[geeks] better word-processing previewing....

[Greg A. Woods]

[ On Sunday, September 2, 2001 at 16:53:02 (-0500), Bill Bradford wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: [geeks] better word-processing previewing....
>
> Isnt PDF just a postscript variation/subset?

I've always considered it to be a subset, yes.  To repeat what I've been
told before:  ``PDF is basically PostScript without the "programming
language" features removed.''  In PDF the document structure is
supposedly required and/or inherent, but in PostScript of course the
document structure is a set of "standard" (i.e. defined by Adobe)
commenting conventions (PS DSC).

It's supposed to be easier and faster to process (I guess you don't need
a full procedural language interpreter).

>From a licensing point of view though PostScript is still a lot more
locked in to Adobe than PDF is.  (yes there are free PS interpreters,
and others, such as Cannon, have also written their own non-free
interpreters too) Adobe supposedly published even more detailed and
freely usable specifications about PDF explicitly so that other people
would write viewers and print engines and make PDF far more commonplace
and palatable to the average user.

-- 
							Greg A. Woods

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