What is PPD? PPD, short name for PostScript Printer Description, is used as the file extension for PostScript Printer Description files. .PPD files are text files that provide a uniform approach to using the diverse features of devices that contain Post-Script interpreters. See the sample .PPD file included below.

File Extension: .PPD

MIME Type: text/plain

File Content: PostScript Printer Description

.PPD files are PostScript Printer Description files, that provide a uniform approach to using the diverse features of devices that contain Post-Script interpreters. Here is a sample .PPD PostScript Printer Description file, MSGENBW.PPD:

*PPD-Adobe: "4.2"
*% Adobe Systems PostScript(R) Printer Description File
*% Copyright 1995 Microsoft Corporation.
*% All Rights Reserved.
*% Permission is granted for redistribution of this file as
*% long as this copyright notice is intact and the contents
*% of the file is not altered in any way from its original form.
*% End of Copyright statement
*% This PPD represents a generic grayscale imagesetter.
*FormatVersion: "4.2"
*FileVersion: "1.0"
*PCFileName: "MSGENBW.PPD"
*LanguageVersion: English
*Product: "()"
*PSVersion: "(52.3) 320"
*% Product and PSVersion are meaningless in this generic PPD.
*ModelName: "MS Publisher Imagesetter"
*NickName: "MS Publisher Imagesetter"
*ShortNickName: "MS Publisher Imagesetter"

*% General Information and Defaults ===============
*FreeVM: "175500"
*LanguageLevel: "1"
*% Not a color printer, but tells driver to generate color code.
*ColorDevice: True
*Extensions: FileSystem CMYK
*FileSystem: True
...

.PPD PostScript Printer Description file sample: Click sample.ppd to download.

Since .PPD files are in text format, you can use Notepad or any text editor to create or modify them. No special software is needed.

For for information on how to use .PPD PostScript Printer Description files, see links below:

• PostScript Printer Description File Format Specification, by Adobe.