IN THE 1980S, ADOBE DEVISED a powerful graphics imaging model that over time has formed the basis for the Adobe PostScript technologies. These technologies— a combination of the PostScript language and PostScript language–based graphics and text-formatting applications, drivers, and imaging systems—have forever changed the printing and publishing world by sparking the desktop and digital publishing revolutions. Since their inception, PostScript technologies have enabled unprecedented control of the look and feel of printed documents and have changed the overall process for designing and printing them as well. The capabilities PostScript makes possible have established it as the industry page description language standard.

Today, as never before, application developers and imaging systems vendors support the PostScript language as the industry standard. We at Adobe accept our responsibility as stewards of this standard to continually advance the standard in response to the creative needs of the industry.

With this third advance of the language, which we call LanguageLevel 3, Adobe has greatly expanded the boundaries of imaging capabilities made possible through the PostScript language. This most recent advance has yielded significant improvements in the efficiency and performance of the language as well as in the quality of final output.

To complement the strengths of LanguageLevel 3, Adobe PostScript 3 imaging system technologies have been engineered to exploit the new LanguageLevel 3 constructs to the fullest extent, fulfilling the Adobe commitment to provide printing solutions for the broad spectrum of users.

No significant change comes without the concerted effort of many individuals. The work to advance the PostScript language and to create Adobe PostScript 3 imaging system technologies is no exception. Our goal since the introduction of the first Adobe imaging model has been nothing less than to provide the most innovative, meaningful imaging solutions in the industry. Dedicated Adobe employees and many industry partners have striven to make that goal a reality. We take this opportunity to thank all those who contributed to this effort.