Conference hydra::amiga_v1

    Steve, read note 447 for a review of Prowrite.  Basically, version
    1.0 was so bug-ridden as to be virtually useless.  I have not yet
    received my free upgrade to 1.0, even though it is allegedly shipping.
    Time for another nasty phone call, I guess..
    

    I have had Page Setter for a while.  It isn't bad.  There are a
    few drawbacks though.  Transfering graphics from IFF to page doesn't
    always give good results.  I have a hard time gauging the size of
    the graphic output.  The built in text editor is rather limited
    too.  The biggest drawback of it (as far as I know...if someone
    knows how to do this, please let me know) is this:  If you load
    a large document into the text editor, you can't pull out sections
    of it to be sent to the page.  The only way to do this is to cut
    everything you don't want.  So let's say I have a large document
    with several headers in it.  If I want to change the headers to
    a larger font size, they have to be separated from the rest of the
    document BEFORE they are brought into PageSetter.  Otherwise, the
    only reformating you could do would be boldface, underline, italic
    and/or outline, but not a size change.
    
    This is a pain.  It means that you have to save all those headers
    as separate files, separate from the blocks of text...which have
    to be saved separately too.
    
    If you create a special format for a page, you can't carry the settings
    over to another page.  You have to recreate it over, and over, and
    over.  This is time consuming.
    
    I recommend using it with fonts other than the system ones.  The
    Zuma fonts seem to work quite well, providing a variety of point
    sizes and typefaces.
    
    Output to a dot matrix printer isn't bad.  I haven't seen the laser
    version yet.  Care to comment on what you saw?
    
    Randy
    
    

    
    	Gold Disk Has come out with an Post Script laser printer driver
    to be used with Page Setter. For about $45 you get a disk with two
    utilities and a number of laser printer fonts. One utility lets
    you modify a Page Setter page ( i.e. select fonts, set page size).
    and then print it. The other utility allows you to make Post Script fonts.
    
    	The way it works is that you use Page Setter to make the document.
    you then use Laser Page to modify it and print it. Laser Page will
    let you send the Post Script directly to a printer ( directly to
    physical port, no driver ) or make a disk file containing Post Script.
    
    
    		Steve
    

    Which means ...
    
    You can compile a Pagesetter file for direct printing onto an LPS40
    or any other DEC laser printer that supports Post Script. Neat!

    
    Could someone list the DEC lasar printers that support postscript?
    

    
    
    	The LPS40 supports Postscript and a read a sales update about
    a LN03 Super Plus that will support postscript. No others.
    
    
    		Steve
    

    The LPS40 supports PostScript, but it does not interface using a
    serial line, so you need a VAX to reach it from an Amiga.  The LN03R
    (Scriptpointer) was recently announced (or is about to be announced).
    It is just like the Apple Laserwriter: it uses a serial line.
    
    The LPS40 is 40 pages per minute.  The LN03R is 8 pages per minute,
    maximum throughput.  The LPS40 can actually reach 40 pages per minute
    with a non-trivial PostScript stream, due to using a MicroVAX as
    the PostScript engine and having a lot of buffering.  The LN03R
    generally runs a lot slower than 8 pages per minute.
        John Sauter

    
    I don't intend to buy a postscript LASER printer I was just interested
    in finding out if I have access to one here at work.  Uploading
    binaries is a breeze with DW's VT100.  Sounds like an LN03 or LN03+
    can't do the job though.  We do have some MACs with the appropriate
    printers but no one has come up with the capability to write a MAC
    disk (yet).
    
    regards,
    
    steve mcafee

    It should be possible to write an Amiga printer driver for the
    LN03-PLUS.  It is a 300 dpi graphics printer, monochrome only.
        John Sauter

    About splitting up a large file: If you create several boxes and
    link them together, then bring the file into the first box, it will
    "flow" into the other following boxes, filling them too. Then you
    can adjust the size of the boxes to get the portion of the text
    that you want to format differently in a box by itself. Then unlink
    that box from the rest. You can now do whatever you want with the
    stuff in that box without affecting the rest of the file. This is
    how I've done it.
    

    clever...but still a pain in the neck.
    
    I just did a large multipage document with this package.  Other
    than some odd formatting quirks, it worked quite well.  It also
    works quite fast.  Change the size of the type in one linked box
    and all the others shift their copy almost instantaneously.  Not
    bad.
    

    
    Has anybody had any experience with Vizawrite? It's supposed to
    be the link between publishing and processing...
    
    Anybody?
    

      If I buy LASER SCRIPT can I produce a POSTSCRIPT file from PAGESETTER
    and download it to an APPLE MAC and then print it to the APPLE LASER
    PRINTER?
    

    
    
    RE .13
    
    	Yes, if you get LASER SCRIPT you can send the output to a APPLE
    LASER PRINTER. I have LASER SCRIPT and often send my output to a
    VAX and then to a LPS40 postscript printer.
    
    
    		Steve Peters
    

At last - Commodore speaks up in a typesetters' industry news source.
TYPEWORLD "the first and only newspaper for electronic publishing" first
[of two, presumably] October 1987 issue, vol. XI #19. A typically
press-release-like article, dateline Santa Clara: 

"Commodore Business Machines Inc. and twelve of its key developers are 
unveiling an affordable multi-station Amiga-based desktop presentation and 
publication system." The article talks about presentation videos with the 
Genlock and Video-Titler from Aegis or Deluxe Productions from Electronic 
Arts; DigiView from NewTek for capturing images; Impact from Liquid Light 
Inc, an adaptor kit to link the Amiga with the Polaroid Palette Film 
Recorder [to Polaroid or slide formats]; and Easyl by Anakin Research inc., 
a pressure-sensitive tablet for artists used to conventional drawing.

Then the point where I bring out the salt-shaker [tho I'm confident that by
the time I have a laser printer, some of these items will be as 
professional as Pagemaker and Ventura]: "The Amiga is also supported by 
several major desktop publishing developers." Professional Page by Gold 
Disk [it's got to be better than PageSetter!], Shakespeare by Infinity 
Software, City Desk by MicroSearch, Publisher 1000 from Brown-Waugh... and 
then WordPerfect and TeX as designed by N-Squared Computer Consultants. 
"The TeX/Amiga combination is the workstation of choice in the physics 
laboratory at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Laboratory." [Just for 
preparing text, where TeX's fame at equations shines, or do they use Amigas 
for more purposes, I wonder?]

And finally the article mentions Ameristar Technologies' Arcnet LAN card 
that permits several Amigas to share files and a PostScript-compatible 
printer; "Ameristar has also developed Amiga network products based on 
standard Internet protocols (TCP/IP and UDP/IP) to permit the Amiga's 
integration into hybrid mainframe environments."

Let me re-emphasize that the significance of this article is that it's the 
first major mention of the Amiga I've seen in material directed at 
typesetters - those people whose technical expertise is in the area of 
output quality. A lot of them feel threatened by that demon "desk-top 
publishing," but many are adapting to this new world by becoming or adding 
service bureaus, providing access to PostScript compatible high-res 
typesetters, for instance....