Description
===========

GNU a2ps is an Any to PostScript filter.  Of course it processes plain
text files, but also pretty prints quite a few popular languages.

Its slogan is precisely `` Do The Right Thing '', which means that
though it is highly configurable, everything was made so that a novice
user can do complicated PostScript manipulations.  For instance, it
has the ability to delegate the processing of some files to other
filters (such as groff, texi2dvi, dvips, gzip etc.), what allows a
uniform treatment (n-up, page selection, duplex etc.) of heterogeneous
files.

As an example:

| $ a2ps mill.1.ps.gz a2ps.gif NEWS a2ps.texi index.html -o demo.ps
| [mill.1.ps.gz (compressed, delegated to Gzip-a2ps): 17 pages on 9 sheets]
| [a2ps.gif (gif, delegated to ImageMagick): 3 pages on 2 sheets]
| [NEWS (plain): 12 pages on 6 sheets]
| [a2ps.texi (texinfo, delegated to texi2dvi): 89 pages on 45 sheets]
| [index.html (html, delegated to Netscape): 13 pages on 7 sheets]
| [Total: 132 pages on 66 sheets] saved into the file `demo.ps'

Want to print a LaTeX file in Duplex?

| $ a2ps paper.tex -s2 -P margot
| [paper.tex (tex, delegated to texi2dvi): 33 pages on 9 sheets]
| request id is margot-129 (standard input)
| [Total: 34 pages on 9 sheets] sent to the printer `margot'

(Bibtex, makeindex, and latex were run as many times as needed.)

Or maybe you want to print the documentation as a booklet?

| $ a2ps -P margot -=book doc/a2ps.texi
| [doc/a2ps.texi (texinfo, delegated to texi2dvi): 109 pages on 109 sheets]
| request id is margot-128 (standard input)
| [Total: 109 pages on 109 sheets] sent to the printer `margot'

It supports a wide number of encodings, and a very good handling of
Latin 2-6 should be noted, thanks to Ogonkify (by Juliusz Chroboczek
<jec@dcs.ed.ac.uk>).  Needed fonts are automatically downloaded.  The
interface is internationalized, the output is customizable and there
are as many options as users had wishes (table of content, headings,
virtual page layout etc. etc.).

The documentation has been carefully crafted for both novices and
experts.  It is meant to bring light on most questions you have, and
includes a glossary.

Contributions
=============

Some goodies are provided in the package:
 - card     pretty prints `--help' from programs
 - fixnt    fixes Windows NT PostScript files (thanks to Holger Bauer)
 - fixps    fixes most common problems in PostScript files
 - pdiff    prints a comparison between two files
 - psmandup eases Duplex printing on Simplex printers
 - psset    inserts special PostScript requests (ManualFeed etc.)

The full distribution of Ogonkify, by Juliusz Chroboczek, is also
included.  Ogonkify let's you fix deficient Latin 2-6 support in
popular applications' PostScript (Netscape, StarOffice...).


Downloading
===========

GNU a2ps can be found on its web page:

	http://www.gnu.org/software/a2ps/

There is also a mailing list set up to discuss around a2ps.  To
subscribe, please see http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/a2ps.
Contributions of any kind are most welcome!

Please do *not* use this address to report bugs, use
<bug-a2ps@gnu.org>.

Version 4.14
============

 * New Maintainer.
 * No UTF-8 support yet ;-<  Basically this is a maintenance release.
 * License:
   - Now GNU a2ps is licensed under GPLv3 or later.
   - Removed or replaced non-free/license-wise vague files (see
     ChangeLog for detail).
 * Build:
   - Now can be built with the modern GNU Autotools.
   - Now can be built with gcc 3.4 or later.
 * Predefined delegations:
   - Add html2ps delegation if netscape don't run.
   - Now the configure script check if netscape support remote-command.
   - Now works with modern GV(PostScript and PDF viewer).  Tested with 
     3.6.2.
 * Options:
   - Better description on the default output and the -d option.
 * Encodings:
   - CP1251.
 * Bug Fixes:
   - `input buffer overflow, can't enlarge buffer because scanner uses REJECT'
     This should no longer happen.
   - Now works on IA64, PowerPC and AMD64.
   - Fixed wrong default values for deskjet printers.
   - Quote arguments to file(1).
   - Fixed several security issues (CVE-2004-1377).
   - PS generated by a2ps is now compatible with Adobe Distiller for Mac OS X.
 * Style sheets:
   - specc.ssh, thanks to Hideaki Yokota
   - csharp.ssh, thanks to Karen Christenson
   - nasm.ssh & pic16f84.ssh, thanks to Aleksandar Veselinovic
   - small.ssh, thanks Christophe Continente
   - matlab4.ssh & matlab.ssh, thanks to Joakim Lubeck
   - stratego.ssh, thanks to Nicolas Tisserand
   - rd.ssh, s.ssh and st.ssh, thanks to Torsten Hothorn et.al.
   - ruby.ssh, thanks to Noritsugu Nakamura.
   - php.ssh, thanks to Hartmut Holzgraefe
   - udiff.ssh: Improved highlighting for diffs.
   - perl.ssh: Improved.
   - Some rules of sheets.map are improved
 * Contributions:
   - pdiff: Now pdiff can accept standard input.
 * Prologues:
   - Added diffcolor.pro for diffs
 * Documentation:
   - Revised.
 * Translation:
   - Japanese translation thanks to Yasuyuki Furukawa.
   - Revised Dutch translation, thanks to Benno Schulenberg.
   - Revised French translation.
 * Many other fixes, but the log is rather spotty ;-<

Authors
=======

a2ps is written by akim@freefriends.org, Miguel.Santana@st.com and
mhatta@gnu.org.  We hope you'll enjoy it!

--
Akim, Miguel & Masayuki









