2015b ghostscript not found - ps2pdf multi-page ps to pdf
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peter vincent
on 29 Oct 2015
Commented: Walter Roberson
on 26 Jan 2020
the release notes for 2015b state that "MATLAB no longer ships with theGhostscript® library. Remove all instances of code that use ghostscript.m"
This breaks the our code which prints multi-page ps and then uses ps2pdf to convert to a multipage pdf. So far this is the only way we have found to get the SVG or vector graphics format into a multi-page pdf.
Unfortunately it is now broken, so what do you suggest we replace this with? Is there a way to do this with saveas now? Or can we somehow run the 2014b mex inside 2015b?
1 Comment
Jesper Sallander
on 4 Nov 2015
We have the exact same problem! Best solution would be if Mathworks could enable the -append functionality for pdf's too in the next release. The only reason for us to go via .ps files is this multi page option which is only available for ps. It is very handy to produce a single pdf report with all the graphs in the same file.
Accepted Answer
Mike Garrity
on 4 Nov 2015
We stopped shipping Ghostscript with MATLAB because nothing in MATLAB uses it any longer. If you're still using it, you can download it from Artifex and install it. Then you should be able to continue to use it the same way you have been.
I wouldn't think that trying to run the 14b MEX file in a newer version is a good idea, but the MEX file isn't really adding anything here. PS2PDF is a standalone program that comes with the Ghostscript distribution. It's not part of the MEX file that earlier versions of MATLAB used to run the various Ghostscript programs.
6 Comments
Walter Roberson
on 13 Nov 2017
Julie Fourmy:
After installing it, the easiest way to make it available to MATLAB is to make a symbolic link:
sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/gs /usr/bin/gs
sudo ln -s /usr/local/bin/gs /usr/bin/ghostscript
This is the easier way, not really the best way. The better way is to edit a plist to set the PATH environment variable and tell launchctl to use it; see https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/106355/setting-the-system-wide-path-environment-variable-in-mavericks
An intermediate way is to instead modify your MATLAB startup.m to contain
setenv('PATH', [getenv('PATH') ':/usr/local/bin'])
However I do not know at the moment whether the program will be looked for as gs (the name the above package installs it as) or as ghostscript
Jan
on 13 Nov 2017
[EDITED] Julie Fourmy posted as flag:
Nice to tell. Explaining how to and where to install it on a Mac would be useful. As it is, I have not succeeded to do it for 2 hours. Thanks
@Julie: Please use flags only to inform admins and editors about contributions which might violate the terms of use, e.g. by rudeness. Thanks.
More Answers (7)
LR
on 23 Jun 2016
Hi all,
I had the same problem for a while, but then I found the export_fig toolbox, which includes a function called append_pdfs which works well. Here's a link to that: http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/23629-export-fig
You may have to download gs9.19 from http://ghostscript.com/download/ though, but that's not a big deal.
ps2pdf isn't working for me,
(I get this error message: Problem converting PostScript. System returned error: 1.'""' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.)
so I'm going to go with this.
Hope this helps,
L
4 Comments
munire ozlem cevik
on 26 Jan 2020
Hello,
I downloaded Ghostscript 9.50.
I get the same error message above when I call append_pdfs:
Undefined function or variable 'ghostscript'.
Error in append_pdfs (line 32)
[status, errMsg] = ghostscript(['@"' cmdfile '"']);
which ghostscript returns 'ghostscript not found'.
What should I do for MATLAB to access ghostscript?
Walter Roberson
on 26 Jan 2020
You need to create something like
function [status, errMsg] = ghostscript(cmd)
[status, errMsg] = system(['ghostscript ', cmd]);
end
Attilio
on 9 Jan 2016
I share the opinion of Peter Vincent and Dr. Bagels. The existing commands saveas and print do allow only saving a single figure to a pdf file, yet easily, but saving a previously created set of figures to become a unique pdf has now become unexpectedly complicated. Best regards Attilio Brighenti
0 Comments
Lukas Hoffmann
on 4 Apr 2016
I agree, Matlab should have a standalone option to convert PS to multi-page PDF
0 Comments
Rajesh
on 19 Oct 2016
I share the opinion of Peter Vincent. Matlab should have the support for ghostscript. If you would remove it, then Matlab should at least provide native functions to do the same (ps to pdf, or appending pdfs etc.)
0 Comments
Jan
on 19 Oct 2016
I do not see the problem: While earlier versions of Matlab contained a specific GhostScript version, the new versions don't. But GhostScript is available for free. I always used the newest version instead of the one shipped with Matlab, e.g. to convert EPS files to PDF.
Calling GhostScript is much easier and works fluently. In opposite to this, there is a bunch of troubles you can get with installing a compatible C-compiler, as the large number of questions demonstrates.
0 Comments
Teizeen Mohamedali
on 10 Nov 2016
Where do you install Ghostscript - in C:/Program Files, or do you have to move some of the Ghostscript files (which ones? just the .exe?) into the MATLAB root directory in the 'sys' folder?
2 Comments
John Isler
on 9 Sep 2017
I installed the newest version of ghost script, but still had trouble with running ps2pdf. I placed the ghostscript files in several places for Matlab 2016b with not luck. I even matched some gsData definitions to match what earlier versions of Matlab were defining with the script.
John Isler
on 9 Sep 2017
However, I found export_fig (https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/23629-export-fig) with the '-append' feature to do the trick. Hope this helps!
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