Re: More on PostScript Fonts

>> Postscript IS a vector based description language, including fonts.
>>> The vectors are TRANSLATED into raster bitmaps for output.
>
> He replied, "it's mostly true" and went on to say that the END DEVICE
> is what takes the page description, which is vector info,(as I said)
> and "translates" this information into bitmaps, if necessary.

The "end device", if a raster based device (and most are), must at
some point have the PostScript Fonts translated into a bit-mapped
rendition (along with all the rest of the graphics). This translation
is accomplished usually by a RIP (Raster Image Processor). This can
either be a fancy standalone RIP (ala high end imagesetters like the
Linotron series, etc.) or a hardware board (usually with an ADOBE
RIP routine on-board) built into the printer ... OR ... a program
like GhostScript can do the RIP'ing completely in software for you
(just slower is all). The RIP unit takes its "rasterizing instructions"
from information it retrieves from the output device (ie. "So, how many
dots per inch do we need today?" and "What format would you like those
dots in ... got any page size constraints I need to be aware of?", etc.)