How can I add a footer to the bottom of each page of a postscript or pdf file in linux?

So I'd like to add a "footer" (an attribution) to the bottom of every page of a pdf file I am generating via postscript with groff in linux. I am converting the file from ps to pdf myself, with the ps2pdf tool, so I have access to both formats.

These two posts have been somewhat helpful:

How to add page numbers to Postscript/PDF

How can I make a program overlay text on a postscript file?

I'm not against using the first method, but I don't have access to the pdflatex utility mentioned in the first script, nor do I have the option to install it on the machine that needs to do the work.

It looks like the second method could possibly work, but I have version 8.15 of ghostscript installed and I didn't see many of the flags listed on the man page ( http://unix.browserdebug.com/man/gs/ ). I think I have access to the "-c" flag to insert some postscript code, even though it is not listed. Anyhow, here are two commands I tried unsuccessfully:

gs -o output.pdf -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -g5030x5320 \
-c "/Helvetica-Italic findfont 15 scalefont setfont 453 482 moveto (test-string) show" \
-f input.ps

that gives me this:

Unknown switch -o - ignoring
ESP Ghostscript 815.02 (2006-04-19)
Copyright (C) 2004 artofcode LLC, Benicia, CA.  All rights reserved.
This software comes with NO WARRANTY: see the file PUBLIC for details.
ERROR: /undefinedfilename in (output.pdf)
Operand stack:

Execution stack:
   %interp_exit   .runexec2   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   2   %stopped_push   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   --nostringval--   false   1   %stopped_push
Dictionary stack:
   --dict:1117/1686(ro)(G)--   --dict:0/20(G)--   --dict:102/200(L)--
Current allocation mode is local
Last OS error: 2
ESP Ghostscript 815.02: Unrecoverable error, exit code 1

So obviously the -o flag has a problem and so I did some research and tried this syntax:

gs -sOUTPUTFILE=output.pdf -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -g5030x5320 \
-c "/Helvetica-Italic findfont 15 scalefont setfont 453 482 moveto (test-string) show" \
-f input.ps

which outputs this and makes me hit return 4 times (maybe there are 4 pages in input.ps)

ESP Ghostscript 815.02 (2006-04-19)
Copyright (C) 2004 artofcode LLC, Benicia, CA.  All rights reserved.
This software comes with NO WARRANTY: see the file PUBLIC for details.
Can't find (or can't open) font file /usr/share/ghostscript/8.15/Resource/Font/Helvetica-Italic.
Can't find (or can't open) font file Helvetica-Italic.
Querying operating system for font files...
Didn't find this font on the system!
Substituting font Helvetica-Oblique for Helvetica-Italic.
Loading NimbusSanL-ReguItal font from /usr/share/fonts/default/Type1/n019023l.pfb... 3742416 2168114 2083056 759694 1 done.
Loading NimbusRomNo9L-ReguItal font from /usr/share/fonts/default/Type1/n021023l.pfb... 3781760 2362033 2365632 1015713 1 done.
Loading NimbusRomNo9L-Medi font from /usr/share/fonts/default/Type1/n021004l.pfb... 3865136 2547267 2365632 1029818 1 done.
Loading NimbusRomNo9L-Regu font from /usr/share/fonts/default/Type1/n021003开发者_运维百科l.pfb... 4089592 2759001 2365632 1032885 1 done.
Using NimbusRomanNo9L-Regu font for NimbusRomNo9L-Regu.
>>showpage, press <return> to continue<<

>>showpage, press <return> to continue<<

>>showpage, press <return> to continue<<

>>showpage, press <return> to continue<<

So it seems like it would be simple enough to use gs to simply insert something in a ps file, but it is proving to be quite complicated...

In your PostScript file you can use a page counter and redefine showpage to display it in the footer. Here's a sample program:

4 dict begin

/showpage_org /showpage load def            % you'll need this later!  
/page_num 0 def  
/page_str 3 string def                      % Page numbers -99 to 999 supported, error if > 3 char

/showpage                                   % with page number footer  
{  
    gsave
    /Courier findfont 10 scalefont setfont  % Set the font for the footer  
    /page_num page_num 1 add def            % increment page number counter  
    10 10 moveto (Page ) show                 
    page_num page_str cvs show              % convert page number integer to a string and show it  
    grestore  
    showpage_org                            % use the original showpage  
} def  

%Page 1  
/Courier findfont 22 scalefont setfont  
100 500 moveto (Hello) show  
showpage  

%Page 2  
100 500 moveto (World) show  
showpage  

end

ESP Ghostscript is O-o-o-o-old. Don't use it any more unless you absolutely, absolutely cannot avoid it. It was a fork of the original Ghostscript which used by CUPS for a while. (And after some problems between developers where resolved, more recent versions of CUPS now also use the GPL Ghostscript again...)

Newer GPL Ghostscript versions are here: http://www.ghostscript.com/releases/

Also, -o out.pdf is only a shorthand for -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -sOutputFile=out.pdf. So you should try this. (The -dNOPAUSE part relieves you from hitting <return> for every page advance....).

Lastly, don't expect the full range of documentation being provided by a third party man gs page. Rather refer to the original Ghostscript documentation for the version you use, the most important parts being:

• current development branch: Readme.htm + Use.htm + Ps2pdf.htm
• 9.00 release: Readme.htm + Use.htm + Ps2pdf.htm
• 8.71 release: Readme.htm + Use.htm + Ps2pdf.htm

Update: Ghostscript has moved to Git (instead of Subversion) for their source code repository. Therefor the following links have changed, repeatedly:

• current development branch: Readme.htm + Use.htm + Ps2pdf.htm
• current development branch: Readme.htm + Use.htm + Ps2pdf.htm

The most logical place to add page footers is in the groff source. The exact way to do this will of course depend on the macro package youre using. For -ms, you can do:

.ds RF "Page \\n(PN

to add the page number as right footer. For -mm, it's more like:

.PF "'''Page \\\\nP'"

where the single quotes delimit the 'left part'center part'right part' of the footer.