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Ghostscript

Ghostscript is a software suite that provides an interpreter for the PostScript and PDF page description languages. It originated in the 1980s, created by L. Peter Deutsch to offer a portable, open-source PostScript interpreter, and is now maintained by Artifex Software. The project is commonly distributed as GPL Ghostscript, with commercial licensing options available for proprietary use.

The core of Ghostscript consists of PostScript and PDF interpreters along with a set of rendering devices

Ghostscript is widely used as a back-end engine in document workflows and printing pipelines. It is typically

Licensing and availability: Ghostscript is distributed under the GNU General Public License, with commercial licenses offered

and
utilities.
It
can
render
PostScript
and
PDF
documents
to
raster
images
or
directly
to
printers,
and
it
supports
converting
between
formats,
including
PostScript
to
PDF,
PDF
to
images,
and
page
extraction.
The
software
includes
font
handling,
color
management,
and
various
rendering
and
processing
options
to
accommodate
different
workflows
and
output
devices.
accessed
via
a
command-line
interface
(often
invoked
as
gs)
on
Unix-like
systems
and
Windows.
It
also
underpins
graphical
viewers
and
publishing
tools
such
as
Ghostview
and
GSView,
and
serves
as
a
core
rasterization
and
conversion
component
in
many
open-source
and
commercial
applications.
by
Artifex
for
use
in
proprietary
products.
It
runs
on
a
broad
range
of
platforms,
including
Windows,
Linux,
macOS,
and
other
Unix-like
operating
systems,
making
it
a
common
component
in
both
desktop
and
server
environments.