• Recommend:
• 0 Comments

Latest Adobe PostScript Gives Web Printing a Boost

New PostScript standard calls for easier Web printing, remote control of printers.

By Jeff Walsh, PCWorld   

At Seybold Seminars in New York today, Adobe will announce the latest version of its PostScript imaging standard, which makes it easier to print from Adobe%squots Portable Document Format files, Web pages, and across the Internet to remote printers. Adobe officials expect the first PostScript 3-enabled products to ship in May.

Adobe will be supported by software developers Macromedia, Corel, Quark, and Fractal Design, who plan to integrate Adobe PostScript 3 features into their products. Apple, AGFA, Pre-Press Solutions, Peerless, and Electronic for Imaging will represent the printer manufacturers, which will leave a glaring, but expected absence, said analysts.

%dquotIt%squots pretty much accepted that [Hewlett-Packard] has gone with Xionics for their laser products, but they plan to continue offering PostScript on their other printers,%dquot said Angele Boyd, vice president of peripherals research for International Data Corporation.

%dquotThe standard is set by Adobe and that shows no sign of changing,%dquot she said.

Adobe has improved PostScript in several areas:

• PDF files can be sent directly to a printer and do not have to be decoded with an Acrobat Reader.

• Color management and quality has been enhanced.

• The PostScript 3 Extended Font Set has been extended from 35 to 136 fonts; this eliminates most font downloading and thus reduces network traffic.

• A Printer Help Desk has been created that allows users and IS managers to check printers and job status through a Web browser.

• Printing to a remote printer across the Internet is now as easy as printing locally.

Analysts quickly praised Adobe%squots additional Web printing capabilities. Users can copy a Web address to the printer, which will then pull the site down through the Internet and print it directly. PostScript 3 also prints Web content more accurately by supporting HTML, JPEG, GIF, and plain text formats.

PostScript 3 also integrates Kodak%squots FlashPix technology so that, when printing a Web page, the printer automatically requests the 600-dpi version instead of automatically printing the 72-dpi version that appears on the Web page.

%dquotThere are a lot of implications from the Web connectivity,%dquot said Charles LeCompte, editor of the Hard Copy Observer, a trade publication for the printing industry.

Click here for more news from InfoWorld Electric.