Book Abstract:
This is meant to be a simple introduction to programming in the PostScript page description language from Adobe. This document is not meant to be a comprehensive reference manual (although it does contain an index of some of PostScript’s standard operators and a list of various errors). There are far better reference books, if this is what you need. Instead, this is meant as an easily accessible on-line tutorial. It was written with the assumption that you have some experience programming and are familiar with concepts like arrays and variables.
The scope of this document is fairly limited. I cover only a subset of PostScript Level 1 (the earliest version). Since I started this guide, Adobe brought out two revisions to the language: called Level 2 and Level 3. This document was never meant to cover these versions of PostScript (although the code I present here should run just fine on a Level 2 or Level 3 capable printer). Likewise, I do not cover any advanced printing concepts like color separations or halftone screens (this is mainly due to ignorance on my part, I am an engineer... not a printer or graphic designer... although I do admire good graphic design when I see it).
I have created this document because I have noticed that many people on the Internet have been asking for some online document to get them started. I decided that this was a good opportunity. I have benefited from the free and open nature of the Internet (most of the software I use is freeware or shareware). This is my opportunity to give something back to the community and to try to perpetuate something of the original community atmosphere that existed when I first started using it.
Book Link:
http://www.tailrecursive.org/postscript/postscript.html