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Conventions
Terminology
Specific terms are explained as they are introduced. However, the following general
terms are used throughout:
•
PostScript (PS)
—A computer language designed as a page description language.
The GA-1040 uses this language for imaging the page and communicating with
applications and the print engine.
The term “PostScript” can also be used to refer to PDF data jobs. PDF is a
structured form of PostScript that provides the ability to preview, scale, and reorder
pages. Where applicable, the term “PDF” is specifically used to refer to PDF data or
jobs.
• Printer Control Language (PCL)
—A computer language designed as a page
description language. The GA-1040 uses this language for imaging the page and
for communication with applications and with the print engine.
•
Job
—A file consisting of PostScript commands and comments that describe the
graphics, sampled images, and text that should appear on each page of a document,
and the printer options that should be used in printing, such as media type.
•
Spool
—Write to a disk. Usually used in this manual to refer to a PostScript or PCL
print job being saved to the GA-1040 hard disk in preparation for processing and
printing.
•
RIP
—Acronym for raster image processing, which changes text and graphics
commands into descriptions of each mark on a page. In common use as a noun, a
“raster image processor” (RIP) is the computer processor that performs this function.
•
—The process of rendering, or imaging, a page or job on a printer.
These concepts can explain how the GA-1040 and the copier work together as a
powerful printing system. The GA-1040 RIP changes text and graphics commands in
PostScript or PCL into specifications for each dot of toner deposited on a page by the
copier.
