Glossary of design concepts, P. Pixels Per Inch, ppi, PostScript

Glossary of graphic design terms and concepts, beginning with the letter P.

Pixels Per Inch

abbr. ppi
Pixels per inch is the method of measuring the size of a bitmap digital image on-screen. This is separate from dots per inch, or the output resolution of an image.

See also: Dots-per-inch, Bitmap

PostScript

A page description language, developed by Adobe, that redefined the design, print and publishing industry in the 1980's. The Apple laserwriter in the mid-1980's shipped with PostScript and, combined with Pagemaker and the Macintosh, launched the desktop publishing (DTP) industry.

PostScript was the first digital printing programming language that, in conjunction with DTP publishing software, allowed text and graphics to be reproduced in a high enough quality to be used in pre-press reproduction.

PostScript is also utilised in the majority of fonts used in the design and publishing industry, as well as in design tools such as QuarkXpress and vector illustration tools such as Freehand and Illustrator. As well as printing systems, PostScript is also used as a display system for screen output.