OT: Ghostscript, won't install

Joerg wrote:
Gents,

IC designers still seem to live in the Postscript world ... can't read
those dreaded files. Client said to install Ghostscript. So I downloaded
gs871w32.exe from U of Wisconsin.

No matter what I do, this here computation machine bucks and says "not a
valid Win32 application". Running XP. What gives? How can I dodge this
and make it install?


Guys, figured it out: I had to erase and download two more times, then
it stuck. It installed alright. Now I can see the files but it's nearly
not as good as PDF. Did I already say that I never liked Postscript?

On Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:54:44 -0700, Joerg <invalid_at_invalid.invalid
wrote:

Joerg wrote:
Gents,

IC designers still seem to live in the Postscript world ... can't read
those dreaded files. Client said to install Ghostscript. So I downloaded
gs871w32.exe from U of Wisconsin.

No matter what I do, this here computation machine bucks and says "not a
valid Win32 application". Running XP. What gives? How can I dodge this
and make it install?

Guys, figured it out: I had to erase and download two more times, then
it stuck. It installed alright. Now I can see the files but it's nearly
not as good as PDF. Did I already say that I never liked Postscript? :-)

It won't display as nicely with the Ghostscript viewer as one has come
to expect from pdf viewers. GSview is more of a preview app for page
layout and such, and doesn't do the rendering tricks with sub-pixel
anti-aliasing and gamma correction that pdf viewers pretty much all
handle nowadays. It expects that the .ps file will be sent onwards to a
high-resolution printer for final rendering.

But, a Ghostscript installation does come with the necessary tools to
convert .ps to .pdf. There are probably wrappers that put ribbons and
bows on this, but all you should need to do is to copy the .ps file to
the directory in the GS install that has ps2pdf14.bat (probably the lib
directory) and run it from the command line against your .ps file. The
result should be a good looking .pdf file.

Try Sourceforge instead.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/ghostscript/files/GPL%20Ghostscript/


135 megabytes, shazam! The bloat from version to version looks (almost)
like the budget defizit

On Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:54:44 -0700, Joerg <invalid_at_invalid.invalid
wrote:

Joerg wrote:
Gents,

IC designers still seem to live in the Postscript world ... can't read
those dreaded files. Client said to install Ghostscript. So I downloaded
gs871w32.exe from U of Wisconsin.

No matter what I do, this here computation machine bucks and says "not a
valid Win32 application". Running XP. What gives? How can I dodge this
and make it install?

Guys, figured it out: I had to erase and download two more times, then
it stuck. It installed alright. Now I can see the files but it's nearly
not as good as PDF. Did I already say that I never liked Postscript? :-)

It won't display as nicely with the Ghostscript viewer as one has come
to expect from pdf viewers. GSview is more of a preview app for page
layout and such, and doesn't do the rendering tricks with sub-pixel
anti-aliasing and gamma correction that pdf viewers pretty much all
handle nowadays. It expects that the .ps file will be sent onwards to a
high-resolution printer for final rendering.

But, a Ghostscript installation does come with the necessary tools to
convert .ps to .pdf. There are probably wrappers that put ribbons and
bows on this, but all you should need to do is to copy the .ps file to
the directory in the GS install that has ps2pdf14.bat (probably the lib
directory) and run it from the command line against your .ps file. The
result should be a good looking .pdf file.

Rich Webb wrote:
On Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:54:44 -0700, Joerg <invalid_at_invalid.invalid
wrote:

Joerg wrote:
Gents,

IC designers still seem to live in the Postscript world ... can't read
those dreaded files. Client said to install Ghostscript. So I downloaded
gs871w32.exe from U of Wisconsin.

No matter what I do, this here computation machine bucks and says "not a
valid Win32 application". Running XP. What gives? How can I dodge this
and make it install?

Guys, figured it out: I had to erase and download two more times, then
it stuck. It installed alright. Now I can see the files but it's nearly
not as good as PDF. Did I already say that I never liked Postscript? :-)

It won't display as nicely with the Ghostscript viewer as one has come
to expect from pdf viewers. GSview is more of a preview app for page
layout and such, and doesn't do the rendering tricks with sub-pixel
anti-aliasing and gamma correction that pdf viewers pretty much all
handle nowadays. It expects that the .ps file will be sent onwards to a
high-resolution printer for final rendering.


Yeah, I know, PS is so yesterday. In fact it already was 20 years ago.
Back then I became so frustrated with it that I completely ditched it
and adopted HPGL. That is a much better rendering tool for CAD but
eventually fell from graces for whatever reason.


But, a Ghostscript installation does come with the necessary tools to
convert .ps to .pdf. There are probably wrappers that put ribbons and
bows on this, but all you should need to do is to copy the .ps file to
the directory in the GS install that has ps2pdf14.bat (probably the lib
directory) and run it from the command line against your .ps file. The
result should be a good looking .pdf file.


Thanks, I'll try that. Anything that gets me off of that dreaded PS
format is a good thing. Problem is, with this IC design I am going to
have a barrage of PS files coming at me over the next months. So I
better get some batch process going where I can send all that through a
wringer before I even look at them.

Looks like good old DOS batch file time again. Now that I am intimately
familiar with

Oh, and when I print to PDF I get a blank sheet. Great.

On Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:59:23 -0700, Joerg wrote:

Oh, and when I print to PDF I get a blank sheet. Great.


gs(or in your case gswin32) -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -r600
-dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 -sOutputFile=whatever.pdf filename.ps

Will generate a PDF from the PS.

I prefer command line operation to GSView for anything other than just
displaying.

You can generate PS from PDF, split pages out of PDFs, generate bitmaps
and all sorts. Take a look at the options in the "File-Convert" menu of
GSView.

I once added a bookmark tree and links to a PDF copy of the NASA Apollo 13
Cortwright Report by splitting the PDF into individual PS pages, manually
adding pdfmarks with a text editor, then re-distilling the PS pages into a
single PDF. The original was scanned typescript, hence bitmaps, so it
was, and is, huge. All done with ghostscript. No Acrobat distiller here.

RTFM (HTML bundled with the ghostscript package) There are so many
options, versatility is tremendous. It's a bit of a learning curve.

Don't expect a binary distribution to have been compiled with all the
optional devices and drivers. The one I use was compiled on this system,
with the drivers that *I* wanted. It forms the core of the print system.

On Fri, 27 Aug 2010 17:33:40 -0700, Joerg <invalid_at_invalid.invalid
wrote:

Gents,

IC designers still seem to live in the Postscript world ... can't read
those dreaded files. Client said to install Ghostscript. So I downloaded
gs871w32.exe from U of Wisconsin.

No matter what I do, this here computation machine bucks and says "not a
valid Win32 application". Running XP. What gives? How can I dodge this
and make it install?

Make sure you have the right versions. You also need GSView which
"calls" Ghostscript... I have GSView v3.5 running on XP.

IIRC, there is a specific order of installation required to make it
work.

[snip]

On Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:00:03 -0700, Jim Thompson
To-Email-Use-The-Envelope-Icon_at_On-My-Web-Site.com> wrote:

On Fri, 27 Aug 2010 17:33:40 -0700, Joerg <invalid_at_invalid.invalid
wrote:

Gents,

IC designers still seem to live in the Postscript world ... can't read
those dreaded files. Client said to install Ghostscript. So I downloaded
gs871w32.exe from U of Wisconsin.

No matter what I do, this here computation machine bucks and says "not a
valid Win32 application". Running XP. What gives? How can I dodge this
and make it install?
Make sure you have the right versions. You also need GSView which
"calls" Ghostscript... I have GSView v3.5 running on XP.

IIRC, there is a specific order of installation required to make it
work.

[snip]

I suddenly remembered the trick... you need to install a PostScript
printer driver FIRST.

On Sat, 28 Aug 2010 08:01:38 -0700, Joerg <invalid_at_invalid.invalid
wrote:

Rich Webb wrote:
On Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:54:44 -0700, Joerg <invalid_at_invalid.invalid
wrote:

Joerg wrote:
Gents,

IC designers still seem to live in the Postscript world ... can't read
those dreaded files. Client said to install Ghostscript. So I downloaded
gs871w32.exe from U of Wisconsin.

No matter what I do, this here computation machine bucks and says "not a
valid Win32 application". Running XP. What gives? How can I dodge this
and make it install?

Guys, figured it out: I had to erase and download two more times, then
it stuck. It installed alright. Now I can see the files but it's nearly
not as good as PDF. Did I already say that I never liked Postscript?
It won't display as nicely with the Ghostscript viewer as one has come
to expect from pdf viewers. GSview is more of a preview app for page
layout and such, and doesn't do the rendering tricks with sub-pixel
anti-aliasing and gamma correction that pdf viewers pretty much all
handle nowadays. It expects that the .ps file will be sent onwards to a
high-resolution printer for final rendering.

Yeah, I know, PS is so yesterday. In fact it already was 20 years ago.
Back then I became so frustrated with it that I completely ditched it
and adopted HPGL. That is a much better rendering tool for CAD but
eventually fell from graces for whatever reason.


But, a Ghostscript installation does come with the necessary tools to
convert .ps to .pdf. There are probably wrappers that put ribbons and
bows on this, but all you should need to do is to copy the .ps file to
the directory in the GS install that has ps2pdf14.bat (probably the lib
directory) and run it from the command line against your .ps file. The
result should be a good looking .pdf file.

Thanks, I'll try that. Anything that gets me off of that dreaded PS
format is a good thing. Problem is, with this IC design I am going to
have a barrage of PS files coming at me over the next months. So I
better get some batch process going where I can send all that through a
wringer before I even look at them.

Looks like good old DOS batch file time again. Now that I am intimately
familiar with :-)

Did you miss my comments about GhostView and GhostScript? Something
is amiss in how you're trying to install.

If your only issue is _receiving_ PS schematics, won't any of the PDF
rip-off's handle that? And generating PS is as trivial as installing
a printer driver, such as: Apple LaserWriter II NTX v51.8, then "Print
to File".

Jim Thompson wrote:
On Sat, 28 Aug 2010 08:01:38 -0700, Joerg <invalid_at_invalid.invalid
wrote:

Rich Webb wrote:
On Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:54:44 -0700, Joerg <invalid_at_invalid.invalid
wrote:

Joerg wrote:
Gents,

IC designers still seem to live in the Postscript world ... can't read
those dreaded files. Client said to install Ghostscript. So I downloaded
gs871w32.exe from U of Wisconsin.

No matter what I do, this here computation machine bucks and says "not a
valid Win32 application". Running XP. What gives? How can I dodge this
and make it install?

Guys, figured it out: I had to erase and download two more times, then
it stuck. It installed alright. Now I can see the files but it's nearly
not as good as PDF. Did I already say that I never liked Postscript?
It won't display as nicely with the Ghostscript viewer as one has come
to expect from pdf viewers. GSview is more of a preview app for page
layout and such, and doesn't do the rendering tricks with sub-pixel
anti-aliasing and gamma correction that pdf viewers pretty much all
handle nowadays. It expects that the .ps file will be sent onwards to a
high-resolution printer for final rendering.

Yeah, I know, PS is so yesterday. In fact it already was 20 years ago.
Back then I became so frustrated with it that I completely ditched it
and adopted HPGL. That is a much better rendering tool for CAD but
eventually fell from graces for whatever reason.


But, a Ghostscript installation does come with the necessary tools to
convert .ps to .pdf. There are probably wrappers that put ribbons and
bows on this, but all you should need to do is to copy the .ps file to
the directory in the GS install that has ps2pdf14.bat (probably the lib
directory) and run it from the command line against your .ps file. The
result should be a good looking .pdf file.

Thanks, I'll try that. Anything that gets me off of that dreaded PS
format is a good thing. Problem is, with this IC design I am going to
have a barrage of PS files coming at me over the next months. So I
better get some batch process going where I can send all that through a
wringer before I even look at them.

Looks like good old DOS batch file time again. Now that I am intimately
familiar with :-)

Did you miss my comments about GhostView and GhostScript? Something
is amiss in how you're trying to install.


It didn't matter, you can install Ghostscript first. In fact, that's how
it was explained. Worked after downloading several times.


If your only issue is _receiving_ PS schematics, won't any of the PDF
rip-off's handle that? And generating PS is as trivial as installing
a printer driver, such as: Apple LaserWriter II NTX v51.8, then "Print
to File".


I certainly won't generate PS files. That format is IMHO the pits.
Almost nothing can read it anymore these days. HPGL was so much better
for schematics.

Jim Thompson wrote:
On Sat, 28 Aug 2010 08:01:38 -0700, Joerg <invalid_at_invalid.invalid
wrote:

Rich Webb wrote:
On Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:54:44 -0700, Joerg <invalid_at_invalid.invalid
wrote:

Joerg wrote:
Gents,

IC designers still seem to live in the Postscript world ... can't read
those dreaded files. Client said to install Ghostscript. So I downloaded
gs871w32.exe from U of Wisconsin.

No matter what I do, this here computation machine bucks and says "not a
valid Win32 application". Running XP. What gives? How can I dodge this
and make it install?

Guys, figured it out: I had to erase and download two more times, then
it stuck. It installed alright. Now I can see the files but it's nearly
not as good as PDF. Did I already say that I never liked Postscript?
It won't display as nicely with the Ghostscript viewer as one has come
to expect from pdf viewers. GSview is more of a preview app for page
layout and such, and doesn't do the rendering tricks with sub-pixel
anti-aliasing and gamma correction that pdf viewers pretty much all
handle nowadays. It expects that the .ps file will be sent onwards to a
high-resolution printer for final rendering.

Yeah, I know, PS is so yesterday. In fact it already was 20 years ago.
Back then I became so frustrated with it that I completely ditched it
and adopted HPGL. That is a much better rendering tool for CAD but
eventually fell from graces for whatever reason.


But, a Ghostscript installation does come with the necessary tools to
convert .ps to .pdf. There are probably wrappers that put ribbons and
bows on this, but all you should need to do is to copy the .ps file to
the directory in the GS install that has ps2pdf14.bat (probably the lib
directory) and run it from the command line against your .ps file. The
result should be a good looking .pdf file.

Thanks, I'll try that. Anything that gets me off of that dreaded PS
format is a good thing. Problem is, with this IC design I am going to
have a barrage of PS files coming at me over the next months. So I
better get some batch process going where I can send all that through a
wringer before I even look at them.

Looks like good old DOS batch file time again. Now that I am intimately
familiar with :-)

Did you miss my comments about GhostView and GhostScript? Something
is amiss in how you're trying to install.


It didn't matter, you can install Ghostscript first. In fact, that's how
it was explained. Worked after downloading several times.


If your only issue is _receiving_ PS schematics, won't any of the PDF
rip-off's handle that? And generating PS is as trivial as installing
a printer driver, such as: Apple LaserWriter II NTX v51.8, then "Print
to File".


I certainly won't generate PS files. That format is IMHO the pits.
Almost nothing can read it anymore these days. HPGL was so much better
for schematics.

On Sat, 28 Aug 2010 12:19:41 -0700, Joerg <invalid_at_invalid.invalid
wrote:

Jim Thompson wrote:
On Sat, 28 Aug 2010 08:01:38 -0700, Joerg <invalid_at_invalid.invalid
wrote:

Rich Webb wrote:
On Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:54:44 -0700, Joerg <invalid_at_invalid.invalid
wrote:

Joerg wrote:
Gents,

IC designers still seem to live in the Postscript world ... can't read
those dreaded files. Client said to install Ghostscript. So I downloaded
gs871w32.exe from U of Wisconsin.

No matter what I do, this here computation machine bucks and says "not a
valid Win32 application". Running XP. What gives? How can I dodge this
and make it install?

Guys, figured it out: I had to erase and download two more times, then
it stuck. It installed alright. Now I can see the files but it's nearly
not as good as PDF. Did I already say that I never liked Postscript?
It won't display as nicely with the Ghostscript viewer as one has come
to expect from pdf viewers. GSview is more of a preview app for page
layout and such, and doesn't do the rendering tricks with sub-pixel
anti-aliasing and gamma correction that pdf viewers pretty much all
handle nowadays. It expects that the .ps file will be sent onwards to a
high-resolution printer for final rendering.

Yeah, I know, PS is so yesterday. In fact it already was 20 years ago.
Back then I became so frustrated with it that I completely ditched it
and adopted HPGL. That is a much better rendering tool for CAD but
eventually fell from graces for whatever reason.


But, a Ghostscript installation does come with the necessary tools to
convert .ps to .pdf. There are probably wrappers that put ribbons and
bows on this, but all you should need to do is to copy the .ps file to
the directory in the GS install that has ps2pdf14.bat (probably the lib
directory) and run it from the command line against your .ps file. The
result should be a good looking .pdf file.

Thanks, I'll try that. Anything that gets me off of that dreaded PS
format is a good thing. Problem is, with this IC design I am going to
have a barrage of PS files coming at me over the next months. So I
better get some batch process going where I can send all that through a
wringer before I even look at them.

Looks like good old DOS batch file time again. Now that I am intimately
familiar with
Did you miss my comments about GhostView and GhostScript? Something
is amiss in how you're trying to install.

It didn't matter, you can install Ghostscript first. In fact, that's how
it was explained. Worked after downloading several times.


If your only issue is _receiving_ PS schematics, won't any of the PDF
rip-off's handle that? And generating PS is as trivial as installing
a printer driver, such as: Apple LaserWriter II NTX v51.8, then "Print
to File".

I certainly won't generate PS files. That format is IMHO the pits.
Almost nothing can read it anymore these days. HPGL was so much better
for schematics.

Isn't HPGL device-specific? I certainly wouldn't distribute
schematics in that format. Can't be netlisted for one.

On Sat, 28 Aug 2010 12:19:41 -0700, Joerg <invalid_at_invalid.invalid
wrote:

Jim Thompson wrote:
On Sat, 28 Aug 2010 08:01:38 -0700, Joerg <invalid_at_invalid.invalid
wrote:

Rich Webb wrote:
On Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:54:44 -0700, Joerg <invalid_at_invalid.invalid
wrote:

Joerg wrote:
Gents,

IC designers still seem to live in the Postscript world ... can't read
those dreaded files. Client said to install Ghostscript. So I downloaded
gs871w32.exe from U of Wisconsin.

No matter what I do, this here computation machine bucks and says "not a
valid Win32 application". Running XP. What gives? How can I dodge this
and make it install?

Guys, figured it out: I had to erase and download two more times, then
it stuck. It installed alright. Now I can see the files but it's nearly
not as good as PDF. Did I already say that I never liked Postscript?
It won't display as nicely with the Ghostscript viewer as one has come
to expect from pdf viewers. GSview is more of a preview app for page
layout and such, and doesn't do the rendering tricks with sub-pixel
anti-aliasing and gamma correction that pdf viewers pretty much all
handle nowadays. It expects that the .ps file will be sent onwards to a
high-resolution printer for final rendering.

Yeah, I know, PS is so yesterday. In fact it already was 20 years ago.
Back then I became so frustrated with it that I completely ditched it
and adopted HPGL. That is a much better rendering tool for CAD but
eventually fell from graces for whatever reason.


But, a Ghostscript installation does come with the necessary tools to
convert .ps to .pdf. There are probably wrappers that put ribbons and
bows on this, but all you should need to do is to copy the .ps file to
the directory in the GS install that has ps2pdf14.bat (probably the lib
directory) and run it from the command line against your .ps file. The
result should be a good looking .pdf file.

Thanks, I'll try that. Anything that gets me off of that dreaded PS
format is a good thing. Problem is, with this IC design I am going to
have a barrage of PS files coming at me over the next months. So I
better get some batch process going where I can send all that through a
wringer before I even look at them.

Looks like good old DOS batch file time again. Now that I am intimately
familiar with
Did you miss my comments about GhostView and GhostScript? Something
is amiss in how you're trying to install.

It didn't matter, you can install Ghostscript first. In fact, that's how
it was explained. Worked after downloading several times.


If your only issue is _receiving_ PS schematics, won't any of the PDF
rip-off's handle that? And generating PS is as trivial as installing
a printer driver, such as: Apple LaserWriter II NTX v51.8, then "Print
to File".

I certainly won't generate PS files. That format is IMHO the pits.
Almost nothing can read it anymore these days. HPGL was so much better
for schematics.

Maybe you need rejuvenation...

https://www.buyirenew.com/Default.aspx?mid=818859

On Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:59:23 -0700, Joerg wrote:

Oh, and when I print to PDF I get a blank sheet. Great.


gs(or in your case gswin32) -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -r600
-dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 -sOutputFile=whatever.pdf filename.ps

Will generate a PDF from the PS.

I prefer command line operation to GSView for anything other than just
displaying.

You can generate PS from PDF, split pages out of PDFs, generate bitmaps
and all sorts. Take a look at the options in the "File-Convert" menu of
GSView.

I once added a bookmark tree and links to a PDF copy of the NASA Apollo 13
Cortwright Report by splitting the PDF into individual PS pages, manually
adding pdfmarks with a text editor, then re-distilling the PS pages into a
single PDF. The original was scanned typescript, hence bitmaps, so it
was, and is, huge. All done with ghostscript. No Acrobat distiller here.

RTFM (HTML bundled with the ghostscript package) There are so many
options, versatility is tremendous. It's a bit of a learning curve.

Don't expect a binary distribution to have been compiled with all the
optional devices and drivers. The one I use was compiled on this system,
with the drivers that *I* wanted. It forms the core of the print system.