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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