Why Post PostScript?

[RogerFGay]

I just want to clear up what has been a mystery to me for quite some time. I've found a lot of reports, especially academic / technical reports, posted to the

http://WWW in

PostScript. I finally downloaded Ghostscript to see if I could view them.

Can anyone make a good guess as to why people would publish their .ps files? I've often found them unaccompanied by files in any other format.

 

[TonyGroves]

PostScript is the predecessor to PDF, which has mainly supplanted it as the format of choice for finished documents; many traditionalists, especially users of Unix and related systems, would still produce PS. It also has the advantage of being directly printable by most non-consumer printers.

 

[RogerFGay]

Thanks Tony. That's actually been bugging me for quite some time -- ever since I found the first .ps report and couldn't read it. What you say makes perfect sense.

 

[SMS63]

One more reason to use PS instead of PDF is that it supports flexible media control, simpex/duplex control etc. which make a lot of sense in terms of document quality. And - of course - PS easily transforms to PDF unfortunately at the expense of losing the fancy stuff I mentioned before.

 

[RogerFGay]

Interesting ... I suppose the transformation requires a tool that costs a few thousand $$$$$$

 

[SMS63]

Acrobat Distiller is the 'standard' tool, reasonably priced. Ghostscript can do it well enough for free (and pretty fast too).