MacGSView 2.0b3

Obtaining MacGSView

You can download the installer and the source package for MacGSView:

• MacGSView 2.0b3 Installer (3.5 MB)
• MacGSView 2.0b3 Sources for CodeWarrior (222 kB)

The Ghostscript 6.01 software is included in the installer, so you don't have to download any additional files.

For interested developers:
The latest MacGSView sources can also be obtained via anonymous CVS. If you are using a unix shell the command to check out the entire module is:
cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.ghostscript.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/ghostscript checkout macgsview

System Requirements

MacGSView works on any Apple Power Macintosh, PowerBook (with PowerPC), iMac, iBook with MacOS 8.5 or later installed.
How much memory you really do need depends on the documents you want to open, and at which resolution you wan to view them. If you have 5MB free for MacGSView to use, you should be able to view most standard size documents.

Features and changes from MacGS 5.50

• Ghostscript is no longer part of the application but is loaded dynamically from a shared library (GhostScriptLib PPC)
• MacGSView handles documents conforming to the Adobe Document Structure Convention: you can view or print pages randomly
• Free zoom in/out of pages
• Rendering at different color depths and resolutions
• Copy pages as PICT to the clipboard
• Save PS/PDF documents as PICT, TIFF, JPEG, BMP, PDF, PNG, and many more
• Render and view multiple documents at the same time
• VERY basic AppleScript support (open, close, quit)

Known Issues

• Some PDF documents don't render correctly
• Rotated pages are not always handled correctly.
• MacGSView is incompatible with Action Files
  Solution: add MacGSView to the list of incompatible applications
• On some machines, rendering takes much more time than really needed. A normal text page should render in about 1 second on a G3. On such systems it helps to move the mouse or click around to speed rendering up
• Printing seems to be a major problem. The LaserWriter driver and many other drivers do not work at all. This will be solved in a future version.

Version History

18 Feb 2000 - Version 1.0b1 (First Public Beta)

Well, there really should have been a 1.0, but the internal structure changed a lot and there are very many new features, so I decided to call it 2.0b1. There will be no more features added, until a 2.0 release is out.

02 Apr 2000 – Version 2.0b1

• Fixed bugs when exporting PDF documents
• Fixed crash when selecting Page Setup without open windows
• Added toolbar
• Added more Acrobat-like page handling
• Improved performance with big documents
• Fixed 8.6 bug where the export dialog didn't appear
• Fully redesigned Preferences/Export dialogs
• Fixed PICT-Export bugs
• added PNG, PCX, PS, EPS, Fax device
• (almost) the whole application works threaded now, so you can export and view at the same time
• added a Convert function which allows to convert multiple documents in one step, without opening/exporting them one by one and many many more

24 Apr 2000 - Version 2.0b2

• Fixed the always enabled "Zoom Window" menu item
• Fixed a bug which left the window inactive after cancelling a print job
• the opening of a file runs in its own thread now
• fixed a bug which caused some PS files with binary data to render only partial
• added a workaround for the nasty NavServices dialog problem in 8.5/6
• the convert function converts all pages of a document now
• changed standard error box for error -25 to "Not enough memory"

03 May 2000 - Version 2.0b3 (Final Candidate)

• uses Ghostscript 6.01 now
• added anti-aliasing to the mac ghostscript device!!!
• added new settings to preferences panel for transparency (anti-aliasing) settings
• the ghostscript version is now displayed dynamically in the about box
• changed the non-DSC warn dialog to a notice (no choice available)
• fixed the (hopefully) last remaining (but rare) freeze bugs
• fixed smaller bugs and interface glitches