Please can someone help, I have a question in my coursework that I don't know the answer to! Explain how PostScript fits into the design process?

[Guest]

Please can someone help, I have a question in my coursework that I don't know the answer to! Explain how PostScript fits into the design process?

[Test Screen Name]

I'm sure you don't want us to write your homework answer for you, but perhaps we can better explain something that is baffling you. What do your course notes say on the subject of PostScript?

[Guest]

No of course not, I understand what PostScript is, but I am having trouble explaining how it 'fits into the design process' - this is the exact question: Explain how PostScript fits into the design process.

[Test Screen Name]

Ok, to point you in the right direction, you should probably tell us what "Design" means in the terms of your course. Are you designing buildings, adverts, machines, tee shirts, 3D printing, magazines, aeroplanes...? What are the main apps you would use for Design?

[Guest]

The course is Desktop Publishing and Graphic Design
So, how would PostScript fit into the 'Graphic Design' process?

[Dov Isaacs]

The simple answer is that today PostScript really doesn't fit at all into the Graphic Design process, at least in terms of what the graphic designer needs to know.

Historically, though, the PostScript imaging model, first introduced circa 1984 provided the basis for the initial publishing software including PageMaker, Illustrator, QuarkXPress, and even Ventura Publisher. This imaging model included support for continuously scalable text, vector, and raster imagery as well as the concepts of a current transformation matrix that allowed arbitrary scaling, rotation, etc. and multiple color spaces (grayscale, RGB, CMYK, spot, device independent, and color-managed).

The PostScript imaging model was effectively replaced by the PDF imaging model, a significant superset of the PostScript imaging model, by the time Illustrator 9 and InDesign 2 were released in terms of support of ICC color management, transparency, etc.

The fact is that a good graphic designed doesn't need to know anything about PostScript or PDF per sé, but rather about the basics of color (such as issues associated with color gamut and what how that affects display and printing), use of text versus vector versus raster images and why one should keep content at the highest level of abstraction all the way to the rendering (or screen) or RIP process for printing. Some knowledge of typography also helps.

          - Dov