Bug 691950

Summary:	font and character changed by ps2pdf
Product:	Ghostscript	Reporter:	Steve <steve.ogden>
Component:	PDF Writer	Assignee:	Ken Sharp <ken.sharp>
Status:	RESOLVED WORKSFORME
Severity:	normal
Priority:	P4
Version:	7.07
Hardware:	All
OS:	Linux
Customer:		Word Size:	---
Attachments:	example of incorrectly rendered file original document in postscript format

Description Steve 2011-02-10 13:34:27 UTC

on some occasions executing ps2pdf produces a strange looking pdf

the font has changed and all the characters seem to be the character for the next ascii value for example

a space (ascii value 32) shows as a ! (acsii value 33)

Comment 1 Steve 2011-02-10 13:59:55 UTC

Created attachment 7230 [details]
example of incorrectly rendered file

Comment 2 Ken Sharp 2011-02-10 14:06:25 UTC

I'm afraid a jpeg of the output is not going to be much help, we need the PostScript file you used as input to create the PDF file. Also the exact command line you used. 

Without that we cannot reproduce the problem.

According to the report, you are using Ghostscript 7.07 which is, if my memory serves, very nearly 7 years old now. Have you tried this with a recent version of Ghostscript ? If not I would suggest that you try upgrading. The current version is 9.0 and 9.01 should be released this week.

Comment 3 Steve 2011-02-10 15:25:37 UTC

Created attachment 7231 [details]
original document in postscript format

Taking this file and using ps2pdf does not always produce the error

command line is

ps2pdf -sPAPERSIZE=a4 $outfile '$printname

Comment 4 Steve 2011-02-10 15:27:37 UTC

A request to upgrade the version has been submitted (at this stage I can not say weather this will happen)

Comment 5 Ken Sharp 2011-02-10 15:51:36 UTC

(In reply to comment #3)

> command line is
> 
> ps2pdf -sPAPERSIZE=a4 $outfile '$printname


Presumably this is part of some script. I'd first suggest that you try this without using your own script. You might also consider invoking Ghostscript directly rather than using the ps2pdf script, especially if you are using your own script as well.

I'm afraid that if you cannot upgrade the version of Ghostscript you are using there isn't a whole lot we can do to help you. If this is a bug then we would fix it and you would have to install a new version, if you can't install a new version then you can't install a bug fix....

I've run the file 10 times through the current version of Ghostscript and the output file is the same every time, and apparently correct.

The only advice I can offer is to upgrade to the current version of Ghostscript.