Simple PDF Solution; "Gostscript" -> Developer Needed

[Mat]

Ok. GhostscriptLib 8.5.1 is working already.
It was just a simple spelling error.  I had to find  with Resorcerer GhostscriptLib and replace it by GhostScriptLib.

Wonderful! Thats exactly what I hoped, ... (even it is a pity that it took 10 years after macgs 8.51 was released). But I am glad that my thoughs were somehow correctly.

It can open some PDFs that Acrobat reader 5 can't, at first. But it crash with others that Acrobat reader 5 opens correctly ...

Thats better than nothing! I will always try Acrobat 5.05 first, and see if it can handle the files. BTW there are some very few files that Acrobat 4 can open and 5 cannot.

We are going to let to nanopico bigger and complex works
...   ...

Perhaps the 8.54 version from 2006 might be some easy work. No idea what a recent GPL Ghostscript would mean for a coder. But perhaps it is also not too much work, as it derived from AFPL? In every case a complete and modern Ghostscript would be the best!

unfortunately there are too many idiots on this planet whco think it is useful to always export simple text documents using the latest version number for pdf, eps, or flash also when it is not needed at all due to the content of the file.

Thanks! There is nothing to ad, perhaps just that this statement counts for every file format.

[MacTron]

(even it is a pity that it took 10 years after macgs 8.51 was released)

Well, not really, it took 15 minutes  only, to find and repair the issue,    even with MARL ( MacTron's Advanced Research Lab ) in a low activity period ... LOL

[Mat]

Sadly it doesn´t work on my computer. If I try to open any file from within MacGSview with the new 8.51 inside my System Extensioons folder, there is a quick flash, but no window and no rendered page appeares :-(

It is a Mac OS 9.2.2 and GhostScriptLib PPC 8.00 works perfectly.

[MacTron]

Sadly it doesn´t work on my computer. If I try to open any file from within MacGSview with the new 8.51 inside my System Extensioons folder, there is a quick flash, but no window and no rendered page appeares :-(

It is a Mac OS 9.2.2 and GhostScriptLib PPC 8.00 works perfectly.

Did you update the "Application Support" folder stuff?

[Mat]

Indeed! Supid me. Putting the "lib", "Resource" and "examples" folders from the new macgs-852 folder into the MacGSView folder and 8.5.1 works without problems.
I already could open several PDFs that Acrobat 5 cannot anymore. For example the new Sonnettech manuals that are known to be incompatible
And very nice as well; exporting a PDF with Ghostscript produces clean PDF 1.3 files that are again usable with Acrobat 5!

That is a huge improvement already!

Now I am going to wait for a recent Ghostscript

[DieHard]

From Macrton:

Well, not really, it took 15 minutes  only, to find and repair the issue,    even with MARL ( MacTron's Advanced Research Lab ) in a low activity period ... LOL

I spit coffee all over my screen when I read that !

Thread started in Dec 2015... MARL fixed in 15 min... the usual bullshit all over again; the Mactron obviously isn't human... that avatar says it all

[MacTron]

I spit coffee all over my screen when I read that !

Thread started in Dec 2015... MARL fixed in 15 min... the usual bullshit all over again; the Mactron obviously isn't human... that avatar says it all

LOL

Thanks. But It was really easy. No merits.

[ovalking]

I tried GhostScriptLib PPC 8.0 & 8.51 but MacGSView complains that the library can not be opened.... Another day I'll see if the behaviour is different with OS9...

With OS9.2.2 it's different but not in my favour.
With GhostScriptLib PPC 8.51, MacGSView reports GhostScriptLib could not be found and it must be in Extns ƒ - which it was.
With GhostScriptLib PPC 8.00, MacGSView didn't complain... but couldn't open any files either (rendering error).
With GhostScriptLib PPC 6.01, MacGSView has another error: 'fopen failed in ScanPSFile', although it did at least draw a window this time. 

[Mat]

Now that I used AFPL Ghostscript 8.51 a few weeks, I can tell it is really a great help! I could open and convert a lot of PDFs that Acrobat 5.05 could not, and it enables me to not switch to other Operating Systems in several cases.

Everybody should have it on his Mac OS 9 computer. But as there are only 3 downloads at all, it seems I am the only person in the world using it.

May I suggest to at least try to get it uploaded to sourceforge? Of course it would be nice to "promote" it a little bit as well. But as it can recently only be downloaded from forum memebers here that is quite impossible.

Any more ideas where to put it?

[MacTron]

May I suggest to at least try to get it uploaded to sourceforge? Of course it would be nice to "promote" it a little bit as well. But as it can recently only be downloaded from forum memebers here that is quite impossible.

Any more ideas where to put it?

It shouldn't be posted in sourceforge because it isn't a code debug or improved but a binary fix -technically a hack -
At some point it can be repackaged  with VISE or Apple installer and placed in to its own post in to the public downloads sections.

[Protools5LEGuy]

At some point it can be repackaged  with VISE or Apple installer and placed in to its own post in to the public downloads sections.

Great!

[ovalking]

Now that I used AFPL Ghostscript 8.51 a few weeks, I can tell it is really a great help! ...

So what's the trick Mat?
I can only get MacGSView to work with GhostScriptLib PPC 6.01.

Where have you put the file "GhostScriptLib PPC" and the other items?
Did you have to delete Application Support:Ghostscript folder?
Did you have to download any fonts? (the links in the Readme do not work.)

Thanks.

[Mat]

So what's the trick Mat?
I can only get MacGSView to work with GhostScriptLib PPC 6.01.

Where have you put the file "GhostScriptLib PPC" and the other items?
Did you have to delete Application Support:Ghostscript folder?
Did you have to download any fonts? (the links in the Readme do not work.)

Indeed it seems to be a little bit tricky. I have the "GhostScriptLib PPC" inside my SystemExtensions folder. Lib, Examples and Ressource-folders are inside the MacGS folder. Nothing more in the Application support. And finally I got a Fonts folder inside the Mac GS folder (with 106 "afm", "pfm" and "pbf" PS fontsfiles), but I don´t know where I got it from. It is half a year ago that I downloaded it somewhere from the links in my first posting, but I couldn´t find it anymore now.

I will start to research what I did (in my brain and at the Ghostscript servers).

[ovalking]

Indeed it seems to be a little bit tricky. I have the "GhostScriptLib PPC" inside my SystemExtensions folder. Lib, Examples and Ressource-folders are inside the MacGS folder. Nothing more in the Application support. And finally I got a Fonts folder inside the Mac GS folder (with 106 "afm", "pfm" and "pbf" PS fontsfiles), but I don´t know where I got it from. It is half a year ago that I downloaded it somewhere from the links in my first posting, but I couldn´t find it anymore now.

Thanks for checking Mat, but still no go here.

I've got GhostScriptLib PPC, Lib, Examples and Ressource-folders in the same places as you. I've also tried them in other places without success.

I've got that fonts folder (with 106 files) in Application Support:Ghostscript. The MacGSView installer puts it there.
I moved it to the MacGS ƒ to match you but it still doesn't work.
I then removed the whole Application Support:Ghostscript ƒ (as per the macgs-851-shlib readme) but still no go.

I think I've spent long enough on this now. Back to Acrobat Reader ...

[Mat]

Thanks for checking Mat, but still no go here.

Hmm, ... I suspect some version conflict or something. Which MacGS are you using? I will try to install it at a machine that doesn´t have it at all recently.

I've got that fonts folder (with 106 files) in Application Support:Ghostscript. The MacGSView installer puts it there.

Ah, good to know. But I cannot remember that I put something out from Application Support folder. So I again suspect that you are using  another version, ...

I think I've spent long enough on this now. Back to Acrobat Reader ...

Well it is in no case a replacement for Acrobat Reader, as GhostView is extremely slow (thats what I think at Linux machines as well sometimes when it comes to more complicated stuff, like computing a bigger PDF).
So it is an addition if you got some PDFs that Acrobat cannot diplay anymore, or saving a document as clean PDF 1.3 or similar.

[MacTron]

I think I've spent long enough on this now. Back to Acrobat Reader ...

Try this: (Fully Working Copy)
MacGSView 2 & GhostScript 8.5 (Open Modern PDFs)
http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=3228.msg20549#msg20549

[ovalking]

Aha! Well done!
We have success, at least in OS9.2.2. I can now open the pdf form from my bank!


Unfortunately it did not work in OS8.6


I note the byte count is different for MacGSView, so I assume you have modified that in some way.... for info your MacGSView would not work with GhostScriptLib 6.01

[Mat]

Aha! Well done!
We have success, at least in OS9.2.2. I can now open the pdf form from my bank!

Unfortunately it did not work in OS8.6

I note the byte count is different for MacGSView, so I assume you have modified that in some way.... for info your MacGSView would not work with GhostScriptLib 6.01

Ahh, thats good to hear!
The best thing is most PDFs can be saved to a clean 1.3 PDF and thus be used with Acrobat again without any problems subsequently Ghostscript converted the PDF once.

But I do not get why you tried to use a 6.x lib when there always was a 8.x one working?

Next step in catching up with modern PDFs at our plattform would be that some developer would try to compile the GPL Ghostscript for Mac OS 9. Again I have no clue if there would be some "porting work" necessary, or if it could be a fast job?

If GPL Ghostscrip is a huge problem, someone could try at least the AFPL Ghostscrip 8.54. It is 13 months younger than the 8.51 that we got now (thanks MARL!).

[OS923]

There's a simpler alternative: Xpdf. If you don't want the graphical interface, then they claim that it can be compiled on any platform. PalmPDF is based on Xpdf and Palm was very much a Mac imitation.

I've been struggling for years with PDFs and I have several thousands of them.

The solution came when I started to use Acrobat 6 Pro on XP, with PDF Split And Merge and Atomic PDF Password Recovery. There was only 1 PDF that I couldn't convert to version 1.4. The others display correctly on OS 9.

When I have a new PDF, if it's version 1.6 or higher, I convert it with PDF Split And Merge to version 1.4.

Then I optimize with Acrobat 6, saving as version 1.4. Acrobat 6 is the last version that you don't have to activate online.

If it has a password, then this can be removed with Atomic PDF Password Recovery. It says that it's a demo, only converting x pages, but when you check it it converts everything.

JPEG2000 pictures cannot be viewed on OS 9. They can be converted to normal JPEG by Acrobat 6.

Another optimization is converting JBIG2 pictures to CCITT4, which will display faster on OS9.

[Mat]

OS923 I don´t exactly understand your posting. First you suggest to compile, or if  needed port, Xpdf ( http://www.foolabs.com/xpdf/ )to Mac OS 9. But the rest of your posting is about optimizing PDFs with other Operating Systems for Mac OS 9. That is no real solution for people like me who use nothing else like Mac OS 9. Or did I miss something completely?

If getting a new GPL Ghostscript or Xpdf running under Mac OS 9 is more easy, should be verified by some developer. But Ghostscrip has the advantage of a well working GUI - even if it is damn slow compared to Acrobat.