Publishing Interchange Language
Encyclopedia
Publishing Interchange Language, or "PIL" is a public domain
language that allows precise description of the layout
of content on pages, groups of multiple pages
or any 2-dimensional area, which it calls a "canvas." It was developed between June 1990 and June 1991 by the Professional Publishers Interchange Specification Workgroup, a committee of software and hardware vendors serving the newspaper, magazine and print advertising markets. The committee was led by Quark
and Atex
.
At the time, physical cut and paste
of images and typeset text was still required to assemble many pages because the specialized composition
, pagination
, text formatting
and graphic design
systems that produced the content could not operate together to produce integrated output. PIL was designed to allow electronic integration of content and layout, so that one system could print complete pages or layouts with all the typeset text and composed images that came from heterogeneous subsystems. PIL describes the layout
and allows the use of any combination of markup language
s and image formats
to encode the content. It enables any publishing workflow
of either sequential or simultaneous layout
and content creation. PIL was successfully used to integrate many publishing systems including systems from Agfa, Atex, Autologic, Information International, Inc.
, Quark, Inc.
and Scitex
.
Many languages
and formats now exist to describe content for the World Wide Web, and to define documents by their logical structure, so the same content can be reformatted for multiple purposes. However, PIL exists to describe precisely a graphical design and the placement of all content within it. It is useful for those who want to define a specific visual presentation rather than the sort of fluid layout that a web browser allows. It does not directly provide any logical structure of elements such as headings, citations, captions and so on. It defines a (theoretically infinite) hierarchy of canvases with coordinate systems, tags, frames, and content of any type. These can be used as needed to draw any type of document.
The complete public domain distribution of PIL includes the language specification document (including a BNF
specification), example files, a programmer's guide, and C-language
source code for a parser and an output engine to produce PIL. The source code is highly portable to any platform that supports C
, either in the ANSI C
or earlier K&R forms.
Public domain
Works are in the public domain if the intellectual property rights have expired, if the intellectual property rights are forfeited, or if they are not covered by intellectual property rights at all...
language that allows precise description of the layout
Page layout
Page layout is the part of graphic design that deals in the arrangement and style treatment of elements on a page.- History and development :...
of content on pages, groups of multiple pages
Imposition
Imposition is one of the fundamental steps in the prepress printing process. It consists in the arrangement of the printed product’s pages on the printer’s sheet, in order to obtain faster printing, simplified binding and less waste of paper....
or any 2-dimensional area, which it calls a "canvas." It was developed between June 1990 and June 1991 by the Professional Publishers Interchange Specification Workgroup, a committee of software and hardware vendors serving the newspaper, magazine and print advertising markets. The committee was led by Quark
Quark, Inc.
Quark, Inc. is a privately owned software company best known for QuarkXPress. It is called Quark because the company's goal is to "create software that would be the platform for publishing", just as quarks are the basis for all matter.As of August 2011, Quark's offerings include:* QuarkXPress -...
and Atex
Atex
Atex is a company specializing in the development of advertising and content management systems. The company was established in Massachusetts in 1973 and grew to become a worldwide software supplier to the publishing industry...
.
At the time, physical cut and paste
Cut and paste
In human-computer interaction, cut and paste and copy and paste offer user-interface interaction techniques for transferring text, data, files or objects from a source to a destination. Most ubiquitously, users require the ability to cut and paste sections of plain text...
of images and typeset text was still required to assemble many pages because the specialized composition
Composition (visual arts)
In the visual arts – in particular painting, graphic design, photography and sculpture – composition is the placement or arrangement of visual elements or ingredients in a work of art or a photograph, as distinct from the subject of a work...
, pagination
Pagination
Pagination is the process of dividing information into discrete pages, either electronic pages or printed pages. Today the latter are usually simply instances of the former that have been outputted to a printing device, such as a desktop printer or a modern printing press...
, text formatting
Formatted text
Formatted text, styled text or rich text, as opposed to plain text, has styling information beyond the minimum of semantic elements: colours, styles , sizes and special features .-Terminology:...
and graphic design
Graphic design
Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...
systems that produced the content could not operate together to produce integrated output. PIL was designed to allow electronic integration of content and layout, so that one system could print complete pages or layouts with all the typeset text and composed images that came from heterogeneous subsystems. PIL describes the layout
Page layout
Page layout is the part of graphic design that deals in the arrangement and style treatment of elements on a page.- History and development :...
and allows the use of any combination of markup language
Markup language
A markup language is a modern system for annotating a text in a way that is syntactically distinguishable from that text. The idea and terminology evolved from the "marking up" of manuscripts, i.e. the revision instructions by editors, traditionally written with a blue pencil on authors' manuscripts...
s and image formats
Image file formats
Image file formats are standardized means of organizing and storing digital images. Image files are composed of either pixels, vector data, or a combination of the two. Whatever the format, the files are rasterized to pixels when displayed on most graphic displays...
to encode the content. It enables any publishing workflow
Workflow
A workflow consists of a sequence of connected steps. It is a depiction of a sequence of operations, declared as work of a person, a group of persons, an organization of staff, or one or more simple or complex mechanisms. Workflow may be seen as any abstraction of real work...
of either sequential or simultaneous layout
Page layout
Page layout is the part of graphic design that deals in the arrangement and style treatment of elements on a page.- History and development :...
and content creation. PIL was successfully used to integrate many publishing systems including systems from Agfa, Atex, Autologic, Information International, Inc.
Information International, Inc.
Information International, Inc., commonly referred to as Triple-I or III, was an early computer technology company; Founded by Edward Fredkin in 1962 in Maynard, Massachusetts. It then moved to Santa Monica, Culver City, and Los Angeles California. Triple-I merged with Autologic, Inc. in 1996...
, Quark, Inc.
Quark, Inc.
Quark, Inc. is a privately owned software company best known for QuarkXPress. It is called Quark because the company's goal is to "create software that would be the platform for publishing", just as quarks are the basis for all matter.As of August 2011, Quark's offerings include:* QuarkXPress -...
and Scitex
Scitex Vision
Scitex Vision, was part of Scitex Corporation Ltd. It was an Israel-based company that specialized in producing equipment for large- and very-large-format printing on both paper and specialty materials...
.
Many languages
Markup language
A markup language is a modern system for annotating a text in a way that is syntactically distinguishable from that text. The idea and terminology evolved from the "marking up" of manuscripts, i.e. the revision instructions by editors, traditionally written with a blue pencil on authors' manuscripts...
and formats now exist to describe content for the World Wide Web, and to define documents by their logical structure, so the same content can be reformatted for multiple purposes. However, PIL exists to describe precisely a graphical design and the placement of all content within it. It is useful for those who want to define a specific visual presentation rather than the sort of fluid layout that a web browser allows. It does not directly provide any logical structure of elements such as headings, citations, captions and so on. It defines a (theoretically infinite) hierarchy of canvases with coordinate systems, tags, frames, and content of any type. These can be used as needed to draw any type of document.
The complete public domain distribution of PIL includes the language specification document (including a BNF
Backus–Naur form
In computer science, BNF is a notation technique for context-free grammars, often used to describe the syntax of languages used in computing, such as computer programming languages, document formats, instruction sets and communication protocols.It is applied wherever exact descriptions of...
specification), example files, a programmer's guide, and C-language
C (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
source code for a parser and an output engine to produce PIL. The source code is highly portable to any platform that supports C
C (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
, either in the ANSI C
ANSI C
ANSI C refers to the family of successive standards published by the American National Standards Institute for the C programming language. Software developers writing in C are encouraged to conform to the standards, as doing so aids portability between compilers.-History and outlook:The first...
or earlier K&R forms.