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<title>ps2ps2: Converts Postscript Level 3 or PDF into Postscript Level 2</title>
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<h1><tt>ps2ps2</tt>: Converts Postscript Level 3 or PDF into Postscript Level 2</h1>
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<h2>Table of contents</h2>
<blockquote><ul>
<li><a href="#Overview">Overview</a>
<li><a href="#Usage">Usage</a>
<li><a href="#Options">Options</a>
<li><a href="#PPD">Ghostscript PS2 Printer Description</a>
<li><a href="#printer_control">Controlling the printer behavior</a>
<li><a href="#Limitations">Limitations</a>
</ul></blockquote>
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<p>For other information, see the <a href="Readme.htm">Ghostscript
overview</a>.
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<h2><a name="Overview"></a>Overview</h2>
<b><tt>ps2ps2</tt></b> is a script for converting a PDF or a Postscript Level 3 into
Postscript Level 2.
<p>
<b><tt>ps2ps2</tt></b> is implemented as a very small command script (batch
file) that invokes Ghostscript, selecting a special "output device" called
<b><tt>ps2write</tt></b>. In order to use <b><tt>ps2ps2</tt></b>, the
<b><tt>ps2write</tt></b> device must be included in the makefile when
Ghostscript was compiled; see the <a
href="Make.htm#Features_and_devices">documentation on building
Ghostscript</a> for details: this is currently the case on all platforms, in
Ghostscript as we distribute it.
<hr>
<h2><a name="Usage"></a>Usage</h2>
<p>
The usage for <b><tt>ps2ps2</tt></b> is
<blockquote><b><tt>
ps2ps2</tt></b> <em>[options] input.{ps|eps|pdf} output.ps</em>
</blockquote>
<h2><a name="Options"></a>Options</h2>
<p>
The <em>options</em> given on the command line may include any switches
that may be used with Ghostscript's PostScript and PDF interpreter (see
<a href="Use.htm#Switches">here</a> for a complete list).
<p>
Since <b><tt>ps2write</tt></b> makes use of some printer
parameters while converting high level objects into Level 2 objects,
we strongly recommend to set those values in accordance with the
target printer or other output device.
In particular, it is important for
<a href="Use.htm#Output_resolution">Output resolution</a>,
<a href="Use.htm#FIXEDMEDIA"><b><tt>-dFIXEDMEDIA</tt></b></a>, and
<b><tt>ProcessColorModel</tt></b></a> to be set correctly.
<p>
<em>
<b>Important :</b>
If the target printer can't handle some font type,
ps2write converts such fonts into bitmap fonts,
using the resolution specified when ps2write is invoked.
Particularly this always happen with CID fonts, which are not Postscript Level 2 objects.
Therefore the page device parameter <b><tt>PageSize</tt></b>
must match the target printer, and we recommend to set
the <b><tt>PageSize</tt></b> entry of the <b><tt>Policies</tt></b>
dictionary to 3, in order to provide a proper page scaling
in the Postscript interpreter while ps2write is invoked.
</em>
<p>
More importantly, <em>options</em> passed to ps2ps2 may include
<b><tt>-d</tt></b><em>parameter</em>=<em>value</em> or
<b><tt>-s</tt></b><em>parameter</em>=<em>string</em> switches for setting
"distiller parameters", Adobe's documented parameters for controlling the
conversion process. The PostScript <b><tt>setdistillerparams</tt></b> and
<b><tt>currentdistillerparams</tt></b> operators are also recognized when
running <b><tt>ps2ps2</tt></b>, and provide an equivalent way to set these
parameters from within the PostScript input file.
<p>
The <b><tt>ps2write</tt></b> device handles the same set of distiller
parameters as
are handled by the <b><tt>pdfwrite</tt></b> device. See the
<a href="Ps2pdf.htm#Options">PostScript-to-PDF converter</a>
documentation for a complete description of how to use them to
control the document conversion.
<p>
The following options may be important for <b><tt>ps2ps2</tt></b> due to the target printer features:
<dl>
<dt><b><tt>-dPatternImagemask=</tt></b><em>boolean</em>,
<dt><b><tt>-dMaxClipPathSize=</tt></b><em>integer</em>,
<dt><b><tt>-dMaxShadingBitmapSize=</tt></b><em>integer</em>,
<dt><b><tt>-dHaveTrueTypes=</tt></b><em>boolean</em>.
</dl>
See <a href="Ps2pdf.htm#Options">PostScript-to-PDF converter</a> for details.
The option <b><tt>-dMaxInlineImageSize=</tt></b><em>integer</em>
Must not be used with <tt><b>ps2ps2</tt></b>.
<p>
This set includes of the Acrobat Distiller 5 parameters
defined in the DistillerParameters document included in the
<a href="http://partners.adobe.com/public/developer/acrobat/sdk/index.html">Acrobat SDK</a>.
Default values are same as the <tt><b>printer</tt></b> settings defined
in <a href="Ps2pdf.htm#Options">PostScript-to-PDF converter</a>,
with these exceptions:
<dl>
<dt><b><tt>/PreserveHalftoneInfo</tt></b> <em>true</em>,
<dt><b><tt>/TransferFunctionInfo</tt></b> <em>/Preserve</em>,
<dt><b><tt>/MaxViewerMemorySize</tt></b> <em>8000000</em>,
<dt><b><tt>/CompressPages</tt></b> <em>false</em>,
<dt><b><tt>/CompressFonts</tt></b> <em>false</em>,
<dt><b><tt>/ASCII85EncodePages</tt></b> <em>true</em>,
</dl>
<p>
The following ps2write specific option control the output file compression :
<p>
<dl>
<b><tt>-dCompressEntireFile=</tt></b><em>boolean</em>
<dd>When this parameter is true, the <b><tt>LZWEncode</b></tt>
and <b><tt>ASCII85Encode</b></tt> filters are being applied to entire output file.
In this case <b><tt>CompressPages</b></tt> should be false to exclude a dual compression.
When this parameter is false, those filters applies to the initial procset only,
if <b><tt>CompressPages</b></tt> is true.
Default value is <b><tt>false</b></tt>.
</dl>
<h2><a name="PPD"></a>Ghostscript PS2 Printer Description</h2>
<p>
Not implemented yet.
<hr>
<h2><a name="printer_control"></a>Controlling the printer behavior</h2>
<p>
A few options can be used to control the behavior of the printer or
program that reads the result of ps2ps2.
<dl>
<dt><b><tt>-dRotatePages=</tt></b><em>boolean</em>.
<dd>The printer will rotate pages
for a better fitting into the real page size. Default value : <em>false</em>.
Must be <em>false</em> if <b><tt>-dSetPageSize=true</tt></b>.
<dt><b><tt>-dFitPages=</tt></b><em>boolean</em>.
<dd>The printer will scale pages down
to fit into the real page size. The rendering quality may be poor due to the scaling,
especially for fonts which Ghostscript had converted into bitmaps
(see the <em>ps2write</em> device parameter <b><tt>HaveTrueTypes</tt></b>;
See <a href="#Options">Options</a> about the <b><tt>PageSize</tt></b> entry of the <b><tt>Policies</tt></b>
dictionary while the conversion step).
Default value : <em>false</em>.
Must be <em>false</em> if <b><tt>-dSetPageSize=true</tt></b>.
<dt><b><tt>-dSetPageSize=</tt></b><em>boolean</em>.
<dd>The printer will try to set page size from the job.
Only use with printers which can handle random <em>PageSize</em>.
Must be <em>false</em> if <b><tt>-dRotatePages=true</tt></b> or <b><tt>-dFitPages=true</tt></b>.
</dl>
<p>
These correspond to keys in the Postscript <em>userdict</em>
of the target printer's virtual memory to control its behavior while
executing a job generated with <tt><b>ps2ps2</tt></b>.
<p>
Currently Ghostscript does not provide a method for
incorporating these in a print job.
Users should refer to the printer's documentation.
<hr>
<h2><a name="Limitations"></a>Limitations</h2>
<p>
Attempting to generate a device independent Postscript Level 2 is a bad idea.
Postscript Level 2 data are device dependent by definition. Let Ghostscript know
the features of the specific printer as described in
<a href="#Options">Options</a> while generating a printer job.
<p>
<b><tt>ps2ps2</tt></b> does not generate DSC comments.
<p>
<b><tt>ps2ps2</tt></b> provides simplified interface to Ghostscript
command line. It is not possible to use <tt><b>-c</tt></b> option or pass
multiple source files. For the unrestricted access to the command line
parameters, use Ghostscript directly.
<blockquote><b><tt>
gs -q -dSAFER -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sOutputFile=file.ps </tt></b><em>[more options]</em><b><tt> \<br>
-sDEVICE=ps2write </b></tt><em>source1.pdf [more files]</em>
</blockquote>
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<p>
<small>Copyright © 1996, 2000, 2004 artofcode LLC. All rights
reserved.</small>
<p>
This software is provided AS-IS with no warranty, either express or
implied.
This software is distributed under license and may not be copied,
modified or distributed except as expressly authorized under the terms
of the license contained in the file LICENSE in this distribution.
For more information about licensing, please refer to
http://www.ghostscript.com/licensing/. For information on
commercial licensing, go to http://www.artifex.com/licensing/ or
contact Artifex Software, Inc., 101 Lucas Valley Road #110,
San Rafael, CA 94903, U.S.A., +1(415)492-9861.
<p>
<small>Ghostscript version 8.53, 20 October 2005
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