Changes in the most recent release of Ghostscript

This document is news about the most recent Ghostscript release. For earlier versions, see the history documents:

History of Ghostscript versions 6.n
History of Ghostscript versions 5.n
History of Ghostscript versions 4.n
History of Ghostscript versions 3.n
History of Ghostscript versions 2.n
History of Ghostscript versions 1.n

For other information, see the Ghostscript overview.


Version 6.21 (2000-04-28)

This fileset includes more PDF writer enhancements: conversion of embedded Type 1 fonts to Type 1C (smaller), handling of more color spaces for images, ImageType 4 images, compression of mask images, support for (tiled) Pattern colors, more graphics state distiller parameters, recording of graphics state functions in the output. It also greatly improves the space usage and loading time for CMaps.

All problems registered on SourceForge numbered 104890 or lower are closed, except for the following: 101549, 101814, 101905, 101955, 102146, 102735, 103528, 104118, 104375.

The following projects are in a partially completed state in the PDF writer:


Incompatible changes

(Drivers) - The downsampling filters now require WidthIn and HeightIn, replacing Columns. - The gp_ procedures for managing screen swapping between console and graphics are removed. - Any driver that processes the pdfmark pseudo-parameter must now also return null for the "value" of the pdfmark parameter when (and only when) specifically requested. (PDF writer) - The last argument of pdf_alloc_font has changed. - pdf_set_color is renamed pdf_set_pure_color. - When producing PDF 1.3 output, the base 14 fonts are now candidates for embedding just like any other fonts. (Interpreter) - The .fontproperties procedure in gs_fonts.ps now takes an additional argument. - The interpreter must no longer reference stdin/out/err directly. (Library) - The internal representation of CMaps is changed completely, and has several new required members. - gs_cmap is renamed gs_cmap_t; gx_code_map is renamed gx_code_map_t. - Clients creating CMaps must call gs_cmap_init to initialize them. - The library must no longer reference stdin/out/err directly.

Copyright © 2000 Aladdin Enterprises. All rights reserved.

This file is part of Aladdin Ghostscript. See the Aladdin Free Public License (the "License") for full details of the terms of using, copying, modifying, and redistributing Aladdin Ghostscript.

Ghostscript version 6.21, 28 April 2000