Postscript is a computing language created by Adobe in 1982. It allowed the development of digital publishing (or DTP for Desktop Publishing) by printing images and texts on high-resolution laser printers.

Before Postscript fonts were used as Bitmap fonts, made out of pixels, with more or less resemblance to the designs depending on the size of the output (printed, or on high or low-resolution screens). Since Postscripts fonts were introduced (which contained font data as scalable outlines), fonts could be rendered as shapes much closer to the original designs, even at small sizes. Postscript fonts contained several files (glyph shapes and metrics, one to be displayed on screen and one to be read by the printer) for one font, and all needed to be installed to use them.