Re: PDF on debian
Curt wrote:
> On 2023-03-12, Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> wrote:
> >> >
> >> > Many (most?) printers do not understand PostScript. The
> >> > printing system itself is based on processing PDFs.
> >> >
> >>
> >> Oh.
> >> Times have changed!
> >> I thought it was the other way around.
> >
> > You are correct, Yassine.
> >
> > PostScript is an interpreted language. PDF is a compressed
> > archive data format which includes simplified PostScript commands,
> > images, fonts, and other chunks of data.
> >
> > Apart from Windows-derived GDI printers, the majority of laser
> > and inkjet printers have a PostScript interpreter built in, even
> > if its primary use is in interpreting PDF files.
> >
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PostScript
>
> However, the cost of implementation was high; computers output raw PS code that
> would be interpreted by the printer into a raster image at the printer's
> natural resolution. This required high performance microprocessors and ample
> memory. The LaserWriter used a 12 MHz Motorola 68000, making it faster than any
> of the Macintosh computers to which it attached. When the laser printer engines
> themselves cost over a thousand dollars the added cost of PS was marginal. But
> as printer mechanisms fell in price, the cost of implementing PS became too
> great a fraction of overall printer cost
As processor prices fell, this turned around. The ARM or MIPS
processor and RAM inside a $100 laser printer is a tiny fraction of the
cost, and completely capable of running PostScript.
Now, the licensing cost from Adobe for PostScript is terribly
high, but open source rode to the rescue: most printers say "PS
compatible" rather than PostScript(tm). They tend to run Linux
and GhostScript -- here's the Debian package description:
Description: interpreter for the PostScript language and for PDF GPL
Ghostscript is used for PostScript/PDF preview and printing. Usually as
a back-end to a program such as ghostview, it can display PostScript and
PDF documents in an X11 environment.
Furthermore, it can render PostScript and PDF files as graphics to be
printed on non-PostScript printers. Supported printers include common
dot-matrix, inkjet and laser models.
> ; in addition, with desktop computers
> becoming more powerful, it no longer made sense to offload the rasterization
> work onto the resource-constrained printer
This is called the cycle of reincarnation: it happens over and
over again, with functions being implemented in separate devices,
then being integrated into a motherboard or SOC or chipset or
even the CPU itself, and then occasionally coming back out for
improved performance, which may then be re-integrated...
-dsr-
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