PostScript versus PDF as an output format

Question

I'm currently writing a typesetting application and I'm using PSG as the backend for producing postscript files. I'm now wondering whether that choice makes sense. It seems the ReportLab Toolkit offers all the features PSG offers, and more. ReportLab outputs PDF however.

Advantages PDF offers:

• transparancy
• better support for character encodings (Unicode, for example)
• ability to embed TrueType and even OpenType fonts
• hyperlinks and bookmarks

Is there any reason to use Postscript instead of directly outputting to PDF? While Postscript is a full programming language as opposed to PDF, as a basic output format for documents, that doesn't seem to offer any advantage. I assume a PDF can be readily converted to PostScript for printing?

Some useful links:

• Wikipedia: PDF
• Adobe: PostScript vs. PDF

Solution 1

If you're planning on only outputting to a PostScript printer, then use PostScript. Otherwise, use PDF.

PDF is more widely supported by non-printer devices. And for your purposes, there aren't any technical advantages of PS over PDF (other than not being able to dump the file directly to a printer).

Solution 2

Here are some things to consider:

• gzipped postscript is often much smaller than an equivalent PDF
• PDF is basically a generalized container format, if you didn't know that you can embed videos in PDF, that should give you pause
• PDF contains scripts that have been used for exploits (though this may be more the fault of bad PDF reader software)

Solution 3

PDF is a much more self-contained format and a high level of functionality. It also has more tools. UNless you specifically need Postscript, stick to PDF.

Comments

[Aleksei Guzev]

It's not clear what does your application.

[clay]

Does postscript print 1 page at a time; whereas, PDF renders all of it at once, thus increasing print overhead?

[Mitja]

Sadly, the pdfzone.com link for embedding videos in pdf is down. Another description can be found at Adobe. A way for embedding one using TeX can be found at tex.stackexchange.

[wcochran]

I can write programs in PS -- these programs can be interpreted by the printer and be tailored to that printer's resolution. There is no real technical advantage of PDF -- in fact I can simply convert a PS into a PDF -- can't go the other way around.

[Seth]

I use a program to generate barcodes for book publishing. Then, I convert them to PDF for embedding and printing using ghostscript. Both technologies have their place. But in my experience, there's a long list of things that PDF does easily that will baffle PS (like embedding TrueType fonts!)