Can PostScript DocumentMedia section have Unicode chars

Question

So this is the definition of the Document media section

"%%DocumentMedia:

     <medianame> ::= <text> (Tag name of the media)
     <attributes> ::= <width> <height> <weight> <color> <type>
     <width> ::= <real> (Width in PostScript units)
     <height> ::= <real> (Height in PostScript units)
     <weight> ::= <real> (Weight in g/m2)
     <color> ::= <text> (Paper color)
     <type> ::= <text> (Type of pre-printed form)

This comment indicates all types of paper media (paper sizes, weight, color) this document requires. If any of the attributes are not applicable to a particular printing situation, zeroes must be substituted for numeric parameters and null strings must be substituted for text parameters. Each different medium that is needed should be listed in its approximate order of descending quantity used."

I am trying to output double byte characters (Unicode) in it. Does anyone know if these characters are allowed for name of the media?

thanks

Answer 1

'allowed' is a bit nebulous. However since the definition of text strings says that a text string is composed of 'printable characters' I think its reasonable to say no, the inital byte of a Unicode value would not be a 'printable character.

Bear in mind that DSC is a very old standard, its fairly obvious it only expects ASCII. Since PostScript does not support Unicode I would have to say that its unlikely that DSC would do so.

It isn't absolutely clear this is so, because DSC comments are comments to a PostScript interpreter, and so ignored. But that's my opinion.