[comp.lang.postscript] PS file interpretation time

jang-h@cis.ohio-state.edu (Hyuk Soo Jang) (04/01/89)

Hi folks!

If anybody has an idea about the average interpretation time of the
postscript files either in Dataproduct or Apple laser printer,
please sends me an e-mail.  I will be really appreciated.

The average interpretation time is not necessarily accurate but
a rough figure is good enough.  If it depends so much on the PS files,
is it possible for me to get any rough relationships between PS file
and interpreting time based on the ratio of text and graph portion of
PS file?

If you don't know the figure, any suggestions regarding possible sources
from which I can get it welcome.

Thanks!
jang-h@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu

greid@adobe.com (Glenn Reid) (04/04/89)

In article <41310@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> jang-h@cis.ohio-state.edu (Hyuk Soo Jang) writes:
>
>If anybody has an idea about the average interpretation time of the
>postscript files either in Dataproduct or Apple laser printer,
>please sends me an e-mail.  I will be really appreciated.

I'm curious to know what the average execution time of a C program is.
Perhaps it can be estimated based on the size of its input file or its
output file?

In all seriousness, this can't feasibly be answered, since PostScript
is a full programming language.  However, I can give you some
"expectations".  Take a page with 3000 words of text, in 3-4 different
fonts, with two moderately complex bits of line art.  This page should
take approximately 2-10 seconds of interpretation time, if the program
is well-written, depending on the horsepower of the interpreter.  If
you're talking about an Apple LaserWriter Plus, 8-10 seconds is
probably reasonable, if you're using a LaserWriter II NTX, 4-6 seconds
is probably about right.

Anything more than this can be chalked up to the inefficiencies of the
driver.  The "average application" will probably take about 10-20
seconds on comparable printers to print a page like the one I've
described.

Glenn Reid
Adobe Systems
Developer Tools & Strategies