Printing and displaying files in PostScript, dvi and ms format
PostScript -- ( *.ps) filetypes
Unless you have a PostScript capable system and a Postscript printer you
will need to install a package to read files which have a filetype
(extension) of .ps . Packages are available for many
types of systems. They are distributed with a Free Public Licence
for DOS, Windows 3.1, Mac, OS/2 2.1, OS/2 Warp,
Windows 95 and many unix systems. There are two components to
the system. The first component, GSview, permits the
easy integration of the second component, GSscript, into your operating
system. (You will have to configure GSview to use GSscript -- see
readme.gv included with the package for instructions.)
The total package will take form 2 to 5 Meg of disk space and
can be configured to work with Netscape, Mosaic, WebBrowser, etc. in a
seamless way, once the viewer option for .ps files is set to be GSview
(which then in turn calls Ghostscript). *.ps files viewed in
Ghostscript may then be printed on most non-postscript printers exactly
as viewed on the screen. The pace to start looking for information and
the current releases of ghostscript and ghostview is
here.
If you are
unable to download the *.zip files with your web browser, you should use
anonymous ftp to go directly to the site and download the relevant files.
First use anonymous ftp to get to ftp.cs.wisc.edu .
After you are logged in, change to the appropriate directory.
You will need to download up to 4
files. The ghostscript files are in one directory and the ghostview
file is in another. The ghostscript files currently have names like:
gs333ini.zip, gs333xxx.zip, gs333fn1.zip (where xxx indicates the
operating system), and are in
ftp://ftp.cs.wisc.edu/pub/ghost/aladdin . The
ghostview file in
ftp://ftp.cs.wisc.edu/pub/ghost/rjl
has the current
name of gsview31.zip. The numbers will change as new versions are
released. You will need the program PKUNZIP to unzip them. This
program is readily available from many sources including ftp.uic.edu.
in the pub directory by anonymous ftp.
All these files can be easily be downloaded at UIC and saved to three
1.4 Meg disks. The Postscript files which you will be viewing
tend to be very large,
and saving them on your disks will occupy much space.
DVI filetypes (Device independent files) -- ( *.dvi) filetypes
In order to view these files you will need a DVI viewer. Such viewers
are an an integral part of most TeX typesetting programs. If you have
some form of TeX installed on your system you should be able to
configure your web browser to view DVI files. It is possible to buy
PC-Tex from the UIC computer center for an attractive price. Other TeX
packages are available free from other sources for the Mac and OS/2
operating systems. TeX may take up to 10 Meg of disk space.
Maple worksheets -- ( *.ms) filetypes
In order to configure your web browser to view these files you will need
to have a version of Maple running on your system. You should then be
able to configure you your web browser to open such files directly in
Maple. You may purchase the student version of Maple through the
university for an attractive price. Maple takes about 10-15 Meg of disk
space.
In all cases, if you do not have the proper viewer setup with your web
browser it will usually prompt you and ask you if you want to download
the file to your local disk. At that point, you can save the file, and
use one of these programs to view the file later.
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