What is PostScript?

PostScript is a page description language (PDL) developed by Adobe. In essence, it is a programming language for describing how a page is to be printed or displayed. Examples of other PDLs include Envoy, PDF, and PCL. PostScript consists of functions for describing and positioning lines, shapes, fills, and other graphical elements, and for placing and formatting text.

Since PostScript describes the nature of a file's contents rather than just specifying how they look, PostScript content can be scaled effectively to any size. For example, a postcard-sized PostScript file could be expanded to the size of a billboard without any loss in quality.

PostScript files often have the file extension .ps or .eps.

For further information about PostScript, see Adobe's product page for PostScript or search Adobe's web site.

Also see:

• What do some of the graphics format file extensions stand for?
• In Unix, how do I convert a PostScript file to text?
• How do I print PostScript files without a PostScript printer?
• In Microsoft Windows, how do I configure a local printer to convert documents to PostScript format?
• In Windows, how do I create PostScript files?
• In Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000, or XP, how can I view a PostScript file?
• In Mac OS X, how do I convert a document to PostScript?
• In Mac OS X, how do I use the Unix command-line print commands to print to a PostScript printer?
• In Mac OS X, how do I print a PostScript document?