Simple explanation of PostScript RIP

PostScript is called a "page description language". It is a printer language, developed in the early 1980s by Adobe Systems, which describes a page layout, including text and images, and can be sent to printers of various resolutions and capabilities—from low resolution laser printers (300 pixels per inch) to high resolution imagesetters and platesetters (2500 pixels per inch or higher). The introduction of PostScript started the digital revoluton that transformed the print industry from traditional methods (camera, darkroom, pasteup, mechanicals, stripping) to a fully digital workflow. The RIP is the "raster image processor" in a printer which takes that PostScript page description and turns it into the dots the printer/imagesetter/platesetter images onto paper, film or plate.