Welcome to the PostScript Processing Speed Test's home page.

Also evaluate the PostScript Utility Package here.

• Vividata uses it to make sure their RIP is fast. They can say "We pass with flying colors!"
• National Aeronautics and Space Administration has used PPST for their RFP procedure (until April 15th, 1996). At that time, anybody wanting to sell a PostScript printer to NASA had to supply PPST results as part of the proposal before NASA would buy any new PS printer, but I don't know what the situation is now.
• The German research center, GKSS swears by it before recomending any PS printer in their organization.
• The Business Equipment Users' Association uses it when doing comparative studies on postscript printer.
• The German Mac MAGAZIN is using it to test postscript printers for articles comparing postscript printer.
• Computer For All Magazine used it to compare printers in an article and continues to use it today.
• Handmade Software Inc. uses it to make sure their RIP is fast!
• Radiation Effects Research Foundation uses it as part of their evaluation procedure.
• Russian free ads newspaper "Iz ruk v ruki" uses it as part of their evaluation procedure.
• Another link added soon. Please submit your site.

The PostScript Processing Speed Test (or PPST for short) was, in it's infancy, a simple benchmarking program, but now, it has become one of the most advanced technical benchmarking programs available for PostScript printers and other devices.

The PPST archive also contains a list of devices that were tested before the final release of PPST, but I receive new results every day and keep adding to this result file. You can get the latest results file for PPST.

On a more general note, PPST is not an application benchmarking program to compare how well a printer deals with, let's say, Microsoft Word documents or Corel Draw documents, but rather is a testing program that actually runs a suite of commands for each of the major functions a printer is used for, independantly of the application that may be used. For that reason, you must keep in mind that a printer with a higher PPST index result will only be faster for the exact same file using the exact same printer driver. For example, if you print a Word document from Windows to two different printers and select their respective drivers from the printer manufacturer, you may get results inconsistent with the PPST index results, but on the other hand, if you chose the same driver for both printers, like the standard windows PostScript driver and tell it you have an Apple LaserWriter, then the results will probably be consistent. The reason is simple: each driver supplied by the manufacturer uses different PostScript commands and consequently has different results.

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