Forms

• A form is a self-contained description of any arbitrary graphics, text, and sampled images that are to be painted multiple times on each of several pages or several times at different locations on a single page.
• With the new forms feature, you can define a base form whose representation stays cached between pages, so only information that changes between forms will need to be interpreted for each page. The representation used to cache the form may vary from device to device depending on the available resources, such as memory and/or hard disk space. In some cases, the actual rasterized form will be saved, in other cases, an intermediate representation (such as a display list) may be saved. Benefits: End-users will benefit by improved performance.
• This makes forms processing faster and provide a natural framework for ISVs implementing a forms functionality in their application. Benefits: Convenience for ISVs.
• Besides the traditional concept of ``forms,'' some other examples of forms include: Letterhead, stationary, overhead presentation backgrounds, repetitive symbols in a CAD drawing such as screws (mechanical drawing) or windows (architectural drawing), complex background blends in 35mm slides. Benefits: Enhanced functionality and application of PostScript printers in a variety of different environments.