pdfcrop fails at ghostscript execution

[tbuckel86]

Hi, I've got following error on my windows machine (Windows 10 Enterprise, 64-bit) using PDFCROP 1.40, 2020/06/06:

pdfcrop --debug --margins "1 1 1 1" "C:\Users\Myself\Documents\Dissertation\source\figures\chapter_02\1.pdf" "C:\Users\Myself\Documents\Dissertation\source\figures\chapter_02\1.pdf" PDFCROP 1.40, 2020/06/06 - Copyright (c) 2002-2020 by Heiko Oberdiek, Oberdiek Package Support Group.

• Restricted mode: disabled
• Option `pdfversion': auto
• Perl executable: C:\Strawberry\perl\bin\perl.exe
• Perl version: v5.32.1
• Pointer size: 8
• Pipe support: yes
• Fork support: no
• OS name: MSWin32
• Arch name: MSWin32-x64-multi-thread
• System: miktex
• Not found (mgs): mgs.exe
• Found (mgs): C:\Users\Myself\AppData\Local\Programs\MiKTeX\miktex\bin\x64\mgs.exe
• Autodetected ghostscript command: mgs
• Input file: C:\Users\Myself\Documents\Dissertation\source\figures\chapter_02\1.pdf
• Output file: C:\Users\Myself\Documents\Dissertation\source\figures\chapter_02\1.pdf
• Margins: 1 1 1 1
• Input file name `C:\Users\Myself\Documents\Dissertation\source\figures\chapter_02\1.pdf' contains special characters.
• Copy input file to temporary file `tmp-pdfcrop-7684-img.pdf'.
• PDF header: %PDF-1.7
• Using PDF version: 1.7
• Running ghostscript for BoundingBox calculation ...
• Ghostscript call: mgs -sDEVICE=bbox -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -c save pop -f tmp-pdfcrop-7684-img.pdf
• Cleanup
• Temporary files: tmp-pdfcrop-7684-img.pdf tmp-pdfcrop-7684.tex !!! Error: Cannot call ghostscript `mgs' (No such file or directory/The system cannot find the file specified)!

I've installed pdfcrop via miktex, latest version (4.8), use Strawberry Perl (64-bit) 5.32.1.1-64bit and Ghostscript 9.56.1, 64-bit (2022-04-04).

Any idea how to solve this issue?

Thanks in advance!

Update (2022-10-31, 2:45 pm, CET): I've completely removed my setup, i.e. desinstalled Miktex and Ghostscript and re-installed with 1) Ghostscript 9.52 (64-bit, older Version from 2020) and 2) Miktext 4.8 (same as before). Problem still exists.

Further looking into it i've tried to call pdfcrop including --gscmd gswin64c, i.e. <pdfcrop --debug --gscmd gswin64 --margins "1 1 1 1" "input_file.pdf" "output_file.pdf">. Problem still exists.

I've tried to set MIKTEX_PREFERMIKTEXGHOSTSCRIPT=false according to https://github.com/MiKTeX/miktex-packaging/issues/218#issuecomment-761536256. Problem still exists.

I've checked to have all required paths in my %PATH% env. variable as well, i.e. C:\Program Files\gs\gs9.52\bin and C:\Users...\AppData\Local\Programs\MiKTeX\miktex\bin\x64\

A manual call of the last executed command (according to returned debug information) <mgs -sDEVICE=bbox -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -c save pop -f test.pdf> however, works and returns the bounding box information

running out of ideas...

[SchmelleDev]

Hi, I had the same issue that newest versions (perl 5.36 active state) are not compatible. In the end it worked after the installation of an older perl version; "strawberry-perl-5.16.3.1-64bit-portable" in my case.

Just for completeness my version:

pdfcrop PDFCROP 1.39, 2020/05/24 (downgraded by substritution of the *.pl script in the tex installation) MiKTeX GPL Ghostscript 9.25 This is perl 5, version 16, subversion 3 (v5.16.3) built for MSWin32-x64-multi-thread

[pablgonz]

Mmm, I can't reproduce your problem using perl 5.38, TL23 and PDFCROP 1.42...I think it's a MikTeX side issue.