Ghostscript.NET

Ghostscript.NET

Ghostscript.NET is a managed C# wrapper for the Ghostscript native library (gsdll64.dll / libgs.so). It lets you rasterize, convert, and process PDF, PostScript, EPS, and (with GhostPDL) Microsoft Office files from any .NET application without shelling out to a command-line process.

Install-Package Ghostscript.NET
# Optional: ship Ghostscript natives with the app (no system install required)
Install-Package Ghostscript.NativeAssets

Ghostscript version compatibility: Ghostscript.NET has been tested with Ghostscript versions up to 9.x. Compatibility with Ghostscript 10+ is not yet fully verified, though Ghostscript.NativeAssets currently ships Ghostscript 10.08.0. See ghostpdl-downloads for available Ghostscript releases. Provide the native library via a system install or the optional Ghostscript.NativeAssets package.

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Contents

• Why Ghostscript.NET
• Requirements
• Installation
• Quick start
• Key capabilities
• Code examples
• API overview
• Finding the Ghostscript native library
• Office files (GhostPDL)
• PDF/A-3 conversion
• Documentation
• License

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Why Ghostscript.NET

• In-process — calls the Ghostscript library directly via P/Invoke; no child process, no shell, no temp-file plumbing
• High-fidelity rendering — uses the same Ghostscript engine that powers commercial print workflows
• Memory-based rasterization — render pages to SKBitmap (via SkiaSharp) without writing to disk
• Multi-instance — run multiple Ghostscript instances simultaneously within a single .NET process
• Cross-platform — targets .NET Standard 2.0; works on Windows and Linux
• 32-bit and 64-bit — auto-detects and loads the matching native library
• PDF/A-3 + ZUGFeRD / Factur-X — embed XML invoices into PDF/A-3 files for European e-invoicing standards

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Requirements

Requirement	Details
.NET	.NET Standard 2.0 or any compatible runtime (.NET 6, 7, 8, Framework 4.6.1+)
Ghostscript native library	Install separately or reference Ghostscript.NativeAssets
Ghostscript version	Tested with versions ≤ 9.x; Ghostscript 10+ not fully verified (NativeAssets ships 10.08.0)
OS	Windows (32-bit and 64-bit), Linux
SkiaSharp	Included as a NuGet dependency; provides SKBitmap for rasterized output

Installing the Ghostscript native library

Ghostscript.NET resolves the native library in this order:

1. Explicit path / GhostscriptVersionInfo supplied by the caller
2. Bundled binaries from Ghostscript.NativeAssets (app-local)
3. System Ghostscript installation (Windows registry / Linux common paths)

Option A — NuGet native assets (recommended for seamless installs)

<PackageReference Include="Ghostscript.NET" Version="1.3.6" />
<PackageReference Include="Ghostscript.NativeAssets" Version="10.8.0" />

Package versions are managed in Versions.props. Ghostscript.NativeAssets currently includes Ghostscript 10.08.0 (gsdll / libgs and gpdldll / libgpdl) for win-x64, win-x86, and linux-x64. NuGet uses 10.8.0 because numeric version components cannot contain leading zeroes.

Option B — system install (Windows)

Download and install the Ghostscript installer. The installer registers the DLL path in the Windows registry so GhostscriptVersionInfo.GetLastInstalledVersion() / GetPreferredVersion() can find it automatically.

Option C — system install (Linux / Debian/Ubuntu)

sudo apt-get install ghostscript
# Installs libgs.so to /usr/lib or /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/
# Note: removing the ghostscript package may leave libgs*.so installed via libgs10 / libgs9

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Installation

Package Manager Console

Install-Package Ghostscript.NET

.NET CLI

dotnet add package Ghostscript.NET

PackageReference

<PackageReference Include="Ghostscript.NET" Version="1.3.6" />
<!-- Optional: app-local Ghostscript (gsdll / libgs) and GhostPDL (gpdldll / libgpdl) -->
<PackageReference Include="Ghostscript.NativeAssets" Version="10.8.0" />

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Quick start

Rasterize all pages of a PDF to PNG files

using Ghostscript.NET;
using Ghostscript.NET.Rasterizer;
using SkiaSharp;

// Prefers Ghostscript.NativeAssets (if referenced), then a system install
var version = GhostscriptVersionInfo.GetPreferredVersion();

using var rasterizer = new GhostscriptRasterizer();
rasterizer.Open("input.pdf", version, false);

for (int page = 1; page <= rasterizer.PageCount; page++)
{
    SKBitmap image = rasterizer.GetPage(dpi: 150, pageNumber: page);
    using var stream = File.OpenWrite($"page_{page:D3}.png");
    image.Encode(stream, SKEncodedImageFormat.Png, 100);
}

Convert a PDF to PDF using GhostscriptProcessor

using Ghostscript.NET.Processor;

using var processor = new GhostscriptProcessor();
processor.Process(new[]
{
    "-dBATCH", "-dNOPAUSE", "-dNOSAFER",
    "-sDEVICE=pdfwrite",
    "-sOutputFile=output.pdf",
    "input.pdf"
});

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Key capabilities

Area	Description
Page rasterization	Render any page of a PDF, PS, or EPS file to an SKBitmap at any DPI
Image export	Save pages as PNG, JPEG, TIFF, BMP, or any SkiaSharp-supported format
In-memory rendering	Rasterize without writing intermediate files to disk
PDF conversion	Convert PS/EPS to PDF, compress PDFs, apply pdfwrite device settings
Office files	Convert and rasterize Word, Excel, PowerPoint (and related) files when a licensed GhostPDL library is present
Custom switches	Pass any Ghostscript command-line switch directly via CustomSwitches or Process(args[])
Progress events	GhostscriptProcessor raises Started, Processing (per-page), Error, and Completed events
Multi-instance	Multiple GhostscriptProcessor or GhostscriptRasterizer instances can run in parallel
Stdin/stdout capture	Capture or redirect Ghostscript stdout/stderr via GhostscriptStdIO callbacks
Version detection	Prefers bundled Ghostscript.NativeAssets, then system Ghostscript (Windows registry / Linux library paths)
PDF/A-3	Convert PDFs to PDF/A-3b and embed XML invoices (XRechnung, Factur-X / ZUGFeRD)
Anti-aliasing	Control GraphicsAlphaBits and TextAlphaBits for rendering quality
EPS cropping	EPSClip property for correct EPS bounding box clipping
Zoom	GhostscriptViewer supports zoom-in / zoom-out and progressive page updates

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Code examples

Rasterize a single page to SKBitmap

using Ghostscript.NET;
using Ghostscript.NET.Rasterizer;

var version = GhostscriptVersionInfo.GetLastInstalledVersion();

using var rasterizer = new GhostscriptRasterizer();
rasterizer.Open("input.pdf", version, false);

// Page numbers are 1-based
SKBitmap bitmap = rasterizer.GetPage(dpi: 300, pageNumber: 1);

Rasterize with anti-aliasing and custom switches

using Ghostscript.NET;
using Ghostscript.NET.Rasterizer;

var version = GhostscriptVersionInfo.GetLastInstalledVersion();

using var rasterizer = new GhostscriptRasterizer();
rasterizer.GraphicsAlphaBits = 4;   // 1, 2, or 4
rasterizer.TextAlphaBits = 4;
rasterizer.CustomSwitches.Add("-dUseCropBox");

rasterizer.Open("input.pdf", version, false);

for (int i = 1; i <= rasterizer.PageCount; i++)
{
    SKBitmap page = rasterizer.GetPage(dpi: 150, pageNumber: i);
    // use page...
}

Rasterize from a stream (no temp file)

using Ghostscript.NET;
using Ghostscript.NET.Rasterizer;

var version = GhostscriptVersionInfo.GetLastInstalledVersion();

using var stream = File.OpenRead("input.pdf");
using var rasterizer = new GhostscriptRasterizer();
rasterizer.Open(stream, version, false);

SKBitmap bitmap = rasterizer.GetPage(dpi: 150, pageNumber: 1);

Convert PDF to PNG files using GhostscriptPngDevice

using Ghostscript.NET.OutputDevices;

var device = new GhostscriptPngDevice(GhostscriptPngDeviceType.Png16m);
device.GraphicsAlphaBits = GhostscriptImageDeviceAlphaBits.V_4;
device.TextAlphaBits    = GhostscriptImageDeviceAlphaBits.V_4;
device.ResolutionXY     = new GhostscriptImageDeviceResolution(300, 300);
device.InputFiles.Add("input.pdf");
device.Pdf.FirstPage    = 1;
device.Pdf.LastPage     = 5;
device.OutputPath       = @"output\page_%03d.png";
device.Process();

Convert PDF to JPEG

using Ghostscript.NET.OutputDevices;

var device = new GhostscriptJpegDevice(GhostscriptJpegDeviceType.Jpeg);
device.GraphicsAlphaBits = GhostscriptImageDeviceAlphaBits.V_4;
device.TextAlphaBits    = GhostscriptImageDeviceAlphaBits.V_4;
device.ResolutionXY     = new GhostscriptImageDeviceResolution(150, 150);
device.JpegQuality      = 85;
device.InputFiles.Add("input.pdf");
device.OutputPath       = @"output\page_%03d.jpg";
device.Process();

Run with custom arguments and capture output

using Ghostscript.NET;
using Ghostscript.NET.Processor;

public class MyStdIO : GhostscriptStdIO
{
    public override void StdIn(out string input, int count) => input = string.Empty;
    public override void StdOut(string output) => Console.Write(output);
    public override void StdError(string error) => Console.Error.Write(error);
}

using var processor = new GhostscriptProcessor();
processor.Processing += (sender, e) =>
    Console.WriteLine($"Processing page {e.CurrentPage} of {e.TotalPages}");
processor.Error += (sender, e) =>
    Console.Error.WriteLine($"Error: {e.Message}");

processor.Process(new[]
{
    "-dBATCH", "-dNOPAUSE",
    "-sDEVICE=pdfwrite",
    "-dPDFSETTINGS=/ebook",       // compress for screen/ebook
    "-sOutputFile=compressed.pdf",
    "input.pdf"
}, new MyStdIO());

Specify the Ghostscript DLL explicitly

using Ghostscript.NET;
using Ghostscript.NET.Rasterizer;

// Point directly to a specific DLL — useful when Ghostscript is not installed system-wide
var version = new GhostscriptVersionInfo(@"C:\gs\gs9.56.1\bin\gsdll64.dll");

using var rasterizer = new GhostscriptRasterizer();
rasterizer.Open("input.pdf", version, false);

Load the DLL from memory (Windows only)

using Ghostscript.NET;
using Ghostscript.NET.Rasterizer;

// In-memory loading is supported on Windows only.
// On Linux/macOS, pass fromMemory: false (or omit it) so the library is loaded from disk.
byte[] dllBytes = File.ReadAllBytes(@"C:\gs\gs9.56.1\bin\gsdll64.dll");

using var rasterizer = new GhostscriptRasterizer();
rasterizer.Open("input.pdf", dllBytes);

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API overview

Core classes

Class	Namespace	Purpose
GhostscriptRasterizer	Ghostscript.NET.Rasterizer	Render PDF/PS/EPS pages to SKBitmap
GhostscriptProcessor	Ghostscript.NET.Processor	Run Ghostscript with any argument array; exposes progress events
GhostscriptViewer	Ghostscript.NET.Viewer	Interactive viewer with zoom and progressive rendering
GhostscriptVersionInfo	Ghostscript.NET	Discover installed Ghostscript versions; specify DLL path
GhostscriptOffice	Ghostscript.NET	Convert Office files to PDF via GhostPDL; detect supported extensions
GhostscriptLibrary	Ghostscript.NET	Low-level native library loader and P/Invoke surface
GhostscriptStdIO	Ghostscript.NET	Abstract base class for stdin/stdout/stderr callbacks
GhostscriptPngDevice	Ghostscript.NET.OutputDevices	Typed device for PNG output with all PNG switches
GhostscriptJpegDevice	Ghostscript.NET.OutputDevices	Typed device for JPEG output with quality and DPI settings
PDFA3Converter	Ghostscript.NET	Convert PDF to PDF/A-3b; embed XML invoices (ZUGFeRD / Factur-X)

GhostscriptRasterizer key members

Member	Type	Description
Open(string path)	Method	Open a file; auto-detects installed Ghostscript
Open(string path, GhostscriptVersionInfo, bool fromMemory)	Method	Open with explicit version info
Open(Stream stream, ...)	Method	Open from a stream; no temp file written to disk
Open(string path, byte[] library)	Method	Open with DLL loaded from a byte array
GetPage(int dpi, int pageNumber)	Method	Render page to SKBitmap; pages are 1-based
PageCount	Property	Total number of pages in the open document
GraphicsAlphaBits	Property	Anti-aliasing for graphics: 1, 2, or 4
TextAlphaBits	Property	Anti-aliasing for text: 1, 2, or 4
EPSClip	Property	Apply EPS bounding box clip when rasterizing EPS files
CustomSwitches	Property	List<string> of additional Ghostscript switches
Close()	Method	Release the open document
Dispose()	Method	Release all resources including the native library instance

GhostscriptProcessor key members

Member	Type	Description
CreateForInput(string path)	Static method	Optional: load GhostPDL up front for an Office path
Process(string[] args)	Method	Run Ghostscript; loads GhostPDL automatically if args include an Office file
Process(GhostscriptDevice device)	Method	Run using a typed device object
Process(string[] args, GhostscriptStdIO callback)	Method	Run with stdout/stderr capture
StartProcessing(...)	Method	Alias for Process; included for API compatibility
StopProcessing()	Method	Signal Ghostscript to abort the current job
IsRunning	Property	true while a job is in progress
IsStopping	Property	true if StopProcessing() has been called but the job hasn’t exited yet
Started	Event	Raised when processing begins
Processing	Event	Raised once per page; args.CurrentPage, args.TotalPages
Error	Event	Raised on Ghostscript error output; args.Message
Completed	Event	Raised when processing finishes (success or error)

GhostscriptVersionInfo key members

Member	Type	Description
GetPreferredVersion()	Static method	Prefers bundled NativeAssets, then the newest system install
GetLastInstalledVersion()	Static method	Same as GetPreferredVersion() (kept for compatibility)
GetLastInstalledVersion(license, priority)	Static method	Same preference order; system installs filtered by license
TryGetBundledVersion(out version)	Static method	Locates app-local / NativeAssets binaries without throwing
GetBundledVersion()	Static method	Returns bundled NativeAssets library or throws
GetInstalledVersions()	Static method	Returns all system-installed Ghostscript versions as a list
IsGhostscriptInstalled	Static property	true if a bundled or system Ghostscript library is detected
new GhostscriptVersionInfo(string dllPath)	Constructor	Point to a specific DLL file path
.DllPath	Property	Path to the native library file
.Version	Property	System.Version of the detected installation
.Source	Property	Bundled, System, or Custom
.NativeKind / .IsGhostPdl	Property	Ghostscript vs GhostPDL native library
GetGhostPdlVersion()	Static method	Locates gpdldll64.dll / libgpdl.so (required for Office files)
TryGetGhostPdlVersion(out version)	Static method	Same lookup without throwing
GetPreferredVersionForInput(path)	Static method	GhostPDL for Office paths, otherwise preferred Ghostscript

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Finding the Ghostscript native library

GhostscriptVersionInfo.GetLastInstalledVersion() / GetPreferredVersion() searches automatically:

1. Bundled / NativeAssets — app base directory, native/, and runtimes/<rid>/native/ for gsdll64.dll / gsdll32.dll / libgs.so and gpdldll64.dll / gpdldll32.dll / libgpdl.so
2. Windows system install: registry keys HKLM\SOFTWARE\GPL Ghostscript\, HKLM\SOFTWARE\AFPL Ghostscript\, and HKLM\SOFTWARE\Artifex Ghostscript\. Matches DLL bitness to the current process.
3. Linux system install: common paths including /usr/lib, /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu, and /usr/local/lib for libgs.so.

If Ghostscript is not installed in a standard location, pass the path directly:

// Explicit path
var version = new GhostscriptVersionInfo(@"C:\MyApp\gs\gsdll64.dll");

// From embedded byte array (deploy DLL as an embedded resource)
byte[] dll = GetEmbeddedResource("gsdll64.dll");
rasterizer.Open("input.pdf", dll);

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Office files (GhostPDL)

Standard Ghostscript (gsdll64.dll) cannot open Word, Excel, or PowerPoint files. Office support uses GhostPDL (gpdldll64.dll / gpdldll32.dll / libgpdl.so).

Ghostscript.NativeAssets 10.8.0 ships GhostPDL next to Ghostscript (gpdldll on Windows, libgpdl on Linux). Referencing that package is enough for Ghostscript.NET to find GhostPDL. If you are not using NativeAssets, place the library next to the application, under runtimes/<rid>/native/, or set GHOSTPDL_DLL (or GPDL_DLL) to its full path.

After that, existing Ghostscript.NET processor code does not need to change: if the argument list includes an Office file, GhostscriptProcessor loads GhostPDL automatically (and ignores -dSAFER for that job). CreateForInput is optional. If gsdll64.dll sits beside GhostPDL, the viewer/rasterizer uses it to display the converted PDF.

Call GhostscriptOffice.Unlock(key) once with your Ghostscript.NET.Office key. Without Unlock, conversion is limited to the first 3 pages.

Convert Office to PDF

using Ghostscript.NET;

GhostscriptOffice.Unlock(customerKey); // once per process
GhostscriptOffice.ConvertToPdf(@"D:\report.docx", @"D:\report.pdf");

Rasterize an Office file (GhostscriptRasterizer / GhostscriptViewer convert to a temporary PDF automatically)

using Ghostscript.NET.Rasterizer;

using var rasterizer = new GhostscriptRasterizer();
rasterizer.Open(@"D:\report.docx");

for (int page = 1; page <= rasterizer.PageCount; page++)
{
    SKBitmap image = rasterizer.GetPage(dpi: 150, pageNumber: page);
}

Run GhostPDL with any device

Existing GhostscriptProcessor samples keep working. Pass an Office path in the argument list. With Ghostscript.NativeAssets 10.8.0, GhostPDL is already next to the app:

using Ghostscript.NET;
using Ghostscript.NET.Processor;

GhostscriptVersionInfo gv = GhostscriptVersionInfo.GetLastInstalledVersion();
using var processor = new GhostscriptProcessor(gv, true);
processor.Process(new[]
{
    "-dBATCH", "-dNOPAUSE", "-dSAFER",
    "-sDEVICE=png16m",
    "-sOutputFile=page-%03d.png",
    @"D:\report.docx"
});

CreateForInput still loads GhostPDL up front when you already know the input is Office.

Use full paths for Office input and output. GhostPDL allows only one interpreter instance per process.

Supported extensions include .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx, .odt, .ods, .odp, .rtf, and .csv.

Maintainers who produce the native libraries see Ghostscript.NET.Office/BUILD.md.

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PDF/A-3 conversion

The PDFA3Converter class converts any PDF to PDF/A-3b format and optionally embeds a ZUGFeRD or Factur-X XML invoice. This is the format required by XRechnung (Germany) and Factur-X (France/EU) electronic invoicing standards.

Convert to plain PDF/A-3

using Ghostscript.NET;

var converter = new PDFA3Converter(@"C:\gs\gs9.56.1\bin\gsdll64.dll");
converter.ConvertToPDFA3("invoice.pdf", "invoice-pdfa3.pdf");

Embed a ZUGFeRD / Factur-X XML invoice

using Ghostscript.NET;

var converter = new PDFA3Converter(@"C:\gs\gs9.56.1\bin\gsdll64.dll");
converter.SetZUGFeRDProfile(ZUGFeRDProfile.Comfort);
converter.SetZUGFeRDVersion("2.3");
converter.SetEmbeddedXMLFile("factur-x.xml");
converter.ConvertToPDFA3("invoice.pdf", "invoice-pdfa3-zugferd.pdf");

Issues with PDFA3Converter should be tagged to @stephanstapel on GitHub.

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Documentation

Resource	URL
NuGet package	https://www.nuget.org/packages/Ghostscript.NET/
Native assets package	https://www.nuget.org/packages/Ghostscript.NativeAssets/
GitHub repository	https://github.com/ArtifexSoftware/Ghostscript.NET
Sample projects	Ghostscript.NET.Samples/ (project-references local Ghostscript.NET source; may reference Ghostscript.NativeAssets via NuGet)
Ghostscript documentation	https://ghostscript.readthedocs.io
Ghostscript binary downloads	https://github.com/ArtifexSoftware/ghostpdl-downloads/releases
Ghostscript command-line reference	https://ghostscript.readthedocs.io/en/latest/Use.html
Bug reports	https://github.com/ArtifexSoftware/Ghostscript.NET/issues
Artifex commercial licensing	https://artifex.com/contact/ghostscript-net

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License

Ghostscript.NET is available under two licences:

• GNU AGPL v3 — free for open-source projects. Any application that uses or distributes Ghostscript.NET must release its complete source code under a compatible open-source licence. See COPYING in this repository for the full licence text.
• Commercial licence — required for proprietary or closed-source applications. Contact Artifex for licensing. Artifex is the exclusive commercial licensing agent for Ghostscript.