A page description language, based on work originally done by John
Gaffney at Evans and Sutherland in 1976, evolving through `JaM'
(`John and Martin', Martin Newell) at {XEROX PARC}, and finally
implemented in its current form by John Warnock et al. after he and
Chuck Geschke founded Adobe Systems Incorporated in 1982. PostScript
gets its leverage by using a full programming language, rather than a
series of low-level escape sequences, to describe an image to be
printed on a laser printer or other output device (in this it
parallels {EMACS}, which exploited a similar insight about editing
tasks). It is also noteworthy for implementing on-the fly
rasterization, from Bezier curve descriptions, of high-quality fonts
at low (e.g. 300 dpi) resolution (it was formerly believed that
hand-tuned bitmap fonts were required for this task). Hackers
consider PostScript to be among the most elegant hacks of all time,
and the combination of technical merits and widespread availability
has made PostScript the language of choice for graphical output.
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {BiCapitalization}{EXCH}{NeWS}]