new file mode 100644
--- /dev/null
+++ b/scripts/plot/private/__ghostscript__.m
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+## Copyright (C) 2010 Ben Abbott
+## 
+## This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
+## it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+## the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
+## (at your option) any later version.
+## 
+## This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+## but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+## MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+## GNU General Public License for more details.
+## 
+## You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+## along with Octave; see the file COPYING.  If not, see
+## <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+## -*- texinfo -*-
+## @deftypefn {Function File} {} __ghostscript__ (@var{@dots{}})
+## Undocumented internal function.
+## @end deftypefn
+
+## Author: Ben Abbott <bpabbott@mac.com>
+## Created: 2010-07-26
+
+function status = __ghostscript__ (opts, varargin);
+
+  if (nargin > 1)
+    opts.name = varargin{1};
+  endif
+  if (nargin > 2)
+    opts.ghostscript_device = varargin{2};
+  endif
+  if (nargin > 3)
+    opts.ghostscript_output = varargin{3};
+  endif
+
+  if (strncmp (opts.devopt, "eps", 3))
+    ## "eps" files
+    gs_opts = "-q -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -dSAFER -dEPSCrop";
+  else
+    ## "ps" or "pdf" files
+    gs_opts = "-q -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -dSAFER";
+  endif
+
+  cmd = sprintf ("%s %s -sDEVICE=%s -r%d -sOutputFile=%s %s", 
+                 opts.ghostscript_binary, gs_opts, opts.ghostscript_device,
+                 opts.resolution, opts.ghostscript_output, opts.name);
+
+  if (opts.debug)
+    fprintf ("Ghostscript command: %s\n", cmd);
+  endif
+
+  [status, output] = system (cmd);
+
+  if (status != 0)
+    warning ("print:ghostscripterror", 
+             "print.m: gs failed to convert output to file '%s'.", opts.ghostscript_output)
+  endif
+
+endfunction