This second edition of the famous “red PostScript book” follows the same basic structure as the first edition (“Introduction,” “Basic Ideas,” “Language,” “Graphics,” “Fonts,” and “Operators”), but adds new chapters on “Rendering” and “Display PostScript.” The second edition also updates the PostScript language to Level 2. The principal extensions to the language from Level 1 are the inclusion of color, composite fonts, and display PostScript. In addition, several points in the language have been cleaned up, and extensions to dictionaries, virtual memory, and binary encoding have been added.

The basic structure of the language is given, and then the bulk of the book is devoted to an in-depth explanation of the language operators. This book, like its predecessor, is an invaluable reference for the PostScript programmer or PostScript-printer filter writer. It is not a book for the novice, nor does it explain how to formulate a problem in PostScript. It is a well-thought-out, easy-to-use reference manual.

In going from the first to the second edition, the book has grown from 321 pages to 765. Although much of the increase is due to the increased scope of the PostScript language, additional detail on Level 1 features is also given. For the PostScript language implementor, the second edition goes into great detail on the internal implementation of language features. The appendix on “Document Structuring Conventions” will be invaluable to the PostScript printer driver writer.

Like the first edition, this work is in need of one or more companion volumes like the PostScript language tutorial and cookbook (the blue PostScript book) [1] to serve as a more gentle and conversational introduction to the language and programming practices. By itself, it is just what it claims to be, a solid, complete, and well-organized reference manual for Level 2 PostScript.