<P> In digital printing a page description language (PDL) is a computer language that describes the appearance of a printed page in a higher level than an actual output bitmap . An overlapping term is printer control language, which includes Hewlett - Packard's Printer Command Language (PCL). PostScript is one of the most noted page description languages . The markup language adaptation of the PDL is the page description markup language . </P> <P> Page description languages are text (human - readable) or binary data streams, usually intermixed with text or graphics to be printed . They are distinct from graphics application programming interfaces (APIs) such as GDI and OpenGL that can be called by software to generate graphical output . </P>

A language used for describing the appearance of a printed page is called