GS Only PDF Preview
by bonger · Uncategorized
Also makes 1 other plugin · 1.1K+ installs across the portfolio →
Uses Ghostscript directly to generate PDF previews.
Try it live opens a temporary test site in your browser, which can take about 20 seconds to load. Plugins that rely on outside services or a full server may not work completely there.
Health
D 48/100
Stale · Likely abandoned · Few reviews
Active installs
1K+
≈1.6K estimated
Momentum
+56%
downloads vs prior 30d
Biggest opportunity: Slipping on “ghostscript”. Down 5 places since 2026-10-09, now #24. Check what shipped around then, and what moved above you.
48 health vs 58 average across 25,738 Uncategorized plugins
Install conversion
How it's measured →6.4%
of downloads still active
At least 1K of 15.5K lifetime downloads are still running, above its category: the median Uncategorized plugin keeps 0.6%, across 17,771 plugins.
Downloads count every update, not just first installs, so older and more frequently released plugins read lower. Compare against other Uncategorized plugins, not across the directory. wp.org reports active installs as the bottom of a band, so the real rate is this or higher.
High removal-risk signals
63/100Maintenance and integrity signals that tend to precede a WordPress.org removal. Not an official status, a heads-up to act.
- Long abandoned. No update in 9+ years — the top precursor to removal once a vulnerability is found.
- Compatibility drift. Tested only up to WordPress 4.8.0, well behind 6.8.
Details
Directory ranking optimization
How it's scored →How well this listing is tuned to rank in WordPress.org search, on the factors an owner controls. Not popularity, optimization.
Under-optimized
Most to gain: Update recency
Updated 3428 days ago, past the ~180 days where wp.org starts discounting
Tested up to WordPress 4.8.0; the current branch is 6.8
5.0★ over 8 reviews, smoothed to 4.22★ and held back under 25 reviews
4 of 5 tags set · short description in place
To rank higher: Last updated 3428 days ago — ship an update; wp.org decays a listing's search weight after ~180 days.
Get the full rank-higher report →Search visibility
How it's tracked →Directory searches this plugin turns up in, and which way each one is moving. WordPress.org publishes no history of search positions, so this starts the day we first tracked a keyword and never backfills.
23
Momentum
Losing ground
-3.3
Velocity
places per keyword, 21d
0%
Breadth
of keywords climbing, 21d
-0.7
Acceleration
recent half vs earlier
wp.org is where the directory puts the plugin for that search. On merit is where it would sit if results were ranked on rating, support and updates, without the install boost. The last column is how far the wp.org position moved, from our first reading in the last 90 days to the latest.
| Keyword | wp.org | On merit | wp.org move, 90 days |
|---|---|---|---|
| ghostscript only your tag | #19 | #10 | down 4 |
| ghostscript your tag | #24 | #10 | down 5 |
| pdf your tag | Not in the top 24 | ||
| pdf preview your tag | Not in the top 24 | ||
3 searches this plugin appeared in over the last 90 days, 2 listed. 1 left out as unrelated or noise (years, numbers, stray words). 2 of its tags aren't in the top 24 for their own search.
What to do about it
- Slipping on “ghostscript”. Down 5 places since 2026-10-09, now #24. Check what shipped around then, and what moved above you.
- “pdf” and “pdf preview” aren't earning a slot. You list them, but you're not in the first 24 results for those searches. WordPress.org counts only your first five tags, so free the slot for a search you can win.
Daily downloads
Since 5 Oct 2022 · 1,488 days · wp.org + Plugin Pulse archive
30-day downloads
Rolling 30-day volume · peak 324 · peaks are release surges
Directory rank vs rivals
wp.org popularity rank over time · higher is better · when a rival's line climbs above yours, they've overtaken you
Health trend
Composite health score, snapshotted daily
Update activity
How busy the existing users are, measured as downloads in the last 30 days for every 1,000 active sites. A spike means a new release everyone's pulling; a long, slow decline means an aging user base that updates less.
Release cadence
No release in a yearHow often this plugin actually ships. A steady rhythm is the maintenance signal a single "last updated" date can't show.
0
releases in the last 12 months
9.4y ago
latest release · v1.0.7 · 13 Jun 2017
8
tagged releases on record
Recent releases
What its installed base runs
via wordpress.orgShare of active installs on each version of this plugin · 100% run the current release. Green is the current release; a big slice on older versions is a user base that has stopped updating.
Estimated active installs
The public count shows “1K+”. Our estimate pins where the real number sits.
Crossed into this band 5 months ago; a band this size takes about a year or more to cross, which places it about 59% of the way through.
Install history since 26 Jul 2018
Recent reviews
All reviews on wp.org ↗- ★★★★★ Marty3.4y ago
Helpful for getting around some modern configuration issues with imagick, php, and some server setups.
Read on wp.org ↗ - ★★★★★ seseschneider3.8y ago
Works perfectly on v6
Read on wp.org ↗ - ★★★★★ Clare Parkinson5.5y ago
Sometime in March 2021 my site stopped generating PDF thumbnails automatically. It seems like a bug in WP. I installed this plugin on WP 5.7.1 and now the PDF thumbnails are automatically generated on newly uploaded PDFs. There’s also an option to generate thumbnails of the PDFs that didn’t have them. This seems to be a little glitchy – my site is hosted on Pantheon, and sometimes I saw an error “unable to generate PDF preview”, but after clearing the caches and clicking a few times, I got all my old PDF images regenerated. Great workaround, completely solves my problem. This topic was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by Clare Parkinson.
Read on wp.org ↗ - ★★★★★ Exo5.9y ago
AWESOME PLUGIN! FYI: WP has a bug with PDFs, if you upload a PDF to WordPress that does not have a background (transparent), WP reverts to black. Crazy. There’s a whole discussion about it elsewhere can I could not find a fix for hundreds of PDF’s on a site I had. This plugin not only fixes that but with 1-click and replaces the dodgy original WP thumbnails! For those that uploaded PDF’s to older versions of WP before it made thumbnails, annoyingly this plugin shows an error, but ignore it as it still creates new thumbs. 5-star plugin.
Read on wp.org ↗ - ★★★★★ Jordy Meow6.3y ago
There is a server on which I can’t install ImageMagick but where there is Ghostscript. Thanks to this plugin, it was possible to generate thumbnails for the PDFs in the Media Library. The plugin probably needs to be checked, as I got the error “Failed to generate the PDF preview”, even though… it worked 🙂
Read on wp.org ↗ - ★★★★★ denn19476.7y ago
This plugin finally solved my PDF thumbnail issue. Ty so much.
Read on wp.org ↗ - ★★★★★ o2xav8.0y ago
Thank you, your plugin fixed my PDF preview issue, although imagick, imagemagick and GS are installed and enabled on the host (php 7.2 @ plesk 17.8.11 @ ubuntu 14.04), PDF preview generation stopped working on all WP instances for some reason, and i had no idea where to start looking. Now it is working !
Read on wp.org ↗ - ★★★★★ Benjamin Pick9.5y ago
With this plugin, 1&1 is able to generate the PDF thumbnails. Thank you!
Read on wp.org ↗
Behavioral tests
via WP HiveAutomated install-time checks, tested on PHP 7.2.16 · WP 5.3
Languages
via translate.wordpress.orgTranslated into 1 language, 1 at 90% or more
AI assistants
How it's measured →Whether ChatGPT and Claude name this plugin when asked the category question, and whether the readme gives them something to quote.
Not measured yet for this plugin’s topics. Its tracked searches are not among the measured topics. See the topics measured so far.
Readme readiness
3 of 8 pass · checked 29 Oct 2026Can an assistant quote this readme? Eight deterministic checks over the wp.org listing, no model involved.
- ✓ Says what it does "Uses Ghostscript directly to generate PDF previews."
- ! Has a FAQ Only 2 questions in the FAQ; 3 or more gives an assistant something to match.
- ! FAQ asks real questions 1 of 2 FAQ entries are headings, not questions ("Installation Instructions").
- ! Names who it is for One audience phrase ("if you have"); say who the plugin is for and what they use it for.
- ! Names what it works with Names no plugin, service or platform it works with.
- ! Headings and lists 9 headings and 0 lists; assistants quote headed sections and bullet lists, not paragraphs.
- ✓ Enough to quote 5,159 characters of description.
- ✓ Tags match the text 3 of 4 tags appear in the text; "Ghostscript Only" does not.
Growth timeline
Install-tier crossings we have observed, and how long each tier took to outgrow
- 2026-06-05 2K+ → 1K+ down after 2 days in tier
- 2026-06-03 1K+ → 2K+ up after 1 days in tier
- 2026-06-02 2K+ → 1K+ down after 1 days in tier
- 2026-06-01 1K+ → 2K+ up after 1 days in tier
- 2026-05-31 2K+ → 1K+ down after 1 days in tier
- 2026-05-30 1K+ → 2K+ up after 1 days in tier
- 2026-05-29 2K+ → 1K+ down after 2 days in tier
- 2026-05-27 1K+ → 2K+ up after 2 days in tier
Competes with
The plugins that solve the same job, ranked by shared tags then reach, closest match first. The letter on the right is each plugin's health grade (A best, F worst).
-
PDF Invoices & Packing Slips for WooCommerce 300K+ installs · 4.9★ · 1 shared tag A -
PDF Embedder – PDF Viewer & Embed PDF Files for WordPress 300K+ installs · 4.7★ · 1 shared tag A -
Gravity PDF 20K+ installs · 4.9★ · 1 shared tag B -
PDF Poster – Let visitors read PDF’s without leaving the page 20K+ installs · 4.5★ · 1 shared tag A -
PDF.js Viewer 20K+ installs · 4.3★ · 1 shared tag A -
Embed PDF Viewer 20K+ installs · 4.4★ · 1 shared tag A
Embed this report card
Drop a live Pulse card for GS Only PDF Preview into a readme, a review or a deck. It updates itself.
<iframe src="https://plugins.wpmayor.com/embed/gs-only-pdf-preview" width="480" height="300" style="border:0" loading="lazy" title="GS Only PDF Preview — Plugin Pulse"></iframe> GS Only PDF Preview: 1K+ active installs, 5.0★ (8 reviews). Plugin Pulse (WP Mayor), as of 2026-11-01. https://plugins.wpmayor.com/plugin/gs-only-pdf-preview
Spotted a number that looks wrong? Report a data issue and we'll check it against the source.