How to Use Ghostscript® with RPM®

Wed, 04/24/2024 - 11:53 By Dave Brooks

Q: Can I use Ghostscript with RPM Remote Print Manager® (RPM)?

A: Yes. Ghostscript is a PostScript interpreter. PostScript is the most common printer language supported by laser printers from nearly every printer manufacturer. Ghostscript is very useful for customers who wish to create dual output, for example, printing and archiving.

The most common reason to use Ghostscript is to convert a PostScript file to PDF. Ghostscript can also output graphics formats (PNG, JPEG, TIFF, etc.) and printer formats (PCL5, PXL, Epson). The second most common reason to use Ghostscript is to print PostScript files to a printer that does not support it.

Q: Does that mean I can print PostScript files using GhostScript and RPM?

A: Yes, as a matter of fact--that is exactly what we mean!

To summarize this process:

  1. create a queue in RPM that calls Ghostscript as a "filter action" meaning it will run a program you define
  2. send Postscript files to that queue
  3. be sure to show at least one person that you printed Postscript on a non-Postscript printer (at least, that's what I did the first time)

How to download Ghostscript

Ghostscript is currently hosted at www.ghostscript.com.  That may change and we will try to keep this page up-to-date.  If you are unable to find it there, try searching the Internet where you should be able to find instructions to download and install the software.

More about the Ghostscript suite

You will also need to review the license information that comes with Ghostscript to verify that your use will comply with the copyright holder's terms. This is not something we can assist you with.  The remaining instructions assume you are in compliance with the terms and you have downloaded and installed GhostScript.

Convert Postscript to PDF

  1. In Queue Settings, create a new Filter action.
  2. Next to Command, click Browse and locate gswin64c.exe. For instance, at this writing it was located in C:\Program Files\gs\gs9.23\bin
  3. The Arguments should be:
    -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile="%i-%n.pdf" %s
  4. Set the Working directory to the folder in which you want the PDF file to be saved. To eliminate many issues, this folder should be local.

How to setup the Filter action

If you are using a filter transform as part of your workflow, please note that the command line is slightly different:

-dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sOutputFile=%o %s

More on the Filter transform

Note that the %s, %o, and %n are variables (placeholders).  RPM will substitute those variables with the values from the print job being processed.  A complete list of available variables is found in the RPM manual under both Filter transforms (page 13) and Filter actions (page17).  Quotation marks are added automatically to %s, %f, %o and %O.  If the other variables contain spaces, you must add quotation marks to the argument list where required such as around %i-%n.pdf.  While %i will not contain spaces, %n might, depending on the control file sent by your print client.

Print Postscript to a non-Postscript printer

  1. In Queue Settings, create a new Filter action.
  2. Next to Command, click Browse and locate gswin64c.exe. It may be located in C:\Program Files\gs\gs8.64\bin\.
  3. The arguments should be:
    -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sDEVICE=mswinpr2 -sOutputFile="\\spool\<Printer Name>" %s

More on the Filter action

Substitute the name of the printer to which you want to print in place of <Printer Name>. This is the name found in the Printers folder.

Note: Certain situations may prevent gswin64c from completing successfully.  Each of the following methods has proven useful to resolve the problem at one time or another.  We suggest trying each method in the order it appears and testing each change until you find the first method that works.

  • The option -dBATCH tells gswin64c it is running as a batch and should exit when finished.  It has been added to these instructions.
  • Try adding the word 'quit' as the last argument to the command line.
  • Add an Append bytes transform to append the word quit to the end of the data file.  One customer reported this method corrupted PDF Documents when attempting to convert Color PostScript files.
  • Configure your Filter action or transform to terminate idle processes after a few idle seconds.  This option will cause gswin64c to close, but it may not be finished with the conversion.

If you encounter any problems, enter the login credentials of the user you are logged on as, and select "Interact with Desktop". The next time a job is received, the Ghostscript window will be displayed where you can troubleshoot errors. Once resolved, remove the credentials and deselect "Interact with Desktop"