What is postscript?

Postscript is a page description language (PDL) developed by Adobe Systems. Postscript is primarily a language for printing documents on laser printers, but it can be adapted to produce images on other types or devices. Postscript is the standard for desktop publishing because it is supported by image-setters, the very high resolution printer used by service bureaus to produce camera-ready artwork.

Postscript is an object-orientated language, meaning that it treats images, including fonts, as collections of geometrical objects rather than as bit-maps. Postscript fonts are called outline fonts because the outline of each character is defined. They are also called scalable fonts because their size can be changed with Postscript commands. Given a single typeface definition, a Postscript printer can produce a multitude of fonts. In contrast, many non-Postscript printers represent fonts with bit maps. To print a bit-map typeface with different sizes, these printers require a complete set of bit maps for each size.