NAPLPS

NAPLPS (North American Presentation Level Protocol Syntax) was a vector-based standard for encoding graphical information. Developed primarily in the late 1970s and early 1980s, it was intended for use in interactive videotex systems, teletext, and computer graphics applications. NAPLPS aimed to provide a device-independent way of representing images, allowing them to be displayed on a variety of terminals and devices with differing resolutions.

The NAPLPS standard defined a set of instructions for drawing lines, curves, polygons, and text. These instructions were encoded using a compact binary format, optimizing transmission speed over relatively slow communication lines. Color information was also incorporated, utilizing a palette-based system where specific colors were referenced by index values.

Key features of NAPLPS included its ability to represent graphics as a collection of geometric primitives rather than as a bitmap image. This approach allowed for scalability and efficient storage, as only the instructions for creating the image needed to be stored, rather than the individual pixels. Moreover, the vector nature of NAPLPS graphics meant that images could be zoomed and scaled without significant loss of quality.

NAPLPS saw some adoption in the early days of online services, particularly in Canada and the United States. It was used in systems like Telidon in Canada and Viewtron in the United States. However, the standard eventually faced challenges from competing technologies, including bitmap graphics and ASCII-based character graphics. The rise of personal computers with improved graphics capabilities and faster network connections ultimately led to the decline of NAPLPS as a dominant standard. While largely superseded by other methods, the legacy of NAPLPS remains as one of the pioneering approaches to encoding graphical information for interactive systems.