TeXShop

Modern versions of Ghostscript do not process transparency operators in ps files unless the flag -dALLOWSPSTRANSPARENCY is added to the function call. In TeXShop 5.18, a preference item titled "Ghostscript Options" under the Typesetting tab can be checked to activate the flag. This activation only applies in two circumstances:

When TeXShop opens a postscript file, it calls ps2pdf to convert the postscript to pdf and opens the pdf file. Without the flag, transparency will be ignored in the ps file. With the flag, it will be respected.
When TeXShop typesets files in DVI mode, it runs TeX or LaTeX to create a dvi file, runs dvips to create a postscript file, converts the postscript file to pdf using ps2pdf, and displays the pdf file. Projects typeset in this way can use the package pstricks for extra typesetting effects, and pstricks can add transparency to illustrations. Typesetting will only preserve transparency if the flag is set.

The flag requires Ghostscript 9.51 or higher. It has no effect when used with earlier versions of Ghostscript.

The flag is added (in DVI mode) only if the user has not added "--distillerops" to the simpdftex preference settings. TeXShop does not want to interfere with users who are carefully controlling the Ghostscript flags themselves.

This preference item should still work when users supply their own Ghostscript, possibly from macports or homebrew, but that has not been tested.

Two sample files are provided for experimentation with the new setting. Select the TeXShop menu "Open ~/Library/TeXShop" and navigate to the folder New/Version-5.18. This folder contains two files which can be copied to your home directory: Transparency.ps and Transparency.tex. Open Transparency.ps in TeXShop. If the new item is not selected, the ruler in the illustration will cover the material underneath. If the new item is selected, the ruler will be partially transparent and show items underneath. Typeset the source file Transparency.tex to see the same change of behavior when typesetting in DVI mode. These samples were provided by Antonis Tsolomitis, with email address atsol@aegean.gr and web url https://myria.math.aegean.gr/~atsol/newpage-en/.

When new typesetting methods become available or older methods require new flags to operate properly, the changes are generally handled in TeXShop by creating new engine files. Herbert Schulz created such engines for transparency, available in ~/Library/TeXShop/Engines/Inactive/GhostscriptTransparencyEngines. The new preference item does not affect these engines, and the engines are more flexible than the preference setting, handling for instance versions of Ghostscript earlier than 9.51. Use Herbert's engines for full control. The new preference is for users who run into a problem and want to click a box for a quick solution.

The following changes were also made:

In Single Window mode, after typesetting a project with a root file the root source was brought forward even if the "Continue Editing" preference was selected. This behavior has been fixed by Matthias Schmidt.
Uwe Schmock improved the formatting of the TeXShop Manual.

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