Anybody use PostScript with Adobe scripting workflows?

[Silly-V]

I took a look at PostScript, and it appears to be able to create files dynamically so that a tiny PS file can yield a very big and robust PDF file.

%!PS
/B {bind} bind def
/D {def} def
/Q {bind def} B D
/E {exch def} Q
/S {gsave} Q
/R {grestore} Q
/P 20 D
/N P 1 sub D
/I 1 P div D
initclip clippath pathbbox newpath
72 sub /URy E 72 sub /URx E 72 add /LLy E 72 add /LLx E
/Sq5 5 sqrt D
/F 2 Sq5 add D
/Wx URx LLx sub D /Wy URy LLy sub D
/Xx Wx 4 div D /Xy Wy F div D /X Xx Xy le {Xx}{Xy}ifelse D
Wx X 4 mul sub 2 div LLx add X 2 mul add Wy X F mul sub 2 div LLy add translate
/X X Sq5 mul D
X dup scale
0.1 X div setlinewidth
S
[ 1 .5 0 1 0 0 ] concat
0 1 N {I mul /A E
	0 1 N {I mul /B E
		S A B translate
		newpath 0 0 moveto I 0 rlineto 0 I rlineto I neg 0 rlineto
			closepath
		S I B add 1 1 A sub setrgbcolor fill R stroke % Green
		R
	      } for
      } for
R
S
[ -1 .5 0 1 0 0 ] concat
0 1 N {I mul /A E
	0 1 N {I mul /B E
		S A B translate
		newpath 0 0 moveto I 0 rlineto 0 I rlineto I neg 0 rlineto
			closepath
		S I B add 1 A sub 1 setrgbcolor fill R stroke % Blue
		R
	      } for
      } for
R
S
[ 1 .5 -1 0.5 0 1 ] concat
0 1 N {I mul /A E
	0 1 N {I mul /B E
		S A B translate
		newpath 0 0 moveto I 0 rlineto 0 I rlineto I neg 0 rlineto
			closepath
		S 1 1 B sub 1 A sub setrgbcolor fill R stroke % Red
		R
	      } for
      } for
R
showpage

This code which is the entirety of the sample PS file creates this all-vector PDF:

So it seems a workflow with a PS template could be used in a scripting workflow in some cases, also you'd have to be able to use Distiller or something else via cli commands.

But, is this a dead language, is it going to be deprecated and discarded one day? It seems quite useful, and quite stable as it is ancient, as opposed to some aspecs of Illustrator extensibility.

[CarlosCanto · Accepted solution]

many years ago, I saw an ai script in a Russian forum use PS to create a file on the fly to either apply a Graphic Style or an Effect. I don't remember, but I found it fascinating. I was thinking on using it as well but never got a chance to play with it, the to-do list keeps growing.

good job on that snippet!

[hhas01 · Accepted solution]

PostScript drives most laser printers so I doubt it’s going away anytime soon. Yes it’s a full blown programming language so you can in principle hand-code all sorts of graphics rendering programs in it (e.g. BWIPP). Whether you’d choose to is another question: PS is relatively low-level, concerned purely with drawing, with no understanding of higher-level concepts as text frames or Unicode. For anything non-trivial it’s a lot of work, which is why PostScript code is usually written by other programs. I can’t think of a compelling use case where you’d want to use it directly over higher-level drawing tools such as AI or Processing, modern PDF rendering libraries, or specialized high-level language such as TeX.