Jon's Cartography PS Quick Ref

PS Quick Guide

Basics

The PS system of measure is in points. There are 72 points per inch. Printer resolution is measured in dots per inch, they are easily convertable with knowledge of the printer's resolution.
The standard page has the dimensions 612x792 points. 0,0 is positioned at the bottom left of the page with increasing values up and right. This makes the default center at 306,396.
The PS syntax is all postfix. Remember this for all commands. This means all parameters come before the operator.
Some operators have two variants. An operator with an 'n' after it is a clockwise operation instead of counter-clockwise.
Comments are preceded by a % symbol, anywhere in the file, and ended by a line break.

Procedures

Syntax:
/procedure_name { }

Example:
/" { 72 mul } 1 " 1.5 " moveto

Would set up " as a procedure to convert from inches to PS points. Then it is used to move 1 inch from left and 1.5 inches from the bottom of the page.

Fonts

Some common names:

Times-Roman

Times-Italic

Times-Bold

Times-BoldItalic

Helvetica

Helvetica-Oblique

Helvetica-Bold

Helvetica-BoldOblique

Courier

Courier-Oblique

Courier-Bold

Courier-BoldOblique

Symbol

Quick Reference of Functions

Variables used in this section:

nx=numbers (like n, n1 and n2 are numbers...)

x=an x position in points

y=a y position in points

str=text (any text string)

deg=degrees (from -360 to 360)

%x=percentage (floating point from 0 to 1)

[ and ] surround optional operands.
I also tried to list the operands in related groups and order of operation.

Operands	Operator	Functionality
Arithmatic Operations
n1 n2	sub	n1-n2
n1 n2	add	n1+n2
n1 n2	mul	n1*n2
n1 n2	div	n1/n2
Global Transformations
deg	rotate	Rotate next operations by deg degrees
x y	translate	Set 0,0 to x,y on the paper
x y	scale	Scale x coordinates by x and y by y
Atribute Commands
n	setlinewidth	Set the drawing line width to n
%	setgray	Set line briteness.(0=black .5=gray 1=white)
Font Commands
/str	findfont	Set fontname to str if it exists
n	scalefont	Set fontsize to n
-	setfont	Load font
Drawing Commands
x y	moveto	Set current position to x,y
x y	drawto	Draw a line to x,y
x y r deg1 deg2	arc arcn	Draw Arc centered on x,y with radius r from deg1 to deg2 arcn moves clockwise (negative)
(str) -	show	Print str at current position Draw a dot (no "(str)")
-	closepath	Draw from current position to first in path
-	gsave	Save path
-	grestore	Restore saved path
End Draw Commands
-	stroke	Actually draws path, and clears path
-	fill	Fill in path, and clear it
Page End Operation
-	showpage	Actually print page and eject it.