Programming

PostScript has been called "an unappreciated yet superb general purpose computing language".

You can write a PostScript program using any text editor. Here's the familiar "Hello World" program in PostScript:

%!PS /inch {72 mul} def /Times-Roman findfont 50 scalefont setfont 2.5 inch 5 inch moveto (Hello, World!) show showpage

To run a program, all you need is a PostScript interpreter such as Ghostscript.

Tutorials
Want to write your own PS programs? Learn the basics for free, right here on the web:

• A First Guide to PostScript  by P.J. Weingartner (Univ. of Indiana)
  A nicely written ten-chapter primer, now in its third edition.
  http://www.cs.indiana.edu/docproject/programming/postscript/postscript.html
  
  
  
• PostScript Programming Tutorials   (Interface Technologies Inc.)
  Short, concentrated tutorials that get you going real quick.
  http://devcentral.iftech.com/articles/Other/ps/default.php
  
  
• A Manual for Mathematical PostScript  by Bill Casselman (Univ. of British Columbia)
  The first few chapters are a brief introduction to PostScript programming. Later chapters (Bezier curves, plane and solid geometry) are for the mathematically inclined.
  http://www.math.ubc.ca/people/faculty/cass/graphics/text/www/index.html
  
  

Books on PostScript Programming

	POSTSCRIPT LANGUAGE REFERENCE The Red Book, Third Edition (912 pages, Addison-Wesley, 1999; ISBN 0201379228) (US Dollars) $50.00 This is the definitive reference from Adobe Systems, covering every aspect of PS programming, including Level 3 PostScript. Also available here as a 7.4MB PDF Updates are available here
	POSTSCRIPT BY EXAMPLE by Henry McGilton & Mary Compione (640 pages, Addison-Wesley, 1992; ISBN 0-201-63228-4) (US Dollars) $37.00 Written in a clear, easy-to-understand style, this book is packed with examples and explanations. The most comprehensive introductory PS book available, and the only one that includes PS Level 2. Programs from this book are available here
	POSTSCRIPT LANGUAGE TUTORIAL AND COOKBOOK The Blue Book, by Adobe Systems Inc. (256 pages, Addison-Wesley, 1986; ISBN 0-201-10179-3) (US Dollars) $27.00 An introduction to the elements of PS programming, plus a cookbook of practical examples, such as re-encoding a font.  (PS Level 1 only) Also available here as an 850K PDF Programs from this book are available here
	POSTSCRIPT LANGUAGE PROGRAM DESIGN The Green Book,  by Glenn C. Reid (240 pages, Addison-Wesley, 1988; ISBN 0-201-14396-8) (US Dollars) $27.00 A formal introduction to PS programming, including more advanced topics.  (PS Level 1 only) "A pretty hard-core book for those with serious PostScript programming to do."  --Glenn C. Reid Also available here as an 850K PDF
	THINKING IN POSTSCRIPT by Glenn Reid  (Addison-Wesley, 1990; now out of print) Programming style for the serious programmer: How to use the PostScript language as it was designed to be used.   Available here as an 850K PDF

PostScript Programs

Dylan McNamee's webpage has some PS toys that are both fun and useful. If you want to see some handcrafted PS code, check these out: a calendar maker, a very handy font viewer (shows every character and glyph in the font, even those not in the encoding vector), a utility for plotting graphs, a quicksort routine, and a program for adding a big watermark to any document background.

Graham Freeman has written PS programs for typesetting, drawing family trees, and producing color separations.

Jamie Zawinski's PS programs print labels for audio, DAT, 8mm, and VHS cassettes, CDs and their cases.

Cameron Morland has PS programs that generate Fractals and Karnaugh maps.

Maurizio Loreti has PS programs for printing calendars.

Oskar Schirmer has written programs for producing a polyhedron calendar and for computing the date of Easter Sunday.

Frank Siegert's PS program calculates pi to over a quarter-million decimal places.

Anders Karlsson has written a web server in PostScript.

The comp.sources.postscript newsgroup has been defunct for some time, but the archives contain a variety of hand-coded PS programs.

• See also: Herb Weiner's collection and Don Lancaster's website.

PostScript Programming Questions
Newsgroups
    comp.lang.postscript
    fr.comp.lang.postscript (French)
    fj.comp.lang.postscript (Japanese)