Device independence, one of the principal benefits of the PostScript language, is made possible by the interpreter. When the interpreter receives a page description, it constructs a representation of the page to suit the device the page will be printed on. A major reason the PostScript language has become an industry standard is that it uses the Adobe Type 1 font format to produce type that is consistent, legible and as sharp as possible on all devices. Type 1 is a format for outline fonts, where each character in a typeface is stored as a PostScript language program. Another technology, called bitmapped fonts, stores each character as a pattern of dots.
Outline fonts have many advantages over bitmapped fonts.
Like all elements of the PostScript language, Type 1 fonts are device independent. That means the same fonts can be used across a broad range of output devices because every device that contains a PostScript interpreter can read them. Although some printers can print at higher resolution than others, type generated from Adobe outline fonts will always be as sharp as a particular device can produce.