How PDF is different from PostScript, how to identify key parts of PDF source code, layout problems, verbosity, flattening and mojibake.
Postscript
Adobe’s Carousel reader came in 1993, and in Mac OS X PDF was built into its Quartz graphics. That enabled Preview to become the claimed ‘fastest PDF viewer on the planet’.
From initial FONT bitmaps, PostScript Type 1 in the LaserWriter, and the release of TrueType in 1991, to data-fork format TrueType suitcases and OpenType in Mac OS X.
PDF was introduced by Adobe in 1993, when its viewer Acrobat became popular, and PDFs were created from PostScript using Distiller. Then came Preview from NeXT to Mac OS X.
With an Apple silicon Mac, converting PostScript and EPS files to PDF is simple once you’ve set up a Monterey VM. All in the GUI, free and effective.
For the last 39 years, PostScript has been at the heart of the Mac, bringing desktop publishing, fonts, and the LaserWriter and other printers. It has been removed from Sonoma.
Searching this PDF using Preview is hopeless. Is it a bug in Preview or macOS? How can you get proper access to its contents?
A single character text can result in a PDF file with 160 lines. Mojave still generates PDF according to the 1999 standard. And why extracted text is all over the place.
I’ve been using PDFs for over 25 years, and have finally abandoned using Adobe’s software. Here’s a little history, and the first version of a new free PDF browser.
Working with vector graphics is quite different from pixel-based or image formats.
The Eclectic Light Company 