MW Software - GView
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GView - a RISC OS PostScript previewer
News
- 21-Jun-06: GPL Ghostscript 8.54 released.
- 08-May-06: GView 1.52 released (slightly less prone to user configuration errors when used with Ghostscript 8.x).
- 07-Feb-06: GView 1.51 released with a few bug fixes.
- 03-Feb-06: GView 1.50 released with support for displaying PDF files.
- 21-Apr-04: GView 1.41 released with support for displaying EPS files.
- 08-Jan-03: 32-bit safe versions of GView and Ghostscript released for the Iyonix!
- 25-Sep-02: New release: The fully multi-tasking GView 1.31.
- 28-Sep-00: GView 1.20 released. Finally, Ghostscript's Sprite device is used to speed up processing.
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GView is a front-end for Ghostscript, a PostScriptTM interpreter that can
turn PostScript and PDF files into raster image files. PostScript and PDF are industry-standard
page description languages defined by 
AdobeTM.
GView displays PostScript andPDF documents in RISC OS windows. It supports multi-page
documents, allows you to go backward and forward in the document, jump to
specific pages directly, save Sprite files for pages, convert complete
documents to multiple Sprite files and gives you a range of output options.
Recent improvements
Version 1.50 finally allows you to view PDF files. This is particularly useful for PDF files that cannot be displayed by other RISC OS PDF viewers, such as files with embedded TrueType subset fonts, which display random characters only in other viewers, or for files using advanced features not supported by the other viewers, e.g., graduated fills.
Starting with version 1.31, GView fully multi-tasks while processing pages and notices when the PostScript/PDF file has changed on disc. Error-handling has been improved.
Starting with version 1.20, the Ghostscript Sprite device is used to speed up processing. Furthermore, there is an option to generate greyscale images and you can specify the resolution at which you want the pages to be rendered. This allows you to reduce resolution to speed up the rendering and processing of the resulting bitmap or to increase resolution for more detailed rendering.
Future improvements
Currently, GView is very slow and its options are very basic. There are many things on my list for future developments:
- support PDF files using the new PDF 1.5 cross-reference stream format - those files are completely incompatible with PDF 1.4 and below and currently cause an "xref section interpretation error" in GView
- add memory and disc caching of rasterized pages to allow quicker navigation in a document
- cache the Ghostscript executable in memory so it does not have to be loaded from disc for every page
- add a thumbnail mode from where the user can jump to a page directly
- allow the user to choose the Ghostscript device and give access to more Ghostscript options, thus turning GView more into a front-end for Ghostscript
- implement the Adobe DSC more carefully using the Adobe DSC reference manual
Download section
Please read the following section about donations when downloading GView.
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Download GView 1.52 (for all RISC OS platforms, 32-bit compatible) |
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GView needs a working installation of the RISC OS port of Ghostscript. It has been tested with many versions starting from 5.10 but the very latest version (8.54) is recommended, in particular for viewing PDF files with advanced features like colour graduations and transparency. There is no point in trying GView before you are sure that Ghostscript works.
Download the latest version of Ghostscript for RISC OS.
For old machines with little memory the original port of Ghostscript 7.03 by Graham Jones is still available.
Donate
If you find this utility useful you are invited to support the past and future
development of GView by donating some money.
Either send me a cheque (address) or use one of the following
buttons to donate via PayPal:
| Donate £5 | Donate £10 | Donate €7.50 | Donate €15 |
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