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D
Dr.Adam
Inspiring
May 25, 2011
Question

PDF Engine from Adobe

  • May 25, 2011
  • 1 reply
  • 1217 views

After Adobe announced the complete PDF engine- more than 2 years ago- from scratch many experts and articles predicted that this is the end of Postscript

But somehow still PS rip Engine from all vendors are the dominated technology

And ironically majority of PDF generated by Distiller!!

This ensures the demands that Adobe must develop PS 4.0?  It was rumor and perhaps it will be true

Regards

Dr. Adam

This topic has been closed for replies.

1 reply

Dov Isaacs
Dov Isaacs
Legend
May 25, 2011

On behalf of Adobe Systems Incorporated ...

(1)     No one from Adobe ever predicted the “end” of PostScript. Adobe is committed to supporting PostScript as long as there is demand for such support from both end users and our OEM partners. Furthermore, given the literally billions of graphical assets archived as EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) files, Adobe is committed to supporting placement of same in our graphic arts applications for the indefinite future.

(2)     Unless you are talking about desktop and smaller networked office devices, your assertion about PostScript being the “dominated (sic) technology” is not at all based on fact. Virtually all our platesetter RIP manufacturers have moved to support either the Adobe PDF Print Engine or both the Adobe PDF Print Engine and PostScript where use of the Adobe PDF Print Engine is the default product mode. The same thing is beginning to become the case with larger digital print presses and moving down to medium size digital production printers, wide format printers, and proofers.

(3)     Adobe has absolutely no plans whatsoever to develop a PostScript language level 4. There really is no need for it. The PDF imaging model has diverged so much from PostScript since 1997 that somehow extending PostScript to match the features of PDF (including support for live transparency, layers, ICC color management, JPEG2000 compression, annotations, etc.) would be a tremendously complex project, one for which we see absolutely no market requests and no significant benefit to vendors and end-users alike. It simply won't happen!!!!! For what it is worth, I haven't heard such a rumor in many, many years; sounds like a rumor that you or some close friend made up to solicit a reaction (which you obviously have just gotten).

          - Dov

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
D
Dr.AdamAuthor
Inspiring
May 25, 2011

- I am sure all Productioncut sheet printers color or mono from vendors like Xerox, Oce, konica Minolta, Canon, Ricoh  did not implement PDF Engine and still working on PS Engine!

This simply means all generation of PS data stream either through VDP system or Windows Driver which require PS Engine.

- I agree that platesetter RIP manufacturers had moved to PDF Engine as PDF  format became the standard format for Prepress.and even some large format production printer are using PDF engine with PS beside as option.

But on the other hand Rip manufacturers for Digital Printers are having PDF engine in their portfolio but not yet fully used by their customers of the Rip. EFI e.g.

- The PDF imaging model has diverged so much from PostScript since 1997 that somehow extending PostScript to match the features of PDF (including support for live transparency, layers, ICC color management, JPEG2000 compression, annotations, etc.)

I fully agree but

No body expect the new PS Engine to be equal/parallel to those powerful features in PDF Engine

but perhaps a PS enhancement for more memory  ,   color management   .... others enhancement which behind the subject of this thread.. etc  than the current version ! 

PS. The fact which I see , The Power of Postscript Engine and the Industry related to it might take longer time to be replaced by PDF and this period of transisition extended (or will be extended) above the expectation of many vendors and perhaps Adobe itself !!

Regards

Dr. Adam

Dov Isaacs
Dov Isaacs
Legend
May 25, 2011

You may be sure but in my particular position at Adobe, I know that at this point at least Xerox, Canon, Ricoh, and Kodak do offer production color printers based on Adobe PDF Print Engine technology. And EFI certainly has already released such products. And the others will be announcing availability within the year and certainly by DRUPA 2012. You will see ISO PDF/VT (based on ISO PDF/X-4 and PDF/X-5) increasingly replace PPML and various PostScript-based VDP solutions, especially for graphically-rich personalized digital printing. PDF has so many benefits (including reliability, viewability, and archivability) that PostScript doesn't and could never have.

As I indicated in my response, Adobe was not announcing the death of PostScript. On the other hand, our experience is that once a printer and/or publisher goes to a pure PDF print publishing workflow with no PostScript, they don't go back to PostScript nor do they miss anything from PostScript. More and more PDF is generated directly via direct export and "save as" functions allowing for live transparency and color management instead of via creation and distillation of PostScript into PDF.

Again, expect no enhancements to PostScript. Such enhancements may be intellectually interesting or fun for PostScript hackers, but in the real world, augmenting PostScript is definitely not what customers are requesting.

     - Dov ("Dr. Dov")

- Dov Isaacs, former Adobe Principal Scientist (April 30, 1990 - May 30, 2021)
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