Abstract: A printing system and method is disclosed herein which is capable of emulating any of a plurality of phototypesetters to create a proof comprising at least one glyph on a reproduction medium from composition data. The proof is created from page and font data encoded in any of a plurality of formats, such data including an identification of the particular format in which the data is encoded. The system processes the font data and page data a first time in accordance with the identification to derive an encoded representation of the glyph to be reproduced. The system processes the page data a second time in accordance with the identification to derive character and typesetting commands which together define the placement of the glyph on the reproduction medium. An output device is controlled by the system in accordance with the encoded glyph representation and the character and typesetting commands to create the proof on the reproduction medium.