PostScript Font, in computer science, a font defined in terms of the PostScript page-description language rules and intended to be printed on a PostScript-compatible printer. PostScript fonts are distinguished from bit-mapped fonts by their smoothness, detail, and faithfulness to standards of quality established in the typographic industry. Fonts that appear on the screen—for example, as bit-mapped characters in a graphical user interface—are called screen fonts. When a document displayed in a screen font is sent to a PostScript printer, the printer uses the PostScript version if the font exists. If the font doesn't exist but a version is installed on the computer, that font is downloaded. If there is no PostScript font installed in either the printer or the computer, the bit-mapped font is translated into PostScript and the printer prints text using the bit-mapped font.