsulated TrueType) fonts. These facilities are only available if the ttfont feature was selected at the time that Ghostscript was compiled and linked. - The PostScript Level 2 "filter" facilities aside from DCTEncode and DCTDecode filters. These facilities are only available if the filter, dps, or level2 feature was selected at the time that Ghostscript was compiled and linked. - The PostScript Level 2 DCTEncode and DCTDecode filters. These facilities are only available if the dct or level2 feature was selected at the time that Ghostscript was compiled and linked. - All the other PostScript Level 2 operators and facilities listed in section A.1.1 of the Second Edition and not listed in any of the other A.1.n sections. These facilities are only available if the level2 feature was selected at the time that Ghostscript was compiled and linked. Adding all of these produces a full Level 2 PostScript language interpreter. Ghostscript also includes the optional ability to interpret files in the PDF 1.1 format defined in the June 1993 printing of the Portable Document Format Reference manual published by Addison-Wesley (ISBN 0-201-62628-4) as amended by Adobe Technical Note #5156, except for the encryption features. This facility is only available if the 'pdf' feature was selected at the time that Ghostscript was compiled and linked. Ghostscript also includes a number of operators defined below that are not in the PostScript language. Implementation limits ===================== The following implementation limits correspond to those in Table B.1 and B.2 of the Second Edition. Those marked with * are different from the ones in the Second Edition. Architectural limits -------------------- integer 32-bit two's complement integer real single-precision IEEE float *array On 16-bit systems: 8191 elements On 32-bit systems: 65535 elements *dictionary On 16-bit systems: 8190 elements On 32-bit systems: 65534 elements *string 65535 characters *name 16383 characters filename 100 characters *save level none (capacity of memory) *gsave level none (capacity of memory) Typical memory limits in Level 1 -------------------------------- userdict 200 FontDirectory 100 *operand stack 800 dictionary stack 20 execution stack 250 *interpreter level none (capacity of memory) *path none (capacity of memory) dash 11 *VM capacity of memory *file determined by operating system *image 65535 values (samples x components) for 1, 2, 4, or 8-bit samples; 32767 values for 12-bit samples Other differences in VM consumption ----------------------------------- Packed array elements occupy either 2 bytes or 8 bytes. The average element size is probably about 5 bytes. Names occupy 12 bytes plus the space for the string. Ghostscript-specific additions ============================== Miscellaneous ------------- ^D and ^Z are self-delimiting tokens, like [ and ]. They are initially defined as empty procedures so that they will be ignored in the input stream. run can take either a string or a file as its argument. In the latter case, it just runs the file, closing it at the end, and trapping errors just as for the string case. Mathematical operators ---------------------- arccos Computes the arc cosine of a number between -1 and 1. arcsin Computes the arc sine of a number between -1 and 1. String operators ---------------- .type1encrypt Encrypts fromString according to the algorithm for Adobe Type 1 fonts, writing the result into toString. toString must be at least as long as fromString or a rangecheck error occurs. state is the initial state of the encryption algorithm (a 16-bit non-negative integer); newState is the new state of the algorithm. .type1decrypt Decrypts fromString according to the algorithm for Adobe Type 1 fonts, writing the result into toString. Other specifications are as for type1encrypt. Relational operators -------------------- max Returns the larger of two numbers or strings. min Returns the smaller of two numbers or strings. File operators -------------- findlibfile true findlibfile false Opens the file of the given name for reading, searching through directories as described in use.txt. If the search fails, findlibfile simply pushes false on the stack and returns, rather than causing an error. unread - Pushes back the last-read character onto the front of the file. If the file is only open for writing, or if the integer argument is not the same as the last character read from the file, causes an ioerror error. May also cause an ioerror if the last operation on the file was not a reading operation. writeppmfile - Writes the contents of the device, which must be an image device, onto the file, in Portable PixMap (ppm) format. Does not close the file. Ghostscript also supports the following IODevice in addition to a subset of those defined in the Adobe documentation: %pipe%command, which opens a pipe on the given command. This is only supported on operating systems that provide popen (primarily Unix systems, and not all of those). Path operators -------------- .rectappend - .rectappend - .rectappend - Appends a rectangle or rectangles to the current path, in the same manner as rectfill, rectclip, etc. Only defined if the dps option is selected. Painting operators ------------------ Ghostscript supports an experimental extension of the PostScript imaging model to include RasterOp and some related facilities. This extension is only available if the rasterop option was selected when building Ghostscript. With the RasterOp extension, imaging operations compute a function D = f(D,S,T) in RGB space, where f is an arbitrary 3-input Boolean function, D is the destination (frame buffer or print buffer), S is the source (described below), and T is the texture (the current PostScript color, which may be a pattern). The source and texture depend on the PostScript imaging operation: - For fill and stroke, the source is solid black, covering the region to be painted; the texture is the current PostScript color. - For show and imagemask, the source is solid black, covering the pixels to be painted; the texture is the current PostScript color. - For image and colorimage, the source is the image data; the texture depends on an optional Boolean parameter, CombineWithColor, in the image dictionary. If CombineWithColor is false (the default), the texture is solid black. If CombineWithColor is true, the texture is the current color. For the non-dictionary form of the image operator, CombineWithColor is considered to be false. The rasterop option adds the following operators: .setrasterop - Sets the RasterOp function in the graphics state. The default function is 252, Source | Texture. - .currentrasterop Returns the current RasterOp function. .setsourcetransparent - Sets source transparency in the graphics state. When source transparency is true, white source pixels prevent storing into the destination, regardless of what the RasterOp function returns. The default source transparency is false. - .currentsourcetransparent - Returns the current source transparency. .settexturetransparent - Sets texture transparency in the graphics state. When texture transparency is true, white texture pixels prevent storing into the destination, regardless of what the RasterOp function returns. The default texture transparency is false. - .currenttexturetransparent - Returns the current texture transparency. For more information on RasterOp and transparency, please consult chapter 5 of the "PCL 5 Color Technical Reference Manual", Hewlett-Packard Manual Part No. 5961-0635. Filters ------- Ghostscript supports all the standard PostScript Level 2 filters, except that it does not currently support the EarlyChange key in the LZWEncode filter. Ghostscript also supports the as yet undocumented FlateEncode and FlateDecode filters from PDF 1.2 and (presumably) PostScript Level 3, except for the Effort key in FlateEncode. In addition, Ghostscript supports the following non-standard filters: /BCPEncode filter /BCPDecode filter Create filters that implement the Adobe Binary Communications Protocol. See Adobe documentation for details. /eexecEncode filter Creates a filter for encrypting data into the eexec encrypted format described in the Adobe Type 1 Font Format documentation. The seed_integer must be 55665 for proper operation. This filter produces binary output and does not include the initial 4 garbage bytes. /eexecDecode filter Creates a filter for decrypting data that has been encrypted using eexec encryption as described in the Adobe Type 1 Font Format documentation. The seed_integer must be 55665 for proper operation. /PCXDecode filter Creates a filter that decodes data in the run-length encoding used in the PCX graphics file format. /PFBDecode filter Creates a filter that decodes data in .PFB format, the usual semi-binary representation for Type 1 font files on IBM PC and compatible systems. If hex_boolean is true, binary packets are converted to hex; if false, binary packets are not converted. /PixelDifferenceEncode filter /PixelDifferenceDecode filter Implements the Predictor=2 pixel-differencing option of the LZW filters. Recognized keys are: Colors 1..4 (default=1) BitsPerComponent 1,2,4,8 (default=8) Columns >= 0 (required) See the Adobe "Portable Document Format Reference Manual" for details. /PNGPredictorEncode filter /PNGPredictorDecode filter Implements the "filter" algorithms of the PNG graphics format. Recognized keys are: Colors 1..16 (default=1) BitsPerComponent 1,2,4,8,16 (default=8) Columns >= 0 (default=1) Predictor 10..15 (default=15) The Predictor is the PNG algorithm number + 10 for the Encoding filter; the Decoding filter ignores Predictor. 15 means the encoder attempts to optimize the choice of algorithm. For more details, see libpng.mak, which has a pointer to the PNG specification. /TBCPEncode filter /TBCPDecode filter Create filters that implement the Adobe Tagged Binary Communications Protocol. See Adobe documentation for details. /zlibEncode filter /zlibEncode filter Creates filters that use the zlib data compression method (the same method used by the gzip application). This filter is only available if the fzlib feature was selected when Ghostscript was compiled and linked. Various versions of Ghostscript may also support other non-standard filters for experimental purposes. The current version includes the following non-standard filters, which are not documented further. No guarantee is made that these filters will exist in compatible form, or at all, in future versions. ByteTranslateEncode/Decode BigStringEncode BoundedHuffmanEncode/Decode FirstBitLowOrder false MaxCodeLength 16 EndOfData true EncodeZeroRuns 256 Tables BWBlockSortEncode/Decode BlockSize 16384 MoveToFrontEncode/Decode Ghostscript also supports additional keys in the optional dictionary operands for some filters. For the LZWDecode filter: InitialCodeLength An integer between 2 and 11 specifying the initial number of data bits per code. Note that the actual initial code length is 1 greater than this, to allow for the reset and end-of-data code values. Default value: 8. FirstBitLowOrder If true, codes appear with their low-order bit first. Default value: false. BlockData If true, the data is broken into blocks in the manner specified for the GIF file format. Default value: false. For the CCITTFaxEncode and CCITTFaxDecode filters: DecodedByteAlign An integer N with the value 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16, specifying that decoded data scan lines are always a multiple of N bytes. The encoding filter skips data in each scan line from Columns to the next multiple of N bytes; the decoding filter pads each scan line to a multiple of N bytes. Default value: 1. Virtual memory operators ------------------------ .forgetsave - Cancels the effect of a save -- makes it as though the save never happened. Miscellaneous operators ----------------------- getenv true getenv false Looks up a name in the shell environment. If the name is found, returns the corresponding value and true; if the name is not found, returns false. makeoperator Constructs and returns a new operator that is actually the given procedure in disguise. The name is only used for printing. The operator has the executable attribute. .setdebug - If the Ghostscript interpreter was built with the DEBUG flag set, sets or resets any subset of the debugging flags normally controlled by -Z in the command line. Has no effect otherwise. - .oserrno Returns the error code for the most recent OS error. - .oserror Returns the error string for the most recent OS error. Device operators ---------------- copydevice Copies a device. The copy is writable and installable. .getdevice Returns a device from the set of devices known to the system. The first device, which is default, is numbered 0. If the index is out of range, causes a rangecheck error. This device is actually a prototype, not a directly usable device, and is marked read-only; it cannot have its parameters changed or be installed as the current device. makeimagedevice Makes a new device that accumulates an image in memory. matrix is the initial transformation matrix: it must be orthogonal (i.e., [a 0 0 b x y] or [0 a b 0 x y]). palette is a string of 2^N or 3*2^N elements, specifying how the 2^N possible pixel values will be interpreted. Each element is interpreted as a gray value, or as RGB values, multiplied by 255. For example, if you want a monochrome image for which 0=white and 1=black, the palette should be ; if you want a 3-bit deep image with just the primary colors and their complements (ignoring the fact that 3-bit images are not supported), the palette might be <000000 0000ff 00ff00 00ffff ff0000 ff00ff ffff00 ffffff>. At present, the palette must contain exactly 2, 4, 16, or 256 entries, and must contain an entry for black and an entry for white; if it contains any entries that aren't black, white, or gray, it must contain at least the six primary colors (red, green, blue, and their complements cyan, magenta, and yellow); aside from this, its contents are arbitrary. Alternatively, palette can be 16, 24, 32, or null (equivalent to 24). These are interpreted as: 16 = 5R, 6G, 5B bits; 24 = 8R, 8G, 8B bits; 32 = 8C, 8M, 8Y, 8K bits. Note that one can also make an image device (with the same palette as an existing image device) by copying a device using the copydevice operator. makewordimagedevice Makes an image device as described above. word? is a Boolean value indicating whether the data should be stored in a word-oriented format internally. No ordinary PostScript programs should use this operator. copyscanlines Copies one or more scan lines from an image device into a string, starting at a given scan line in the image. The data is in the same format as for the image operator. Error if the device is not an image device or if the string is too small to hold at least one complete scan line. Always copies an integral number of scan lines. setdevice - Sets the current device to the specified device. Also resets the transformation and clipping path to the initial values for the device. Signals an invalidaccess error if the device is a prototype. - currentdevice Gets the current device from the graphics state. getdeviceprops ... Gets all the properties of a device. Currently defined names and values for all devices are: BitsPerPixel Usually read-only. Number of bits per pixel. .HWMargins [<4 floats>] Size of non-imageable regions around edges of page, in 1/72" units. HWSize [ ] X and Y size in pixels. Name Read-only. The device name. Currently, same as OutputDevice. Colors, GrayValues, RedValues, GreenValues, BlueValues, ColorValues As for the 'deviceinfo' operator of Display PostScript. TextAlphaBits, GraphicsAlphaBits The number of bits of anti-aliasing information for text or graphics respectively. Legal values are 1 (no anti-aliasing), 2, or 4; the default value for most devices is 1. Read-only for almost all devices. In addition, the following are defined per Adobe's documentation for the setpagedevice operator: Duplex (if supported) HWResolution ImagingBBox Margins NumCopies (for printers only) Orientation (if supported) OutputDevice PageOffset (write-only) PageSize ProcessColorModel Some devices may only allow certain values for HWResolution and PageSize. The null device ignores attempts to set PageSize; its size is always [0 0]. Red/Green/Blue/ColorValues are only defined if Colors > 1. For printers, the following are also defined: BufferSpace Buffer space for band lists, if the bitmap is too big to fit in RAM. MaxBitmap Maximum space for a full bitmap in RAM. OutputFile () means send to printer directly, otherwise specifies the file name for output; a %d is replaced by the page #; on Unix systems, (|command) writes to a pipe OpenOutputFile If true, open the device's output file when the device is opened, rather than waiting until the first page is ready to print. PageCount Read-only. Counts the number of pages printed on the device. ... putdeviceprops Sets properties of a device. May cause undefined, typecheck, rangecheck, or limitcheck errors. - flushpage - On displays, flushes any buffered output, so that it is guaranteed to show up on the screen; on printers, has no effect. Ghostscript supports the following page device parameters in addition to the ones documented by Adobe and the ones described under getdeviceprops above: ViewerPreProcess procedure Specifies a procedure to be applied to the page device dictionary before any other processing is done. The procedure may not alter the dictionary, but it may return a modified copy. This "hook" is provided for use by viewing programs. Character operators ------------------- .charboxpath - For each character C in the rendering of , let the bounding box of C *in device space* be the four *user-space* points p1x/y, p2x/y, p3x/y, and p4x/y. For each character in order, .charboxpath appends the following to the current path: - If is true, the equivalent of: p1x p1y moveto p2x p2y lineto p3x p3y lineto p4x p4y lineto closepath - If is false, the equivalent of: p1x p1y moveto p3x p3y lineto In either case, this creates a path whose pathbbox is the bbox of the string. .type1execchar - Does all the work for rendering a Type 1 outline. This operator, like setcharwidth and setcachedevice, is only valid in the context of a show operator -- i.e., it must only be called from within a BuildChar or BuildGlyph procedure. %Type1BuildChar - This is not a new operator: rather, it is a name known specially to the interpreter. Whenever the interpreter needs to render a character (during a ...show, stringwidth, or charpath), it looks up the name BuildChar in the font dictionary to find a procedure to run. If it does not find this name, and if the FontType is 1, the interpreter instead uses the value (looked up on the dictionary stack in the usual way) of the name %Type1BuildChar. The standard definition of %Type1BuildChar is in gs_type1.ps. Users should not need to redefine %Type1BuildChar, except perhaps for tracing or debugging. %Type1BuildGlyph - Provides the Type 1 implementation of BuildGlyph. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - PostScript is a trademark of Adobe Systems, Incorporated.