pdf/ghostscript problems

[Laurent]

Hi lsafford,

Steve is right, viewing PDF files requires the plugins. That means IrfanView's plugins and AFPL GhostScript.


Some comments on Bikkhu Pesala's post.

Sometimes we prefer to use a general program than a specific one. I think it's a matter of convenience and needs.

- Example 1. With Adobe Reader (for sure dedicated to PDF: it opens nothing else), I can't make a TIFF file from a PDF, but with IrfanView and GhostScript I can. Which one is more versatile?

- Example 2. Sometimes I want to see my Nikon's NEF with IrfanView (it shows also Canon's CRW/CR2 images, useful to compare or browse through directories, for slide shows...), and sometimes I want to use Nikon's dedicated software (but it does not shows CRW/CR2).

Should we always use a dedicated program for each file format then should we also uninstall IrfanView. And what isn't clear to me is what makes a program more dedicated than another to view a given type of file. I believe there is no "must". As I wrote above, it's a matter of convenience and needs.

Laurent

[lsafford]

The reason I like to use Irfanviewer for pdf files is because I can look at alot of different map file types all at once and quickly, without switching back and forth between viewers. Very convenient. I have Adobe Reader as well.

[stefan]

Hi,

if you really want to use IrfanView for viewing pdf files you will need to download the plugin package.

I´d prefer a standalone viewer (like Bhikkhu posted) to open pdf files ...

steve

[Bhikkhu Pesala]

I don't understand why anyone wants to open PDF files in Irfan View. No way is a plugin ever going to be as versatile as a dedicated reader. There are several threads on the problems with different flavours of Ghostscript.

Use a PDF viewer to view PDF files. If you don't like Adobe Reader because it is a bit bloated and slow to load, then try PDF-XChange. It is far better, slightly faster, and also allows you to add comments to PDF files.

[lsafford]

I cannot open pdf files. I have downloaded some AFPF Ghostscript 8.54 files from the wisc.edu website but still cannot open pdf files in irfanview 4.00.

These are the files listed on that website. I donwloaded only the ones asterisked (*): Do I need to download all of these files? Any other ideas??

File: MD5SUMS 1 KB
File: SHA1SUMS 1 KB
*File: ghostscript-8.54.tar.bz2 12096 KB
*File: ghostscript-8.54.tar.gz 14699 KB
*Directory: ghostscript-fonts-std-8.11.tar.gz
File: gs854os2.zip 12618 KB
File: gs854src.zip 16355 KB
File: gs854w32.exe 12669 KB
* File: gs854w64.exe 13127 KB