Solution: Error Open EPS in Gimp 64-bit with Ghostscript

I have been spending a lot of time to try to find a solution to the problem where GIMP 2.8 64-bit with Ghostscript cannot open EPS images.

After the “Import from PostScript” dialog you will get an error similar to: Could not interpret Postscript file ‘C:\logo.eps’ Opening ‘C:\logo.eps’ failed

The answer to this problem can be found in this bug report (thanks to Jako Grobler) but this is the short version.

Starting with GIMP 2.8.x you no longer need to install Ghostscript to be able to open EPS images, instead the dll is in included with the GIMP-installation. This means  you can forget about the instructions about setting the GS_PROG environment variable, trying to switch between 32-bit and 64-bit versions etc.
However at least up until the latest version of GIMP (2.8.4) there is something wrong with the included dll.

Solution

So this is the solution:

  1. If you have not already, download and install Ghostscript 64-bit
  2. Copy gsdll64.dll from your Ghostscript bin folder (Eg: C:\Program Files\gs\gs9.07\bin\) to the GIMP bin folder (Eg: C:\Program Files\GIMP 2\bin\)
  3. In the GIMP bin folder first a) Rename the file libgs-8.dll to libgs-8.old, and then b) Rename gsdll64.dll to libgs-8.dll
  4. Restart GIMP and opening EPS images should now work

Tried on Windows 7 64-bit with GIMP 2.8.4 64-bit and Ghostscript 9.07 64-bit

264 comments

  1. I can’t thank you enough. I’ve spent about an hour following other instructions and nothing worked.

    You have seriously saved my sanity. I was getting very close to a hair-pulling-out foot-stomping meltdown!

    Again thank you, bookmarked your site for future 🙂

    Cheers, Bek

  2. HI, I just wanted to give a tip to all that are having troubles with eps files and GIMP. I tried everything and nothing worked! The only solution I came up with that is fail safe, is to convert your eps file into a jpeg (or any other type that GIMP can read.)

    Hope I have helped!

  3. Andrea – I tried your solution and… Yeh…. it’s Jpeg, not a vector, so it kind of loosing it’s appeal…
    But I guess that’s all we got left….
    We’ll just have to wait until the GIMP guys figure out Win8.
    It’s better than nothing, so Thanks….

  4. 32bit Gimp 2.8.6 (the latest at that moment) doesn’t work with EPS correctly for me… No GS_PROG required, libgs-8.dll included. But doesn’t work – couldn’t open the EPS file, after forced replacement by gs 9.0.7 library – the error “eps-load… haven’t return the value”…
    My solution is to use GS directly to convert to PNG with transparency support:
    1) Dowload and install GS (http://www.ghostscript.com/download/gsdnld.html)
    2) Make a bat file with name eps2png.bat in gs bin folder (f.e. C:\Program Files\gs\gs9.07\bin)
    3) Write to the bat file a line:
    gswin32c -dSAFER -dBATCH -dEPSFitPage -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=pngalpha -dGraphicsAlphaBits=4 -r600 -sOutputFile=”%~d1%~p1%~n1.png” %1
    4) Repalce “gswin32c” with “gswin64c” for 64bit systems
    5) Replace “-r600” win “-rXXX” where XXX is DPI if need more or less
    6) Make an shortcut (link) on that BAT file and put into SendTo folder (it’s hidden and is located in C:\Users\ in Win7)

    Use it! Popup menu on EPS file, Send to, Your BAT. 🙂

  5. Thank you so much.
    Your method works like a charm. No other methods I’ve comed upon have worked for me until now.
    I can’t thank you enough,
    Thanks again.

  6. DUUUUUUUUUDDDEE!!!!! What a pain in the ass. I wish I would have found this 12 hours ago. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

  7. Hi
    Sorry, I’m a little dummy with these things.
    I don’t understand step 6, maybe because I have Win 8??
    Can anyone help please? I have Win 8 64 bit.
    Also, how do I know if I need to change DPI number?
    Thanks….

  8. You can get into the SendTo folder by using a special command:
    1) Press Win + R on your keyboard and you will see a Run command window
    2) use a command “shell:sendto” to get into the required folder
    It works on WinXP, Win7, Win8

  9. Hi,
    Thank you for your response, I did what you offered and did found the SendTo folder, but still can’t make it work.
    I think there’s something that I don’t understand in the instructions.
    Thanks anyway,
    Galia

  10. 1) Open Notepad.exe
    2) Write into editor:
    gswin32c -dSAFER -dBATCH -dEPSFitPage -dNOPAUSE -sDEVICE=pngalpha -dGraphicsAlphaBits=4 -r600 -sOutputFile=”%~d1%~p1%~n1.png” %1
    3) Save As the file with name eps2png.bat (using *.* mask option in dialog)

  11. Thank you man, you’re a live safer, I’ve been fighting this for more than an hour, when I finally stumbled across this! Thank you!! Now I just need to find a solution for linux ubuntu… lol also having some problems there :SS

  12. THANK YOU TJITJING!!

    This has been a frustrating problem for me for so long! This fix worked perfectly.
    You are a truly talented individual who cares enough to share!

    Thanks again.

  13. Thank you so much for this! I have been trying various workarounds for hours, and no system variables settings, alternate downloads, or anything else was working for me. But your solution fixed everything. Great post!

  14. Excellent solution! I was having exactly this problem. This worked with Windows 8.1 (64-bit) and GIMP 2.8.10 (64-bit), along with GhostScript 9.14 (64-bit). Thanks so much for providing this solution. I wonder why that DLL is not working properly in the original installation of GIMP? In any case it fixed the issue of not loading EPS files perfectly, and without much fuss.

  15. Thank you. I was having exactly this problem and it is fixed now. This solution worked for Windows7 64 bit and Gimp 2.8.

  16. THANK YOU! Been going mad since I moved over to Win7-64 Ultimate from 32-bit XP, now it’s all sorted and back to working – get yourself a beer on me 🙂

  17. Just an FYI. This is now working for me on win 8. I’m using win 8 update 1 64 bit, Gimp 2.8.10, and GS 9.14.

  18. You are da man! Like many others I scoured for hours trying to find a solution and your tip worked like a gem. Thanks so much.

  19. Spent the whole morning debugging this… finally got it thanks to your help. Much appreciated!!!

    Kudos!

  20. Thank you so much!
    It worked!!!!! I spend a lot of time trying to solve this problem in my Win 8 computer.

  21. The instructions worked perfectly for Gimp 2.8.10 running with Ghostscript 9.14 and Windows 7 64 bit.

    Thanks a bunch, but is this the BEST way to fix this problem permanently?

  22. Thank you very much! I tried so many other online workarounds to the GIMP eps situation and this worked immediately. You officially rock.

    Regards,

    Redrosetta

  23. Excellent job. Worked for me perfectly. Using Windows 8.1, Gimp 2.8.10 and GhostScript 9.14 (All 64 bits) Searched forever looking for an easy and elegant fix and found it here. Thank you very much.

    I am also having trouble with Inkscape (0.48.4) opening EPS files. Is there a similar solution for that? Thanks in advance.

  24. Thank you soo much!

    Worked great for me after 5 restarts and much frustration trying the GS_PRO method.

    Windows 7 64-bit, GIMP 2.8.10

  25. This fix worked great on a Windows 8.1 machine using GIMP 2.8.14 and Ghost Script 9.14. Quick and easy, thanks very much.

  26. Running GIMP 2.8 and GhostScript 9.15 on Windows 8.1 – struggled to find a working solution (everybody suggesting amending the ‘GS_PROG’ variable) until I found this. THANK YOU for being one of those heroes!

  27. I am running 2.8.14 and I do not appear to have a gsdll64.dll file….any idea what I should do. Thanks in advance.

    -Steve

  28. Works for me, thank you! Had the problem while using the newest gimp and the newest gs, both 64bit.. 🙂

  29. Hi, worked brilliantly on my Windows 8.1 64bit.

    Though the imported pic is not displayed as vectors, does anyone know if this is true for all eps imported in gimp.

    I would have expected, that gimp could understand a vector graphic.

    Many thanks, Daniel

  30. Bumped into this problem. This still works for GIMP 2.8.14 on windows 8.1 and ghostscript 15. Actually I was amazed that bug still isn’t fixed.

  31. Thank-you sir! After reading a bunch of the comments, I realize
    how much work you saved me! Worked like a charm.

  32. You don’t actually need to install GhostScript, just open the GS installer using 7-zip or similar and pull the dll out of the $_OUTDIR\bin\ directory within.

    Thanks for the solution!

  33. Thanks! You saved me a ton of aggravation! Got things up and running in 5 minutes. Really appreciate this easy-to-follow solution.

  34. I’m using a Vista 32 bit system. Placing the short link to the .bat file directly in the C:\users folder does’nt work in my case. What would the correct folder be for Vista?
    Thanks much in advance!

  35. Thanks,

    I’ve spent hours on this; editing environment variables etc etc

    It worked using the method above
    Windows 8.1
    Gimp 2.814
    Ghostscript 9.15 for Windows (64 bit)

  36. It worked for me perfectly! Thank you so much!
    Windows 7 Professional 64 bit
    GIMP 2.8.14
    Ghostscript 9.15 for Windows (64 bit)

  37. Oh my gosh! Thanx for the solution man! not only Saved my day, but also my work was shorter for like 2-3 hours 🙂 I am using Win 8.1 64bit with GIMP 2.8.14 and GhostScript 9.15 64bit and this solution works! again thanx man! Internet needs more heroes like you

  38. Many thanks – was driving me nuts trying to run GIMP on a particular PC.

    GIMP 2.8.4
    WIN 7 Pro

  39. SO PLEASED that this works!!! I spent over an hour trying to find a fix to this, and I can’t believe it was this simple. I’m so mad that this took so long.

  40. I tried other “how to’s” with no success and this one solved the problem with ease.

    Thank you very much for sharing! Highly appreciated..

  41. Similar with above comments, I have spent ages to find the solutions, loaded many different things. This is a real straightforward solution.

    Many thanks!!

  42. Just noticed that I am using an old version of GIMP, so I updated to the latest
    GIMP 2.8.14 and tried to open an eps file again. Same result as before. It did not work. So then I went through the dll replacement process listed above, and it now works perfectly.

    Bottom line, the latest version of GIMP still needs this dll fix. But when you do it, it works perfectly.

    Win 7-64 bit
    GIMP 2.8.14

  43. I upgraded to GIMP 2.8.14 and had to do the dll replacement.
    This works fine if the dll comes from Ghostscript 9.14.
    It does NOT work when the dll comes from Ghostscript 9.16.

    Win 8.1-64 bit
    GIMP 2.8.14
    Ghostscript 9.14

  44. Works perfectly for me using the dll from Ghostscript 9.16. Was getting a little tetchy when I couldn’t get it to work previously so cheers.

    Win 7-64 bit
    GIMP 2.8.14
    Ghostscript 9.16

  45. I am getting so frustrated. I have followed these instructions on two different computers and I’m getting nowhere. I’ve created the bat file and wrote the code to it and I still cannot open my EPS file in GIMP. The initial solution of copying the dll files over to gimp from gs etc allows me to open the file in GIMP, but it’s not transparent. Obviously with so many happy campers here… I must be doing something wrong.

  46. Works with Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit, Gimp 2.8.14 64bit / GS 9.16 64bit. GS_PROG solution didn’t work, but this did! Thank you!

  47. Thank you very much for the ultimate and quick solution !! one of the easiest solution I have ever found.

  48. Hey Guys, thanks for that fix! It doesnt happen very often that you get a fix out of the internet that you really need!

  49. Worked fine in Windows 7 and works find in Windows 8. If Adobe didn’t charge astronomical prices for Photoshop we should have to download Gimp and go throug this. Thanks for the solution.

  50. Hi

    I tried it but still having the same issue. Plugin crashes prntscr.com/915lj7

    I am using
    Gimp 2.8.14
    Ghostscript 9.18
    Windows 7 32 bit

    Any possible solution for me?

  51. Thank you! This worked for EPS files generated from Illustrator, and Gimp 2.8.14. I never would have figured this out for myself.

  52. The solution as documented at the top of the page worked for me. Configuration: Windows 10 64-bit, Dell E6440 laptop, GIMP 2.8.14, Ghostscript 9.18.

  53. Thanks a lot!!!
    This solution works perfectly with GIMP 2.8.16 x64 on Win 7 x64 using a dll file from GhostShript 9.18.
    Great job!

  54. Thanks for this tip! It works when using Gimp 2.8.14 64-bit on Windows 10 using the dll file from Ghostscript 9.18 64 bit (2015-10-05)

  55. Followed the instructions in the Original Post, and I can confirm this still works with Gimp 2.8.14, and GhostScript 9.18 (x64 version) on a Windows 7 x64 build.

  56. Worked for Windows 10, 64 bit with Gimp 2.8.16

    You are genius! I am so glad you posted this fix. I hope GIMP folks are aware of this issue.

  57. The correct:
    My noble, it is their savior.
    Your solution works perfectly in Windows 10, 9:19 ghostscript, gimp 2.8.16 x64.
    Thank you so much.

  58. Thankyou Max,
    After my .eps files (created on my OpenSuse machine) wouldn’t open on our MD’s Windows laptop; thankfully your short post of wisdom came to my rescue. Success

    Win 7 64bit, Gimp 2.8.16, ghostscript 9:19.

    Thanks

  59. Brilliant, just went through this short and easy procedure and the result is perfect. Thanks for sharing it with us!

  60. This worked for Windows 8, GIMP 2.8.16, and gs919w64.exe. BIG thanks, I’d been trying to resolve the issue for over an hour. 🙂

  61. Does not work for me.

    GiMP 2.8.16, GS 9.19, Windows 7 64-Bit.

    I get error messages when I try to open EPS and when I save them as well.

  62. Hi there, I just wanted to say thank you for walking me through how to fix this.

    Worked perfectly on Windows 10, I am now able to open EPS images with GIMP!

    Appreciate the help.

  63. I go to my gimp folder and there is no libgs-8.dll file. I’m running Windows 10 and the latest version of gimp as of 8/23/16. I downloaded ghostscript. But I don’t know which dll to replace in the Gimp bin folder. Can someone help?

  64. Can’t thank you enough for the great solution. Even for a non-technical type, it was easy to follow and, most importantly, it worked! 🙂

  65. Hi!
    Thank you so much for this post! This solutions works for my Windows 8.1 and Gimp 2.8.14.
    THANK YOU!!!
    Greetings from Lithuania!

  66. wow, I’ve been messing around with this for quite some time now…thx for posting this on the web, it solved the problem for me 🙂

  67. Windows 10 64bit
    GIMP Version 2.8.20
    Ghostscript 9.20

    Thank you! I’ve been reading solution for nearly an hour. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!!!!

  68. Thanks, It worked perfected for me. I’ve been seaching for 1 hour, and I’m happy you’ve shown the soluce!
    greethings.

  69. Excellent! Many thanks. Surfing for a while trying to figure out what’s wrong, given that ghostscript working well with inkscape but not with Gimp. Curious not being yet solved at the last version of Gimp 2 since you (and Jako Grobler) reported this. Now working well in Windows 8.1, Gimp 2.8.20 and Ghostscript 9.21 (64 bit).

  70. Thank you very much! I solved my problem by following the instructions. I have windows 10 home edition, GIMP 2.8.20 and GostScript 9.21 64 bits

  71. Is there a solution for Mac Users? I am not able to open EPS files with my Macbook Pro (Gimp 2.8.22 and GS 9.21) ?

  72. Reporting it works! september 2017
    Wasted so much tiome trying other options. This worked in 2 minutes!!
    THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!

  73. Copy and paste “Windows 10 64 bit solution” from above comments. Thank you! This worked for me:

    1.If you have not already, download and install Ghostscript 64-bit
    2.Copy gsdll64.dll from your Ghostscript bin folder (Eg: C:Program Filesgsgs9.07bin) to the GIMP bin folder (Eg: C:\Program Files\GIMP 2\bin)
    3.In the GIMP bin folder first a) Rename the file libgs-8.dll to libgs-8.old, and then b) Rename gsdll64.dll to libgs-8.dll
    4.Restart GIMP and opening EPS images should now work.

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