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Problem opening .eps files

February 11, 2008 - 03:59 — CCRRAR

When I try to open a .eps file I get the following messages

Error starting Ghostscript. Make sure that Ghostscript is installed and - if necessary - use the environment variable GS_PROG to tell GIMP about its location.
(Failed to execute child process (No such file or directory))

Could not interpret 'C:\Users\RAR\Documents\Nobska Ventures\Marketing\Logo's and Graphics\Originals\Logos\Nobska Ventures Logo - Vector Graphic.eps'

Opening 'C:\Users\RAR\Documents\Nobska Ventures\Marketing\Logo's and Graphics\Originals\Logos\Nobska Ventures Logo - Vector Graphic.eps' failed:

I am new to GIMP but did try to find Ghostscript but could not figure out where it is.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Rob

Forums: 
Help
February 12, 2008 - 18:21 — BruceH

I have the same problem. I installed GhostScript, but no joy. I don't know how to tell the GIMP how to find it in windows.
February 12, 2008 - 18:35 — BruceH

Silly me, should have done more research before posting. To get ghostscript to work with the GIMP in Windows XP, you need to create the environment variable GS_PROG. Right click on My Computer. Select Properties. Click on the Advanced Tab, then on the button labeled Environment Variables. Then click New. In the field Variable Name, enter GS_PROG. In the field Variable Value, enter the path to GS. On my system it is "C:\Program Files\gs\gs8.54\bin\gswin32.exe" Restart the GIMP.
February 16, 2008 - 19:35 — hopper

Where can I download this script from? The search results don't seem to have a valid link to download the script. ?? Thanks, hopper
February 18, 2008 - 18:36 — james.egeli

Hey Hopper, I found them @ GPL Ghostscript 8.61 released 2007-11-21 http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost/ really slow download though. Enjoy
August 12, 2008 - 16:02 — pier59

Hello Everyone, I had the same message as CRRAR and I followed the instructions in this thread. However, it still does not open EPS files. It installs GhostScript whenever I try to open a .eps file. Is it normal? All it does then is a warning that it was not able to interpret the file I was trying to open. I use GPL Ghostscript 8.63 and Gimp 2.4.6 on Vista Tx for any help one may provide. Pier
October 27, 2008 - 17:59 — eriseux

you must use system variables not user variables
June 13, 2008 - 21:22 — sbj3

That did the trick. Thanks!
October 14, 2008 - 17:36 — Odo

OS: Windows Vista Ultimate 64 Gimp 2.6.0 + Ghostscript 8.63 (gs863w64.exe) Environment variable - System variable: Name: GS_PROG Value: C:\Program Files\gs\gs8.63\bin\gswin32.exe It works very well. Keep up the good work, Odo.
September 27, 2010 - 20:44 — kidvaletudo

I was having problems as well, but it seems to work now.

I have gimp 2.0 and windows vista 32-bit. I set the environment variable to the gswin32c.exe (not 32.exe) and it didn't work at first, until I closed and restarted GIMP.

Did any of you forget to restart GIMP? Cuase that frustrated me, but its simple.

November 1, 2010 - 19:01 — rickzee

Windows 7( 32 bit)
ghostscript.com>gs900w32.exe
Gimp 2.6.11

I personally could not get to the install window for ghostscript until i had defined the environment variables as GS_PROG and gswin32.exe.

control panel>system and security>system>advanced system settings>environment variables>new

After setting the environment variables as defined above i could install ghostscript

Once installed i went this route to find the new path variable

Computer>local disk>program files>gs>gs 9.00>uninstal and copied the path...C:\Program Files\gs\gs9.00\bin\gswin32.exe

I then went back to environment variables and replaced gswin32.exe with C:\Program Files\gs\gs9.00\bin\gswin32.exe

Restarted Gimp and can know successfully download .eps files

For some reason i wanted to figure out how to do this first...now i've got to start trying to figure Gimp out...

November 6, 2010 - 03:11 — schumaml

This would be very strange - GS_PROG is a custom variable used by GIMP's file-ps-load plug-in to look up the Ghostscript binary (usually gswin32c.exe prefixed by the path; unless %PATH% has been modified).

Can anyone else confirm the claim that Ghostscript can't be installed on Windows 7 unless this variable is set?

May 12, 2011 - 03:30 — paul_saute

Hi,

My Ghostscript was already installed Vista x64 and I set the variable AFTER...

November 24, 2010 - 17:37 — dsfoo

rickzee, THIS WORKED PERFECTLY!!! I've (barely)taught myself how to use GMP, but am SO glad to be able to edit eps files! I've never tried to get something like this to work before, so it was baby steps, and then it worked. Thanks!

THANKS!!

May 12, 2011 - 03:41 — paul_saute

This post worked for me too with vista x64...

I had to read post "Gimp|Ghostscript|.eps files" twice AND post "I use Win7 64, but the" is part 2 of the solution...

August 1, 2012 - 21:35 — iberkan

Windows Vista (32 bit)
GIMP 2.8
GhostScript 9.02
Environment: GS_PROG + C:\Program Files\gs\gs9.02\bin\gswin32c.exe

First I installed the GhostSsript (GS) latest version 9.05 and set the environment and then restarted Gimp. It didn't work. Then I restarted my computer and again didn't work. My second attempt was to uninstall GS 9.05 and instead install earlier version of GS 9.02. Again the result is same. I did try changing from gswin32c.exe to gswin32.exe but no luck either.

Please advice how I could fix this.

August 1, 2012 - 21:37 — iberkan

Windows Vista (32 bit)
GIMP 2.8
GhostScript 9.02
Environment: GS_PROG + C:\Program Files\gs\gs9.02\bin\gswin32c.exe

First I installed the GhostSsript (GS) latest version 9.05 and set the environment and then restarted Gimp. It didn't work. Then I restarted my computer and again didn't work. My second attempt was to uninstall GS 9.05 and instead install earlier version of GS 9.02. Again the result is same. I did try changing from gswin32c.exe to gswin32.exe but no luck either.

Please advice how I could fix this.

August 1, 2012 - 21:42 — lylejk

Should be GS_PROG={your path} not plus symbol. Note that there is no space between GS_PROG the equal and your path. If you are using Vista, you should have a way to define the environmental variable with a gui interface (see my earlier post several entries below). :)

August 1, 2012 - 22:26 — iberkan

I did not actually put plus sign, its just a typing mistake. I used Vista GUI and followed the exactly same instructions you posted earlier:
Variable Name = GS_PROG
Variable Value = C:\Program Files\gs\gs9.02\bin\gswin32c.exe

Please help.

August 2, 2012 - 14:36 — lylejk

Could be a corrupted eps file too; have a link online to it for testing? If indeed you have PS installed, then first, verify that the path for your executible is in the same place where you defined the environmental variable (typos, or different locations for the executable could be the culprit). :)

August 3, 2012 - 13:17 — iberkan

I've checked the eps files and works fine online. PS installation looks successful (no errors). The path for executable file is correct. Environment setup is correct. Do I need to close all open memory resident programs (anti-virus, etc.) before installing the PS? Am I missing something here? Which version of PS is fully compatible with Gimp 2.8? Do I need to install PS Viewer as well?

November 1, 2012 - 03:44 — lapcat04

iberkan, I too had same problem with GIMP 2.8 and gs 9.06. Am running Win7 64-bit and installed the 64 bit versions. Could not get an .eps file to open! After trying everything in the book, I uninstalled GIMP 2.8 and gs 9.06. I stepped back and re-installed GIMP 2.6.11 (which I used to run). It is a 32-bit version. Then I installed the 32-bit version of gs 9.06. I then went to 'Advanced' tab of System Properties, Environment Variables, System Variables and entered the following:
Variable Name: GS_PROG
Variable Value: C:\Program Files (x86)\gs\gs9.06\bin\gswin32c.exe
I can now open all .eps files. There seems to be some kind of glitch with GIMP 2.8 and ghostscript 64-bit.
Hope this helps anyone running a 64-bit system and has downloaded GIMP 2.8. It automatically installs in Program Files (instead of Program Files (x86)); I assume it detects your version of Windows.

May 3, 2013 - 17:41 — mail4ta

Hi All. I tried many of the pathway changes, trying the different GS versions, etc... nothing worked until I tried this solution from lapcat04. I uninstalled 2.8.2, then got the older 2.6.11 version of GIMP from http://www.oldapps.com/gimp.php. In the environmental variables -- I actually have entered the same Name/Value info into both the User and the System Variables -- likely only need it in one or the other, but since I can now view eps files, I am not going to fart around with that. Would also repeat the suggestion to restart GIMP just to be sure once you get all that in place. Thanks lapcat04.

June 12, 2013 - 21:48 — scobar

Thanks to mail4ta and lapcat04 - I too backed down to 2.6.11, but I was still having the same problem. I then realized that I had cut/paste the path to GS into my environment variable, and that included the double quotes at the beginning and the end of the path! GIMP does NOT like the double quotes - once I got rid of them, everything worked fine. Now, I haven't re-upgraded back to the current versions of GS and GIMP - now that I have it working, I'll just use this for now, and upgrade later.

October 23, 2012 - 00:38 — GUPPY

I am new to the forum.

I've read all the comments, as I have the same problem although for Mac, is there a solution to save or open eps file in Gimp.
Mac: version 10.8.2
GIMP 2.8
I've install GhostScript on my computer, but that's it and I'm not sure if the one I installed is the right version for me.

You help is appreciated

January 25, 2013 - 20:39 — yetto

Windows XP
GIMP 2.8.2
Ghostscript 9.02

I added GS_PROG for the environment variable.

The correct paths I've tried so far:
C:\Program Files\gs\gs9.02\bin\gswin32.exe
C:\Program Files\gs\gs9.02\bin\gswin32c.exe

Restarted GIMP as well as my PC.

With either path, there're some files that can open and others can't with "Could not interpret" error.
I thought it might be due to the size, so I tried opening all sorts of sizes ranging from 25MB, to 10KB.
I was able to open most files but a few. The file I need to have open is one of the few that wouldn't open.

Any help...?

February 5, 2013 - 18:44 — PmeoP

I also had the same problem before. I am using windows 7. I installed GIMP 2.8.2 and Ghostscripts 9.05, and cannot find the way to open .eps files. I tried add GS_PROG to environment variables and everything.

Finally, I made it work by following labcat04's comment.
Uninstall GIMP 2.8.2 and install GIMP 2.6.10 instead. It work fine with Ghostscript 9.05.
In my case, I added GS_PROG=C:\Program Files\gs\gs9.02\bin\gswin32.exe to environment variables.

February 6, 2013 - 02:27 — schumaml

GIMP 2.8.x uses libgs instead of the ghostscript binary. The Windows installers also come with the library part of ghostscript included.
This means that all guides about setting GS_PROG are obsolete for 2.8.x and later.

You could check if this is https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=689207 - if your Windows 7 is the 64 bits version, then that is affecting you for sure. The workaround is described in this bug, too.

February 12, 2013 - 12:34 — vorvierkeinbier

Cheers shumaml,
I would be really interested in the workaround! The link doesn't work though. Could you check if there is another path?

February 12, 2013 - 12:58 — schumaml

Should be a temporary problem.

June 1, 2013 - 04:52 — idrove

I kept being redirected to this page from all over the web when looking to solve my issue with opening .esp files. I found the answer that worked for me and created an account here just to share.
OS: Windows 7 (64-bit)
Gimp Version: 2.8.4 (64-bit)
GhostScript Version: 9.07 (64-bit)

On Windows versions of GIMP (v2.8.2 and later) it no longer uses the GS_PROG variable to detect and load GhostScript, it uses a DLL instead.

If you have a 64 bit Windows operating system, 64 bit Windows version of GIMP 2.8.2 or higher, and 64 bit Windows version of GhostScript 9.06 or higher (do not try to mix 64 bit and 32 bit versions!) then try this:

  1. Back up the libgs-8.dll file in the GIMP bin folder.
  2. Copy the gsdll64.dll file from the GhostScript bin folder to the GIMP folder.
  3. Rename the copied gsdll64.dll file to libgs-8.dll.
  4. Restart GIMP.


    5. http://www.gimpusers.com/forums/gimp-user/15141-gimp-2-8-2-eps-support#m...

    Hope this helps others who were brought here looking for 64-bit answers to GhostScript and Gimp.

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