Ghostscript documentation

Third Party Libraries Used by Ghostscript and GhostPDL

The table below details the third party libraries that Ghostscript and/or GhostPDL include, the versions QA tested and shipped with our releases, the relevant license, and the "upstream" URL.

Library Name Version Function License URL
CUPS
(AGPL Release Only)
2.8.0 CUPS raster format output GPL Version 3 http://www.cups.org/
eXpat 2.4.1 XML parsing for XPS interpreter MIT/eXpat License http://expat.sourceforge.net/
FreeType 2.11.1 Font scaling and rendering for Ghostscript FreeType License
(BSD-style license with a credit clause)
http://www.freetype.org/
jbig2dec 0.19 JBIG2 decoding for the PDF interpreter Licensed with Ghostscript/GhostPDL
(copyright owned by Artifex)
http://www.ghostscript.com/
libjpeg 9d
with patches
JPEG/DCT decoding/encoding "Free"
Can be used in commercial applications without royalty, with acknowledgement.
http://www.ijg.org/
LittleCMS 2 mt
(lcms2mt - thread save fork of lcms2)
2.10mt ICC profile based color conversion and management MIT LICENSE http://www.ghostscript.com/
libpng 1.6.37 PNG image encoding/decoding. libpng license
classified as "a permissive free software license"
http://www.libpng.org/
OpenJPEG 2.4.0 JPEG2000 image decoding for the PDF interpreter BSD-style http://www.openjpeg.org/
libtiff 4.2.0 TIFF image encoding/decoding BSD-style http://www.remotesensing.org/libtiff/
zlib 1.2.11 (De)Flate compression zlib License
classified as "a permissive free software license"
http://www.zlib.net/

The following are optional.
tesseract 4.1.0
with patches
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) library Apache License 2.0
https://github.com/tesseract-ocr/tesseract
leptonica 1.80.0
with patches
Image processing toolkit - support library for tesseract OCR Leptonica License
"a permissive free software license"
http://www.leptonica.org/

The following are no-cost, open source licensed, but not GPL compatible.
jpegxr
(JPEG XR reference software)
1.8 HDPhoto/JPEG-XR image decoding for the XPS interpreter ITU/ISO/IEC "Free" License
Reference implementation
http://www.itu.int/rec/T-REC-T.835

The following are relevant to Artifex Software commercial releases only.
AGFA UFST
Optional
5.x/6.x
with patches
Access, scale and render AGFA MicroType fonts Commercial http://www.monotypeimaging.com/

Copyright © 2005-2022 Artifex Software, Inc. All rights reserved.

This software is provided AS-IS with no warranty, either express or implied. This software is distributed under license and may not be copied, modified or distributed except as expressly authorized under the terms of that license. Refer to licensing information at https://www.artifex.com or contact Artifex Software, Inc., 1305 Grant Avenue - Suite 200, Novato, CA 94945, U.S.A., +1(415)492-9861, for further information.

Ghostscript version 9.56.1, 4 April 2022