PostScript basics

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11 Responses to “PostScript basics”

1. Steven Teosin says:

   August 14, 2007 at 8:08 am

   The site is precisely informative and easily browsable. Thank you and keep it up.

   Reply
2. gloria guzman says:

   September 6, 2007 at 10:20 pm

   I have an .jpg file I need to concert it to a .eps file is this possible and if so how?

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3. Laurens says:

   September 15, 2007 at 4:05 am

   You can convert .jpg files to .eps using applications like Photoshop or other image editing applications.

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4. Emanuele says:

   August 4, 2010 at 8:19 am

   PostScript could be a real madness but using your guide I reached my goals. Thank you for the help =) Keep this up. It was like a salvation!

   Reply
5. Chai says:

   November 18, 2010 at 1:35 am

   Hey,

   Thanks for your excellent article.

   one question. You wrote: “PostScript can also be used to exchange data between applications themselves and it forms the basis of the PDF file format.” I am not clear about it. Could you clarify? Or can I understand in this way:if I export a PDF from indesign, and I use different PDF viewer to read it, such as Preview, Acrobat or VPS, I may get different display result because they have different RIP built in?

   So eager to hear from you answer. Thanks

   Reply
   • Laurens says:

     December 22, 2010 at 4:29 pm

     That latter statement unfortunately is true – depending on the viewer application you use a PDF may be displayed differently.
6. Alex says:

   May 12, 2011 at 3:40 pm

   Mr. Laurens, please,could you explain the relation between PostScript 3, CPSI and APPE. I´ve read your texts, but I could not do a clear relation between them.

   Thank you!

   Reply
   • Laurens says:

     May 13, 2011 at 8:55 pm

     OK, let’s start with the basics:

     • PostScript is a page description language. A PostScript file defines what a page or document looks like.
     • CPSI and APPE are software libraries that Adobe sells to vendors so these can build a RIP (or renderer as it is sometimes called). Such a RIP takes a page description and uses it to output the document, usually on physical media such as paper, film or printing plates.

     Let me use an analogy: A PostScript file is to an MP3 file as a RIP is to a music application on your computer or the software of your MP3 player.

     How do CPSI and APPE relate to PostScript:

     • CPSI is the precursor of APPE. It is a PostScript interpreter: you can send a PostScript file to a RIP based on CPSI and it will make sure you get a nice print-out, or a good set of films or plates.
     • APPE was created when Adobe had already phased out PostScript. APPE cannot process PostScript files directly, it expects to be fed PDF files. A lot (or maybe all) of the vendors that build RIPs based on APPE still see the need for supporting PostScript so they typically add a PostScript to PDF convertor (Distiller or Normalizer) to their RIP or workflow. That means you can still send PostScript files to such a system. In the background they will be converted to PDF and then forwarded to the APPE component.

     Hope this clears things up a bit.
7. Alex says:

   May 14, 2011 at 2:56 am

   Thank you!

   Now I can do some relations:
   Postscrip level 3, for exemple, it is a progression in the language and PostScript level 3 RIPs mean that RIP can interpret this level of language. The way it make this interpretation, I think it is: or by CPSI (I suppose that it is a cheaper OEM tecnology, than APPE) or by APPE. I worked with Prinergy and saw Normalizer process occur in front of me all the time.
   After a little research (certainly not something new for the Sr., or as we say here in Brazil: teaching the priest to pray!), CPSI v3015 had some problem with transparency, solved with flattened PDF 1.3, nowadays v3019 without thoses issues.

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8. Shawn says:

   July 26, 2011 at 7:05 am

   Mr. Laurens, please, could you tell me how to import a image’s file (.jpg , .eps , ps etc) to a new ps file.

   Reply
9. Kirti Ahuja says:

   November 14, 2012 at 2:47 pm

   Which version of the Postscript is currently available in PDFs.

   Reply