Date:         Fri, 22 Sep 2000 11:23:44 -0600
Reply-To:     Jack Hamilton <JackHamilton@FIRSTHEALTH.COM>
Sender:       "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Jack Hamilton <JackHamilton@FIRSTHEALTH.COM>
Subject:      Re: ODS PRINTER PDF
Comments: To: urs.jetter@KFW.DE
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

"Jetter, Urs" <urs.jetter@KFW.DE> wrote:

>Hi,
>
>the problem is that ODS generates its PDF like it generates its
>Postscript-Code. This makes Acroreader to simply envelope this code into a
>postscript file and let the printer do the rendering. If you use PCL, the
>Acroreader does the rendering for you.

PDF and PostScript were designed by the same company, and both describe
page layout, but they have different purposes and capabilities.  PDF is
not just a wrapper for PostScript, any more than JavaScript is just a
wrapper for Java.  The major similarities between the two are that they
use a similar underlying page model, that they can be written in ASCII text
with no special "unprintable" characters, and that they often contain long
expanses of numbers.

The printer might do the rendering when you print a PDF file, if you
happen to be using a PostScript printer, but that's only because PostScript
is a fairly complete programming language (there are also some new printers which come with PDF printing capabilty built in).  You could, with a
suitable wrapper program, send PCL to a PostScript printer, but that
doesn't mean that PCL is just a wrapper for PostScript.




--
JackHamilton@FirstHealth.com
Development Manager, Technical Group
METRICS Department, First Health
West Sacramento, California USA