On UNIX, most printers use the PostScript standard.
On UNIX systems, the most common printers use the PostScript page description language. PostScript is used because it is a “standard,” meaning (in this case) that it is supported by multiple vendors.
This means that when you send a file to a PostScript printer, the file has to be written in PostScript. When you print a file that’s in another format, such as a troff file or a mail file or whatever, the file needs to somehow be converted into PostScript before anything else happens.
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