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Subject:Re: Post Script vs. PDF From:Beth Friedman <bjf -at- WAVEFRONT -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 12 Feb 1999 09:06:48 -0600
In our previous episode, Tim Altom said:
> I'm not sure I know what you mean by the pros and cons. They're not
> interchangeable, merely related. PostScript is actually a printer
> language (a true language, BTW, with conditionals, math handlers,
> and everything), while PDF is compressed, and optimized for viewing
> on monitors. PDF was originally conceived as an archival format. The
> only place where these two formats can serve the same purpose is in
> delivery to printers. Many printers have taken PostScript files for
> years and many now accept PDFs, which have good color definition and
> are extremely stable. PostScript is very tough to view onscreen, so
> it isn't used for that purpose very often. In fact, that's what
> Adobe's Type Manager is for, rendering PostScript fonts for the
> screen. PostScript is raw material for PDF and a printer
> language. PDF is for viewing.
Dumb question: A while ago, my boss was supposed to provide a
document to a publisher, and the publisher specified that it was
supposed to be in "native" PDF, _not_ generated from PostScript. Is
there a way to do that? All the methods I know of getting to PDF
involve a PostScript interim step. At least, I assume methods like
PDFWriter use PostScript, even if it's not visible. True?
I hope you can clear this up for me.
P.S. I had trouble viewing PostScript files or printing partial
PostScript files until I downloaded GSView, a Windows front-end for
GhostScript. I recommend it to anyone who needs to view or print PS
files: it's intuitive in use and works beautifully.
*********************************************************************
Beth Friedman bjf -at- wavefront -dot- com
"Long noun chains don't automatically imply security."
-- Bruce Schneier
