4 ms·

Tragically, Postscript support has been largely removed from MacOS now. Apparently the language was weird enough that supporting it made some (in)security hacks

Tragically, Postscript support has been largely removed from MacOS now. Apparently the language was weird enough that supporting it made some (in)security hacks possible. I guess I'm old ! I remember first finding out about it in 1986 when is very "leet". Postscript printers were big $. I say tragically because Postscript was pretty key in making DTP as compelling as it used to be, which kind of saved the Mac in terms of being the "killer app" for it. I think you may be able to run some kind of postscript support in some tool from Adobe, or even Ghostscript. And probably, the newer software is better, but it's sad that you can't view a postscript file on macOS out of the box now.

jasomill 3y ago
While I agree — my first exposure to PostScript as a programming language was playing around with examples from the Adobe "blue book"[1] over a bidirectional serial connection to a LaserWriter sometime in the '80s — nothing in this document requires PostScript. The embedded images are in PICT format, and TrueType versions of the three fonts used (Courier, Helvetica, and Palatino) have shipped with all versions of the Mac OS since System 7 in 1991. And while Word 4.0 shipped in 1989, so did Adobe Type Manager[2], which supported Type 1 fonts onscreen and on non-PostScript printers, though to get a Type 1 version of Palatino for ATM at that time you'd have also needed the Adobe Plus Pack[3] (or possibly acquiring Palatino by other means; I don't recall when Adobe started selling individual fonts and the Font Folio). [1] https://archive.org/details/postscriptlangua00adobrich https://archive.org/details/postscriptlangua00adobrich [2] https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/19/science/personal-computers-answering-questions-about-fonts.html?unlocked_article_code=1.VU0.dxAQ.D_NIVwtpcZ5q&smid=url-share https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/19/science/personal-computer... [3] https://archive.org/details/adobe-a https://archive.org/details/adobe-a
- jtotheh 3y ago
  Your information is much more detailed and specific. I was just giving an example of the loss of support for old software/formats. I didn’t mean that postscript support was involved in this particular case.
- Lammy 3y ago
  > or possibly acquiring Palatino by other means Relevant: The Palatino FAQ (1998) https://web.archive.org/web/19990202052926/http://www.mindspring.com/~fez/palatino/palfaq1.0.txt https://web.archive.org/web/19990202052926/http://www.mindsp... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24005172 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24005172

jasomill 3y ago

While I agree — my first exposure to PostScript as a programming language was playing around with examples from the Adobe "blue book"[1] over a bidirectional serial connection to a LaserWriter sometime in the '80s — nothing in this document requires PostScript. The embedded images are in PICT format, and TrueType versions of the three fonts used (Courier, Helvetica, and Palatino) have shipped with all versions of the Mac OS since System 7 in 1991. And while Word 4.0 shipped in 1989, so did Adobe Type Manager[2], which supported Type 1 fonts onscreen and on non-PostScript printers, though to get a Type 1 version of Palatino for ATM at that time you'd have also needed the Adobe Plus Pack[3] (or possibly acquiring Palatino by other means; I don't recall when Adobe started selling individual fonts and the Font Folio). [1] https://archive.org/details/postscriptlangua00adobrich https://archive.org/details/postscriptlangua00adobrich [2] https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/19/science/personal-computers-answering-questions-about-fonts.html?unlocked_article_code=1.VU0.dxAQ.D_NIVwtpcZ5q&smid=url-share https://www.nytimes.com/1989/12/19/science/personal-computer... [3] https://archive.org/details/adobe-a https://archive.org/details/adobe-a

jtotheh 3y ago
Your information is much more detailed and specific. I was just giving an example of the loss of support for old software/formats. I didn’t mean that postscript support was involved in this particular case.
Lammy 3y ago
> or possibly acquiring Palatino by other means Relevant: The Palatino FAQ (1998) https://web.archive.org/web/19990202052926/http://www.mindspring.com/~fez/palatino/palfaq1.0.txt https://web.archive.org/web/19990202052926/http://www.mindsp... https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24005172 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24005172