Re: Example ConTeXt document: PS output

[Mojca Miklavec <mojca.miklavec.lists@gmail.com>]

On Fri, Jul 9, 2010 at 17:46, Michael Talbot-Wilson wrote:
>
> I have a PostScript printer.  I'd prefer not to have to run pdf2ps.

Unrelated to the question of PS output of ConTeXt:

I have a PostScript printer (at home and in the office) as well, but
my general impression has always been as if PDFs were printed
"natively". That is: printer sometimes has problem and doesn't know
how to print some complex vector graphics properly; it prints very
fast; if I use a different driver (a "normal" instead of PostScript
one) then some PDF files that would come out corrupted are printed
properly etc.

I may be biased since I'm using Mac that comes with a relatively good
(native?) support for PDFs, but I remember the "problems" with
corrupted PDFs on PS printer from Windows.

It is true that I always print from GUI as opposed to simply copying
the file to printer from command line ... but I'm still not sure if
avoiding PDF for all costs makes sense or not. Expressed in other
words: what usually happens when one sends PDF to PostScript printer?
Does it print the document almost-natively or not?

This page says:
   http://www.adobe.com/print/features/psvspdf/

"In order for a PDF file to be printed, however, the printer still
needs to render the PDF objects to the page, and a PostScript printer
is still the most reliable way to do this. Some PostScript printers
understand not only the PostScript language, but also PDF files
natively. And some printers, using a technology we call Extreme,
actually convert all jobs into a PDF file prior to printing. (Agfa,
Creo, Heidelberg, and Scitex have all announced print workflows based
on Extreme.)"

Mojca
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