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Learning PostScript was a game changer for me. I am so grateful to the Adobe founders for not only the language but the documentation that accompanied it.
by protomyth 5y ago
Learning PostScript was a game changer for me. I am so grateful to the Adobe founders for not only the language but the documentation that accompanied it.
- tpmx 5y agoThe tutorial/cookbook ("the blue book") from 1985, with a preface by Geschke: https://www-cdf.fnal.gov/offline/PostScript/BLUEBOOK.PDF https://www-cdf.fnal.gov/offline/PostScript/BLUEBOOK.PDF
- protomyth 5y agoThis was such an amazing book. I had bought the paper copy and the page where they showed how to put text on a circle was amazing. It is so well written and easy to follow.
- tpmx 5y agoReading it for the first time now, I get sort of the same kind of feeling that I got when I first read the K&R C book. Was there a more affordable way of running PostScript code back then than buying a (1985) $6,995 Apple Laser Printer?
- protomyth 5y agoGhostScript was 88, Sun NeWS was 86ish, and Adobe Distiller was 1993. I had an Intel NeXTSTEP 3.3 machine in 95.
- coldcode 5y agoI too learned Postscript in 1988 and also figured out how to construct documents in Illustrator's file format (which is a precursor to PDF) so I could export to it. Postscript was a lot of fun to work in (although debugging required some real imagination and lots of paper).
- protomyth 5y agoI had a machine running OpenStep, so it wasn't too bad to debug. Certainly used a lot less paper. I miss that old UI.