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I was curious, so I looked up arc in the PostScript Language Reference [1]. It contains the following (p. 530): > The arc is represented internally by one or m

by fooofw 3y ago

I was curious, so I looked up arc in the PostScript Language Reference [1]. It contains the following (p. 530): > The arc is represented internally by one or more cubic Bézier curves (see curveto) approximating the required shape. This is done with sufficient accuracy to produce a faithful rendition of the required arc. However, a program that reads the constructed path using pathforall will encounter curveto segments where arcs were specified originally. [1] https://www.adobe.com/jp/print/postscript/pdfs/PLRM.pdf https://www.adobe.com/jp/print/postscript/pdfs/PLRM.pdf

CharlesW 3y ago
> The arc is represented internally by one or more cubic Bézier curves… But that's a rendering implementation detail, no? Isn't the precision and accuracy of any digital or physical manifestation of a circle limited by implementation details and physics?
- fooofw 3y ago
  Yes, I agree completely.
- Sharlin 3y ago
  Yes, but as the article notes, there are applications where you need a circle way more precise than one approximated by just a few Bezier curves. Although you could argue that any finite precision can be achieved by simply using more Bezier curves.