MacGhostView 6.1

 

MacGhostView is a application for previewing Postscript and encapsulated Postscript files and converting them to other formats. It implements the command line tools gv (ghostview 3.7.2) and gs (ghostscript 9.18). Multiple files can be previewed at the same time, each one displayed in its own gv window. Unlike Apple's Preview program, MacGhostView does not convert Postscript files to PDF format and then display the PDF file.

 

System Requirements

MacGhostView 6.1 runs on any OS X from 10.6 to 10.15 and requires the X11 or XQuartz application. If you have updated to Catalina from a previous version of macOS you may have to reinstall XQuartz 2.7.11.

 

Downloading

MacGhostView 6.1 is a 50 Mb download and can be downloaded by clicking here. This download includes the gv, xdvi-motif and xpdf tools described below.

 

Previous versions

• MacGhostView 5.2.4 is a 32 bit application and runs under OS X 10.2 - 10.14.
• MacGhostView 4.6 does not require X11. It is a PPC program and runs under OS X 10.2 - 10.6.
• MacGhostView 3.2 is the last version of MacGhostView that runs on a vintage 68K or Power Mac under OS 7.0.1 through 9.2.2. It also runs under emulation with Basilisk II or SheepShaver.

 

Version of MacGhostView for silicon Macs

MacGhostView7 contains the MacGhostView.app, the gv binary and an apple script named drop-ps. Put gv in /usr/local/bin. Drop-ps is a Finder interface to gv for just viewing a postscript file and can go anywhere. You must have installed a x11-enabled version of ghostscript in /usr/local/bin before running MacGhostView, gv and drop-ps. The easiest way to install ghostscript in /usr/local/bin is to go to https://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/systems/mac/mactex and download Ghostscript.pkg. Launch the installer.

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Last updated: May 2026