Question

Just installed Ghostscript 8.54 for Windows.

Does anyone know of the minimum parameters to pass to gswin32c.exe to make it convert, say, someFile.eps to someFile.eps.pdf?

Answer 1

Since the question was about the “minimum parameters to pass to gswin32c.exe to make it convert, say, someFile.eps to someFile.eps.pdf”, let me give an answer:

  c:/path/to/gswin32c.exe ^
    -sDEVICE=pdfwrite ^
    -o c:/path/to/output.pdf ^
    c:/path/to/input.eps

or even shorter:

  gswin32c ^
    -sDEVICE=pdfwrite ^
    -o output.pdf ^
    input.eps

This will use the builtin, default parameters for Ghostscript. The most important of which, from the top of my head, for the most recent version of Ghostscript are:

• -dPDFSETTINGS=/default …….. roughly the same settings as Adobe Distiller uses for “screen” with the following differences:
• -r720x720 ……………………………. resolution: 720 dpi (bitmaps/fonts requiring conversion to bitmap)
• -dColorConversionStrategy=/LeaveColorUnchanged … (Distiller’s “screen” uses =/sRGB)
• -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 …. (Distiller’s “screen” uses =1.3)
• -dEmbedAllFonts=true [*]……… (Distiller’s “screen” uses =false)
• -dOptimize=false [**] …………… (Distiller’s “screen” uses =true)
• -dDownsample{Color,Gray,Mono}Images=false … (Distiller’s “screen” uses =true)

_{[*] By default, Ghostscript does not embed the classical “Base 14”-PostScript fonts. To enforce that, use an extra parameter (at the end of the command line!) like -c "<</NeverEmbed [ ]>>setdistillerparams" -f c:/path/to/input.pdf.
[**] Ghostscript’s pdfwrite device cannot “optimize” a PDF when it is writing it the first time. To optimize, you have to call Ghostscript again for a second pass, using special parameters (you may also try -dOptimize=true).}

BTW, Ghostscript’s most recent version is 8.71, available here: ghostscript.com/relases.