Current.htm 9.2 KB

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  1. <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
  2. <html>
  3. <head>
  4. <title>Information specifically about the current release</title>
  5. <!-- $Id: Current.htm,v 1.13.2.2 2002/02/01 05:31:24 raph Exp $ -->
  6. <!-- Originally: current.txt -->
  7. <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="gs.css" title="Ghostscript Style">
  8. </head>
  9. <body>
  10. <!-- [1.0 begin visible header] ============================================ -->
  11. <!-- [1.1 begin headline] ================================================== -->
  12. <h1>Information specifically about Ghostscript 6.0</h1>
  13. <!-- [1.1 end headline] ==================================================== -->
  14. <!-- [1.2 begin table of contents] ========================================= -->
  15. <h2>Table of contents</h2>
  16. <ul>
  17. <li><a href="#New_features">New features (since release 5.50)</a>
  18. <li><a href="#Changes">Changes (since release 5.50)</a>
  19. <li><a href="#Known_problems">Known problems</a>
  20. <ul>
  21. <li><a href="#Usage">Usage</a>
  22. <li><a href="#Limitations">Limitations</a>
  23. <li><a href="#Graphics_bugs">Graphics bugs</a>
  24. <li><a href="#Non_graphics_bugs">Non-graphics bugs</a>
  25. </ul>
  26. </ul>
  27. <!-- [1.2 end table of contents] =========================================== -->
  28. <!-- [1.3 begin hint] ====================================================== -->
  29. <p>For other information, see the <a href="Readme.htm">Ghostscript
  30. overview</a>.
  31. <!-- [1.3 end hint] ======================================================== -->
  32. <hr>
  33. <!-- [1.0 end visible header] ============================================== -->
  34. <!-- [2.0 begin contents] ================================================== -->
  35. <h2><a name="New_features"></a>New features (since release 5.50)</h2>
  36. <p>
  37. (This is not a complete list of new features: see <a href="News.htm">the
  38. news</a> for details.)
  39. <p>
  40. Ghostscript now handles essentially all of PostScript LanguageLevel 3 and
  41. PDF 1.3 (Acrobat 4.x compatibility). See <a
  42. href="Language.htm"><b>Language.htm</b></a> for details.
  43. <p>
  44. The PDF writer now implements most of the Acrobat (TM) Distiller parameters
  45. for compressing and downsampling images.
  46. <p>
  47. The PDF writer now recognizes nearly all varieties of pdfmark, other than
  48. the Distiller 3.0 "named object" pdfmarks and the Distiller 4.0 "document
  49. structure" pdfmarks.
  50. <p>
  51. The PDF writer now handles text in all fonts, not just the 14 built-in ones,
  52. and implements the Distiller parameters affecting font embedding and
  53. subsetting. (It still usually converts double-byte fonts to bitmaps.)
  54. <p>
  55. 16- and 24-bit X Windows displays are now fully supported.
  56. <p>
  57. You now need only the header files and shared libraries, not the source
  58. code, if you want to use precompiled versions of the jpeg, libpng, or zlib
  59. libraries.
  60. <p>
  61. The syntax
  62. <b><tt>%</tt></b><em>iodevice</em><b><tt>%</tt></b><em>filename</em> is now
  63. supported with the <b><tt>-sOutputFile=</tt></b> switch, allowing you to
  64. send raster output to a piped command.
  65. <p>
  66. You can now use MMK or MMS to build Ghostscript on OpenVMS systems.
  67. <p>
  68. For driver writers, there are improved facilities for planar output,
  69. rasterizing directly into a driver-provided buffer, detecting bands that are
  70. all white or that only use a subset of the colorants, and providing CRDs
  71. from the driver.
  72. <p>
  73. The driver API now includes facilities for passing high-level text
  74. operations, completing the set of high-level operations (bitmap images and
  75. vector graphics were implemented in 5.50). See <a href="Drivers.htm">the
  76. documentation</a> for details.
  77. <p>
  78. Ghostscript as a dynamically linked library is now supported on the Mac as
  79. well as on Windows.
  80. <p>
  81. GNU readline was supported in most of the beta distributions for 6.0, but
  82. was removed at the last minute because of objections from the Free Software
  83. Foundation. Please see <a href="Make.htm#GNU_readline">here</a> for more
  84. information.
  85. <h2><a name="Changes"></a>Changes (since release 5.50)</h2>
  86. <h3>Directories and build procedure</h3>
  87. <p>
  88. The files in the release now have a more complex directory structure. In
  89. the table below, <em>top</em> refers to the top-level directory,
  90. <b><tt>gs</tt></b><em>n.nn</em>.
  91. <p>
  92. The <em>top</em><b><tt>/</tt></b> is where you create a link to the
  93. appropriate makefile in <em>top</em><b><tt>/src/</tt></b>. On all systems
  94. other than MS Windows, the build procedure does not write into this
  95. directory.
  96. <p>
  97. The files included in the Ghostscript release now are found in five
  98. subdirectories.
  99. <ul>
  100. <li><em>top</em><b><tt>/src/</tt></b> contains the C/C++ source code, the
  101. makefiles, and all other files needed to build the program. The build
  102. procedure reads from this directory but does not write into it. Nothing in
  103. this directory is needed at run time.
  104. <li><p><em>top</em><b><tt>/lib/</tt></b> contains PostScript and script
  105. files needed at run time. The build procedure reads from this directory but
  106. does not write into it. The contents of this directory are needed at run
  107. time and are copied by the Unix <b><tt>make install</tt></b> command.
  108. <li><em>top</em><b><tt>/doc/</tt></b> contains documentation. Copied by
  109. <b><tt>make install</tt></b>.
  110. <li><em>top</em><b><tt>/man/</tt></b> contains Unix <b><tt>man</tt></b>
  111. pages. Copied by <b><tt>make install</tt></b>.
  112. <li><em>top</em><b><tt>/examples/</tt></b> contains sample PostScript and
  113. PDF files. Copied by <b><tt>make install</tt></b>.
  114. </ul>
  115. <p>
  116. The build procedure creates two additional subdirectories,
  117. <em>top</em><b><tt>/obj/</tt></b> (or <b><tt>debugobj</tt></b> or
  118. <b><tt>pgobj</tt></b>) and <em>top</em><b><tt>/bin/</tt></b>. See the
  119. documentation on <a href="Make.htm">how to build Ghostscript</a> for more
  120. information.
  121. <h2>Other changes</h2>
  122. <p>
  123. If you are a developer working with the Ghostscript code in any way other
  124. than writing or modifying drivers, please read all of the "Incompatible
  125. changes" sections of the <a href="News.htm">release news</a> for important
  126. information.
  127. <h2><a name="Known_problems"></a>Known problems</h2>
  128. <p>
  129. See the <a href="News.htm">release news</a> for details.
  130. <h3><a name="Usage"></a>Usage</h3>
  131. <p>
  132. On a DOS system, interrupting the interpreter by typing control-C doesn't
  133. restore the display mode.
  134. <h3><a name="Limitations"></a>Limitations</h3>
  135. <p>
  136. <b><tt>serialnumber</tt></b> returns the same value in all copies.
  137. <p>
  138. Some floating point exceptions terminate the interpreter, rather than
  139. producing a <b><tt>limitcheck</tt></b> error.
  140. <p>
  141. The <b><tt>DCTEncode</tt></b> filter disregards the <b><tt>Blend</tt></b>
  142. parameter, and uses different <b><tt>QuantTables</tt></b> and
  143. <b><tt>HuffTables</tt></b> from Adobe's.
  144. <p>
  145. The DCT filters do not support nonintegral sample ratios. Also,
  146. <b><tt>DCTEncode</tt></b> will not create files with Sum(HS&times;VS)&gt;10
  147. (regardless of the value of the <b><tt>Relax</tt></b> parameter) because
  148. they violate the JPEG standard; but <b><tt>DCTDecode</tt></b> will read
  149. such files.
  150. <p>
  151. The size of the execution stack cannot be changed dynamically. (However,
  152. the sizes of the operand and dictionary stacks can be changed.)
  153. <p>
  154. <b><tt>Separation</tt></b> and <b><tt>DeviceN</tt></b> color spaces are
  155. implemented, but devices that actually produce color separations are not
  156. supported: these color spaces always use the alternate space. The special
  157. color separations <b><tt>All</tt></b> and <b><tt>None</tt></b>, and the
  158. primary separations (<b><tt>Red</tt></b>, <b><tt>Green</tt></b>, etc.), are
  159. not supported.
  160. <p>
  161. <b><tt>execform</tt></b> and <b><tt>ucache</tt></b> are implemented, but
  162. they do not actually do any caching; <b><tt>setucacheparams</tt></b> and
  163. <b><tt>ucachestatus</tt></b> are dummies. (This only impacts performance,
  164. not functionality.)
  165. <p>
  166. The <b><tt>image</tt></b> operator honors the <b><tt>Interpolate</tt></b>
  167. flag in the image dictionary only for ImageType 1 and 3 images, only if the
  168. combined transformation (<b><tt>ImageMatrix</tt></b> + CTM) doesn't involve
  169. rotation, skewing, or X-reflection, and only for certain scalings and color
  170. spaces; <b><tt>imagemask</tt></b> doesn't honor <b><tt>Interpolate</tt></b>
  171. at all.
  172. <p>
  173. Some path-building operations that would generate a device coordinate
  174. larger than +/-2^<small><sup>19</sup></small> will cause a
  175. limitcheck. However, the common ones (<b><tt>[r]moveto</tt></b>,
  176. <b><tt>[r]lineto</tt></b>, <b><tt>[r]curveto</tt></b>, <b><tt>closepath</tt></b>) will not.
  177. <h3><a name="Graphics_bugs"></a>Graphics bugs</h3>
  178. <p>
  179. There are no known graphics bugs in this release.
  180. <h3><a name="Non_graphics_bugs"></a>Non-graphics bugs</h3>
  181. <p>
  182. The <b><tt>definefont</tt></b> operator (Subrs (type 1 fonts)) expects
  183. arrays but won't accept packed arrays.
  184. <p>
  185. Syntax errors occurring within a binary token do not produce the error
  186. message specified by the Adobe documentation.
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  189. <hr>
  190. <p>
  191. <small>Copyright &copy; 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 Aladdin Enterprises.
  192. All rights reserved.</small>
  193. <p>
  194. <small>This file is part of AFPL Ghostscript. See the
  195. <a href="Public.htm">Aladdin Free Public License</a> (the "License") for
  196. full details of the terms of using, copying, modifying, and redistributing
  197. AFPL Ghostscript.</small>
  198. <p>
  199. <small>Ghostscript version 7.04, 31 January 2002
  200. <!-- [3.0 end visible trailer] ============================================= -->
  201. </body>
  202. </html>