application/postscript

A page description that is also a full programming language: a PostScript file is a program the printer executes, which made the 1984 Adobe-LaserWriter combination the big bang of desktop publishing — and later made PostScript a security headache, since rendering a document means running untrusted code. The media type was registered in MIME's founding paperwork, RFC 2046, which covers both Level 1 and Level 2 of the language. PDF is its sandboxed descendant and has replaced it nearly everywhere; what survives are .eps figures in scientific publishing and printer pipelines. Files open with the %! interpreter marker, usually the full %!PS-Adobe- version comment.

.ps is a printable document, .eps a single encapsulated figure, .ai Illustrator's PostScript-derived native format.

Defined by RFC 2046 · IANA registration. Registry facts from the IANA media-types registry via mime-db.