🚀 go-pugleaf

In <1992Nov12.153918.12371@usiva.com> brooks@usiva.com (Lyle D. Brooks) writes:

>So what makes for the best PostScript??

>a) DSC conformance
>b) Size
>c) Performance
>d) Readability
>e) Viewing
>f) None of the Above

 1) Nice postscript files don't make assumptions about what kind
    of printer they're going to be printed on. This means don't
    don't expect the CTM to have any particular form. It also 
    means never use setmatrix to set it to an arbitrary matrix.
    Things like clippath, should not be used to try and figure
    out pagesize, etc. either. This stuff is for the most part
    in Appendix I of the Red Book 2/e.

 2) I think some of the best (nicest) postscript output I've seen
    is Adobe Illustrator (perhaps not surprising considering
    the people responsible for it.) This is of course a personal
    opinion formulated through considerable experience working
    with the postscript generated by Illustrator '88 and 3.0. 
    Mainly, I can't remember any time I leaped up from my terminal
    and ran around the room swearing at whoever wrote this 
    stupid, ignorant @$%! piece of code.

 3) Some of the worst postscript I've seen was from PC programs.
    (CorelDraw comes to mind.) Mathematica was responsible for
    the comment about not expecting the CTM to have a particular 
    form. 

 4) Good postscript code can be as compact as you like, and have
    as much "algorithmic" cleverness as you want. All I ask for
    is a few comments in the header so I can see what you're doing
    if I need to change something for some reason. DSC conformance
    is very useful. We (and other people I'm sure) are starting to
    make more use of filters that automatically add fonts, procsets,
    etc. Performance is only an issue if you produce code that's
    noticably slower than you'd expect given the size of the file,
    output produced, etc.

 5) I work for a typesetting company. For me, bad PostScript
    is postscript that doesn't print out right on some particular
    device, or can't be inserted into another postscript file
    without being modified or "fixed." The things mentioned
    in 3 are some of the ones I can remember swearing at.


					Aaron Sawdey
					Publication Services, Inc.
					1802 S. Duncan Rd.
					Champaign, IL 61821
					aaron@pubserv.com (email only)