PostScript Foundations
(4 days, hands-on)
Printable course description (PDF)

A First Class in PostScript Programming

The PostScript Foundations class is a four-day, hands-on class that teaches the student how to write programs in the PostScript language. It discusses all of the major mechanisms and features common to all versions of the PostScript language.

This class lays the foundation for writing PostScript code for producing documents or modifying currently-existing documents. It discusses PostScript programming, efficiency, and underlying language structure.

Objective

The student will learn how the PostScript language works and to write programs that employ all the main capabilities of the language. The student will know the principles of writing fast, efficient code in PostScript.

Prerequisites

Experience with any programming language.

Audience

Printer engineers, software engineers, advanced software and hardware support personnel.

Course Outline

Day 1

• Background to PostScript
• Basics: Printing text, the coordinate system
• CTM Operators: scale, translate, rotate
• Paths: Drawing lines
• Specifying color
• The Graphics State
• Outline text
• Circular Arcs
• Operand Stack
• Stack errors and operators
• Variables and procedures
• Introduction to the Dictionary stack

Day 2

• Loops
• Introduction to the DSC
• Comparison and conditional execution
• Font transformations
• Clipping paths
• Variations on the show operator
• Device Space
• PostScript objects and data types
• Scanner/tokenizer
• The four stacks

Day 3

• Even-odd and winding rules
• Binding
• Bezier curves
• Memory management
• setpagedevice
• File operations
• File filters
• Color and color spaces
• Transformation matrices
• Images
• The stopped Operator

Day 4

• Patterns
• PostScript Forms
• PostScript Resources
• Font dictionary contents
• Changing fonts
• Multibyte font support

Pricing & Availability

See class schedule for a list of locations, dates and class cost.

Copyright © 2012 John Deubert