PostScript
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, Inc.} in 1982.
PostScript is an interpreted, stack-based language (like
{FORTH}). It was used as a page description language by the
{Apple LaserWriter}, and now many {laser printers} and
on-screen graphics systems. Its primary application is to
describe the appearance of text, graphical shapes and sampled
images on printed or displayed pages.
A program in PostScript can communicate a document description
from a composition system to a printing system in a
device-independent way.
PostScript is an unusually powerful printer language because
it is a full programming language, rather than a series of
low-level escape sequences. (In this it parallels {Emacs},
which exploited a similar insight about editing tasks). It is
also noteworthy for implementing on-the fly {rasterisation},
from {Bezier curve} descriptions, of high-quality {font}s at
low (e.g. 300 dpi) resolution (it was formerly believed that
hand-tuned {bitmap font}s were required for this task).
PostScript's combination of technical merits and widespread
availability has made it the language of choice for graphical
output.
See also {PDF}.
{An introduction
(http://www.cs.indiana.edu/docproject/programming/postscript/postscript