PostScript: n. A Page Description Language (PDL), 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.
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