Microsoft had a classic engineering dilemma. Windows needed to support the "pro" printing standard (PostScript), but most consumer printers didn't understand it.
We like to think technology moves forward in clean, planned leaps. In reality, it lurches forward, dragging the past behind it. Every time you click "Print," you are invoking the ghost of Adobe’s original vision—mediated by a humble DLL that has been quietly doing its job since the days of Windows 95. postscript.dll
A few years ago, I helped a small museum digitize their archive. They had a 1994 Linotronic imagesetter—a massive, roaring beast of a machine that cost $30,000 new. It only spoke PostScript Level 1. Their modern Windows 10 design PC refused to talk to it. Microsoft had a classic engineering dilemma
In fact, the modern version of postscript.dll has a second life: it is the engine that converts old-school PostScript print jobs into and XPS on the fly. The ghost learned a new trick. In reality, it lurches forward, dragging the past behind it