Dec 17 2007

Install Ghostscript for Windows and GIMP

Filed under: Software » Graphic Design,

Tools:

Installing GhostScript for Windows

GhostScript for Windows supports PostScript (.ps) and Encapsulated PostScript (.eps) files. You can download it and install it here. To install it, you'll want to download a Windows distribution with an installer (.exe), and follow the installation instructions.

Getting GIMP to recognize GhostScript

To get GIMP, the popular open-source image editing application, to recognize your GhostScript installation, you'll need to set an environment variable in Windows as follows:

Browse to Start -> Control Panel -> System
Select the "Advanced" tab
Click the "Environment Variables" button at bottom
then click "Add" to add the following system variable:
- Variable: GS_PROG
- Value: Full path to the location of your gswin32c.exe file (in your GhostScript installation directory - the default location is C:\Program Files\gs\gs8.54\bin\gswin32c.exe, but this may vary depending on where you installed it)

Mastering GIMP graphic design

Used to Photoshop, or just starting off with GIMP and having trouble? GIMP is an excellent, open source (free) alternative to Photoshop that is constantly getting better. However, it's not known as the most user-friendly alternative to Photoshop. There is a Windows version available now, which is making it a lot more accessible to the average designer (although most professional designers are on Mac's - which also has a GIMP version). GIMP was originally written for Linux. Check out our feature on How to Design Graphics with GIMP to get the most out of your design software.

Way cool post...

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Wed, 2008-11-05 11:22.

Thanks, it worked like a charm...

Great Tip...

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Sat, 2008-11-15 17:58.

Great Tip. It worked really well. Thanks.

Jason

Ghostscript in GIMP

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Mon, 2008-11-17 09:27.

Awesome - I've been trying to get GIMP to recognize GhostScript for a while. Thanks for the useful infos!!

Thanks ... that was really

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Tue, 2008-11-18 10:38.

Thanks ... that was really helpful

Learning Photoshop

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Wed, 2009-06-10 07:15.

I was always interested whether it is possible to learn working with Photoshop on my own. I am actually one of such enthusiasts, and have read several e-books already, but still lag behind...

Perhaps, there's something I miss... I need your help!

Ghostscript

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Wed, 2009-09-23 04:58.

That was great. Thanks a lot. One suggestion - in the bit about the system variable, you might explain that the path should look like this (including the ghostscript exe file name) (in my case), C:\Program Files\gs\gs8.54\bin\gswin32.exe

Ghostscript path

Submitted by cwd on Wed, 2009-09-23 10:51.

Thanks - actually the path varies per installation, so we simply tell them to look in their install directory. But I'll leave your comment in case it helps someone.

path

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Fri, 2009-10-09 09:19.

how do i find the path? i have no idea where the install directory is...

thanks.

Ghostscript path

Submitted by cwd on Tue, 2009-10-13 13:33.

See the comment above.

Daniel

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Fri, 2009-10-30 13:26.

Thanks a lot, it was really helpful... I didn't even realized that GIMP was available for Windows... Nice.

Raul

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Fri, 2010-02-12 07:42.

Thanks man. You saved my day!

PATH setup

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Wed, 2010-02-17 10:39.

As a matter of interest. In your explanation you say full path to win32c.exe, but as an example of the path you mention win32.exe. (without the c)

Which one is correct? I am using Eclipse and constantly get an error that my path is wrong when I want to print. Would every program use a different path variable? How can I test my path if I do not have GIMP?

Thanks

Path variables

Submitted by cwd on Mon, 2010-02-22 19:52.

The path variable (GS_PROG) simply stores the path of the GhostScript executable (win32c.exe). When the variable is used in GIMP, it should call the GhostScript executable and load it. Thanks for pointing out the typo - they should both be win32c.exe. If your path is wrong, GhostScript won't run correctly.

Environmental Does Work

Submitted by a visitor from afar on Tue, 2010-02-23 20:39.

Thanks, you saved my bacon! I had told my client that GIMP would import EPS and was taken aback when I got an error message about "Ghostscript needs to be found"?

Download and install was easy. I was able to find the Vista environmentals in "System || advanced system settings || evironmental variables" , with Admin privileges. The new version had a little different path "C:\Program Files\gs\gs8.71\bin\gswin32.exe"

Great Work and thanks again
Fredz