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Taking Advantage of PostScript John F. Sherman Taking Advantage of PostScript John F. Sherman University of Notre Dame Art, Art History & Design University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, IN 46556 5639 FRPEXX@IRISHMVS.cc.nd.edu Chapter 1 1 chapter intro Designers face a new requirement: to acquire and master a digital craft. The traditional crafts of color theory, design, typography and drawing have always been required for the designer. All of these are important and I do not advocate their dismissal. But the need for a digital craft is becoming more apparent as the innovations of technology arrive faster and faster. Designers, however, cannot focus on simply being well-trained users of expensive pieces of hardware and software. By mastering the technology, they can reach a point where innovative new solutions to visual communication problems can be discovered. The process by which an image can be made has changed dramatically. An image can be constructed by a combination of hand drawings, video capture, and computer programming. The finished image provides a solution by means of faster investigation, greater choices, and new creative possibilities. Digital craft entails learning a new language — a visual language. The greater the depth of understanding and experience in a language, the greater the vision of what can exist in the mind of the creator. Different languages allow different realities to exist. Many of the images created for this book are visual ideas that have been made into images by writing them down. They can only be achieved by an intimate knowledge of the PostScript language. I find it exciting that there are images that can only be created by writing a PostScript program. Understanding PostScript is one major avenue to mastering the technology of producing graphics. 1.1 why learn PostScript ? Why learn PostScript when there are so many good graphics programs available that are much easier to use than programming? There are two answers. First, knowing the PostScript Page Description Language (PDL) gives the designer an insight into graphics software based on the PostScript image mode. The PostScript PDL has strengths and weaknesses. Having this knowledge base builds confidence because it permits you to work with the strengths of software and not with false expectations. When something does not work as expected, you may be able to devise a way to work around or attack the problem from another direction. Second, the PostScript language is a richer graphics language than what is made available by menu selections and dialog boxes in all the graphic…