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page description language (PDL)

Definition

page description language (PDL)

Part of the Multimedia and graphics glossary:

A page description language (PDL) specifies the arrangement of a printed page through commands from a computer that the printer carries out. Hewlett Packard's Printer Control Language ( PCL ) and Adobe's PostScript are the two most commonly used PDLs.

Next Steps

What is the difference between PDL and PDF?
PDL is a language that specifies the arrangemen...
(WhatIs.com)
HP-GL (Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language)
HP-GL (Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language) is a ...
(SearchSOA.com)

Modern PDLs describe page elements as geometrical objects, such as lines, arcs, and so on. PDLs define page elements independently of printer technology, so that a page's appearance should be consistent regardless of the specific printer used. The printer itself (rather than the user's computer) processes much of the graphical information. For example, the printer carries out a command to draw a square or a character directly rather than downloading the actual bit s that make up the image of the square or the character from the computer.

Page description languages can be contrasted with content description languages, such as the Extensible Markup Language ( XML ), which describe the content rather than the arrangement of information.

This was last updated in March 2011

Posted by: Margaret Rouse

Related Terms

Definitions

HP-GL (Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language)
- HP-GL (Hewlett-Packard Graphics Language) is a vector graphics language, a type of object-oriented language that represents images through the use of geometrical formulas. (SearchSOA.com)

Glossaries

Multimedia and graphics
- Terms related to multimedia, including graphics, animation and video definitions and words and phrases about images and sound.
Peripherals
- Terms related to peripheral devices including definitions about keyboards or mice and words and phrases about printers, monitors, digital cameras and scanners.
Printers
- Terms related to printers, including definitions about scanners and words and phrases about inkjet, laser, photo and all-in-one printers.

Dig Deeper

White Paper: Printing for the network

It’s not uncommon for several protocols to exist on various PCs on a network. With such a melting pot, installing a print server... (ComputerWeekly.com)

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