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From: laser-lovers@uw-beaver
Newsgroups: fa.laser-lovers
Subject: PostScript vs. Interpress
Message-ID: <700@uw-beaver>
Date: Fri, 1-Feb-85 05:03:22 EST
Article-I.D.: uw-beave.700
Posted: Fri Feb  1 05:03:22 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 2-Feb-85 11:47:44 EST
Sender: daemon@uw-beaver
Organization: U of Washington Computer Science
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From: ihnp4!fortune!redwood!rpw3@uw-beaver.arpa (Rob Warnock)

These are my "dumb questions" of the month (in THIS newsgroup, at least).
I have been "observing" for a while and haven't noticed answers to these:

1. My understanding is that both Adobe's PostScript and Xerox's Interpress
   are "document construction languages", rather than just "print formats".
   Could someone comment on the similarities and differences between them?

2. Are they "mutually translatable", that is, will it be possible (and/or
   feasible) to convert one to the other (either one way or both ways)?
   If someone were to do both (for some strange reason), which should be
   the "base" format and which converted from that base?

3. I have just begun studying the Interpress Electronic Printing Standard
   and the other documents (2-3 inches of them) you get when you plop down
   your $250.00 to Xerox for the Interpress Architecture set. Is there (yet)
   a comparable set of documents for Postscript? ...and if so, how much do
   they cost and how do I order them?

4. [Speculation:] Does Xerox actually USE Interpress in any products yet, or
   do they still use some version of the "Empress" format (not to be confused
   with Imagen's "Impress"... or is it?)? ...and if Interpress is not real yet,
   is it likely to be supplanted by PostScript within Xerox?

Thanks in advance for any answers or discussion (mail or post, as appropriate).


Rob Warnock
Systems Architecture Consultant

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