Ghostscript is a freeware, but not a freecode, implementation of the Adobe PostScript page description language. It includes functions to generate PostScript for output on a printer or a computer display. Ghostscript offers a high degree of compatibility with the proprietary Adobe Postscript.

Ghostscript can also be used to generate Portable Document Format (PDF) files.

Ghostscript has been ported to many operating systems, including Unix, VMS, Windows, Apple Macintosh, and OS/2.

Several Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) have been written for use with Ghostscript which permit a user to view a Postscript or PDF file onscreen, scroll, page forward and backward, and zoom the text as well as print single or multiple pages.

  • Ghostview runs under Unix/X11
  • GSView runs under Windows and OS/2

Originally developed by Aladdin Enterprises and released under the "Aladdin Free Public License", the copyright of Ghostview is currently owned by artofcode LLC. Two versions are released: the first for commercial use with the original AFPL license as AFPL Ghostscript, and another with the GNU license as GNU Ghostscript.

The GNU version is also used as the basis for a Display Ghostscript, which adds the functionality needed to fully support Display PostScript.

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