For other information, see the Ghostscript overview.
ps2ps2 is a script for converting a PDF or a Postscript Level 3 into
Postscript Level 2.
ps2ps2 is implemented as a very small command script (batch
file) that invokes Ghostscript, selecting a special "output device" called
ps2write. In order to use ps2ps2, the
ps2write device must be included in the makefile when
Ghostscript was compiled; see the documentation on building
Ghostscript for details: this is currently the case on all platforms, in
Ghostscript as we distribute it.
The usage for ps2ps2 is
ps2ps2 [options] input.{ps|eps|pdf} output.ps
The options given on the command line may include any switches that may be used with Ghostscript's PostScript and PDF interpreter (see here for a complete list).
Since ps2write 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
Output resolution,
-dFIXEDMEDIA, and
ProcessColorModel to be set correctly.
Important :
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 PageSize
must match the target printer, and we recommend to set
the PageSize entry of the Policies
dictionary to 3, in order to provide a proper page scaling
in the Postscript interpreter while ps2write is invoked.
More importantly, options passed to ps2ps2 may include
-dparameter=value or
-sparameter=string switches for setting
"distiller parameters", Adobe's documented parameters for controlling the
conversion process. The PostScript setdistillerparams and
currentdistillerparams operators are also recognized when
running ps2ps2, and provide an equivalent way to set these
parameters from within the PostScript input file.
The ps2write device handles the same set of distiller
parameters as
are handled by the pdfwrite device. See the
PostScript-to-PDF converter
documentation for a complete description of how to use them to
control the document conversion.
The following options may be important for ps2ps2 due to the target printer features:
-dPatternImagemask=boolean,
-dMaxClipPathSize=integer,
-dMaxShadingBitmapSize=integer,
-dHaveTrueTypes=boolean.
-dMaxInlineImageSize=integer
Must not be used with ps2ps2.
This set includes of the Acrobat Distiller 5 parameters
defined in the DistillerParameters document included in the
Acrobat SDK.
Default values are same as the printer settings defined
in PostScript-to-PDF converter,
with these exceptions:
/PreserveHalftoneInfo true,
/TransferFunctionInfo /Preserve,
/MaxViewerMemorySize 8000000,
/CompressPages false,
/CompressFonts false,
/ASCII85EncodePages true,
The following ps2write specific option control the output file compression :
-dCompressEntireFile=boolean
LZWEncode
and ASCII85Encode filters are being applied to entire output file.
In this case CompressPages should be false to exclude a dual compression.
When this parameter is false, those filters applies to the initial procset only,
if CompressPages is true.
Default value is false.
Not implemented yet.
A few options can be used to control the behavior of the printer or program that reads the result of ps2ps2.
-dRotatePages=boolean.
-dSetPageSize=true.
-dFitPages=boolean.
HaveTrueTypes;
See Options about the PageSize entry of the Policies
dictionary while the conversion step).
Default value : false.
Must be false if -dSetPageSize=true.
-dSetPageSize=boolean.
-dRotatePages=true or -dFitPages=true.
These correspond to keys in the Postscript userdict
of the target printer's virtual memory to control its behavior while
executing a job generated with ps2ps2.
These keys can be set when executing ps2ps2 (or using the ps2write device), this 'fixes' the resulting behaviour according to which key has been set. If these keys are not defined during conversion, the resulting PostScript will not attempt any form of media selection. In this case the behaviour can then be modified by setting the keys, either by modifying the resulting PostScript or setting the values in some other manner on the target device.
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 Options while generating a printer job.
ps2ps2 does not generate DSC comments.
ps2ps2 provides simplified interface to Ghostscript
command line. It is not possible to use -c option or pass
multiple source files. For the unrestricted access to the command line
parameters, use Ghostscript directly.
gs -q -dSAFER -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sOutputFile=file.ps[more options]\source1.pdf [more files]
-sDEVICE=ps2write
Copyright © 2000-2006 Artifex Software, Inc. All rights reserved.
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 that license. Refer to licensing information at http://www.artifex.com/ or contact Artifex Software, Inc., 7 Mt. Lassen Drive - Suite A-134, San Rafael, CA 94903, U.S.A., +1(415)492-9861, for further information.
Ghostscript version 8.64, 3 February 2009