Conference hydra::amiga_v1

2440.0. "Help choosing a publishing pkg." by HYDRA::CHICOINE () Wed Apr 05 1989 15:36

    Hello all,

       I'm looking for some advice on which set of packages would be best
     for the application I'm trying to fulfill.

       Here's what I'm trying to do;

          I need a package, or combination of packages that will let me 
     produce a pleasant looking [(black and white) I'm using an LA75]
     weekly church bulletin. At the moment we produce one that is type-
     written text with paste-on outline pictures, rub-on filigree borders
     and a few commonly used used words in combination bold, italic, and 
     calligraphy; pasted or rubbed on.   The page layout is a single 
     sideways page (8 1/2 x 11) folded in half producing 4 page segments.
     The front cover is reserved for the standard picture of the church
     with the usual info. The rear cover usually is an (8 1/2 x 5 1/2)
     picture reinforcing the weekly theme, or maybe the primary text 
     of the day's sermon in some fancy lettering. The inner two flaps
     contain the general notices highlighted with snappy pictures and
     sometimes if something needs highlighting we'll surround it with
     a filigree border.  

          What I would like to be able to do is this. 

          Produce all of the above (excluding the front cover) on screen 
      on my 1meg, 2 floppy, 1084s, amiga 500. I don't mind if I have to do
      each 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 as a separate file, but I would prefer if I could 
      do the entire page all at once.   I would like to produce many of my
      own "snappy pictures" and filigree borders, and save them as 
      individual items I could call in whenever I want, ( my own special
      clipart ) size these things to fit wherever I need them, and tailor 
      them as I please. I would like to choose different fonts on the page 
      as I please. I also would like, if I can, to reduce or eliminate most
      of the zaggies (without having to purchase a $5000 postscript printer)
      I also would like to be able manipulate the text around the clipart
      (not a must, but nice).  If I had to, I could make the bulletin as a
      full upright page 8 1/2 x 11, but I also do a calendar once a month
      that has many of the same needs as the bulletin and almost has to be
      printed sideways.         No telling, how long it could be before I
      need this feature, but It would be neat if I could draw a full screen
      picture, and import it as a small snapshot ( 3" x 3") onto a page of
      text and have if clearly recognizable on paper.  I suspect I'll be
      doing much of my work in High resolution, and I flicker, so I'll need
      to be able to adjust colors so they don't contrast much. 


         I know I will be working in color on screen, but is there any
      way I can at least have the LA75 reflect shades, kind of like the
      old black and white TV used to? So that I can "paint" something in
      a paint program, and have it look like an accurate B&W rendition
      of the picture.


         A possible application I could get into is producing children's 
      books, for myself and friends. I love to write, and my wife has
      lots of talent with the brush.  I suspect if a package can do all
      that I need it to do for my church bulletin, it will probably do
      this also, if not, please make some recommendations on this also.

       
         Also!!!  My son ( age 7 ) is looking forward to doing some 
      drawings of his own. He too thinks it would be neat to write
      stories and have pictures along with them. But I would love
      it if he could do a series of pages each containing a picture
      and his text, and have this thing flip through his book one 
      page at a time, and have the system use the voice feature to
      read it back to him. That would blow his socks off!!!          

                                                       
      Any help would be appreciated.  If you can,,, please try to address
      as much of what I need to know as you have time for. Many of these
      items I listed are trimmed to the "must haves"  as opposed to the
      "nice to haves".


       I've just read the April Computer shopper's  review of EXPRESS
     PAINT 3.0, and it looks kind of like what I need, but I'm not
     sure if it will do all that I'm looking for. I've seem the 
     Computer Chronicle TV. show review on DELUXE PAINT 3, but they
     didn't use it to do anything like I've described and I don't know
     if I need or will ever use all of the features it has. So!! I think
     It's a tossup between one of these two paint products, combined with
     either KINDWORDS or PROWRITE, (I'm leaning towards kindwords). But
     if someone can point me anywhere else, with any other combination
     of packages please do.


     

                                      *** May God Bless ***
                                          John Chicoine

>       Also!!!  My son ( age 7 ) is looking forward to doing some 
>      drawings of his own. He too thinks it would be neat to write
>      stories and have pictures along with them. But I would love
>      it if he could do a series of pages each containing a picture
>      and his text, and have this thing flip through his book one 
>      page at a time, and have the system use the voice feature to
>      read it back to him. That would blow his socks off!!!          

This sounds a lot like a program called Talking Animator. I saw a demo
version six months ago and I know the real thing is available now.

    I hesitate co comment on the software packages but recommend you
    do some more detailed checking on whether an LA75 can cut it.
    I may be wrong here but unles things have changed in the last 
    several months, there's not print driver that allows you do 
    graphics.  I totally gave up on my attempts to get by with an
    LA50 and I think tour in the same boat with an LA75.
    
    Anyone else got an update on the print driver capability for DEC
    stuff ??
    
    Wish you luck!
    Frank
    

    Definitely Pagestream, but wait for the release of V1.6 next week.

    I did something vaguely similar to that, for a friend of mine who ran a
    drive-through flower shop in Nashua, NH.  I used Express Paint 3.0 to
    create drawings, and used AmigaTeX to do the layout and import the
    IFF files.  AmigaTeX has a landscape printing feature.
    
    I do recommend that you consider a better printer than the LA75, which
    is only 180 by 180 dpi.  I have gone through a long succession of
    printers on my home computers, and I finally got tired of apologizing
    for print quality and spent some serious money on a commercial-quality
    printer.  300 dpi isn't as good as real typesetting, but it's lots
    better than 180 dpi.
    
    PostScript(tm) printers are selling for just under $4000 in the Nashua
    area.
        John Sauter

    Pagestream output on a dot matrix is very close to what you'll get
    on  a laser printer (I've tried it). Only catch though is thta it
    is unlikely that they supply an LA75 printer driver with the software.
    Pagestream uses custom drivers.

RE. 3
>   Definitely Pagestream, ...

   Do you mean for everything, generating Graphics, clipart, words wrapped 
   around pictures, full screen drawings down to snapshot size, Zoom features
   to create the clipart, and landscape printing.  Or would I also have to 
   purchase a Paint program and Pagestream, and forget the landscape printing?


RE. 4  Thanks for the input on the programs, I might call for greater
       detail one day.    As for the just under $4000 bucks part, It
       might as well be just under $4,000,000 for me.


RE. 5
>    Pagestream output on a dot matrix is very close to what you'll get
>    on  a laser printer (I've tried it). Only catch though is that it
>    is unlikely that they supply an LA75 printer driver with the software.
>    Pagestream uses custom drivers.


    Would I be making a ridiculous assumption that 

    1;  if the LA75 prints a simple text file, (Ed Acciardi's starter 
  disk HOWTOO text file),   doing a  "COPY filename SER:"

    2;  and that if I can do a Graphic screen dump from the workbench 
  utillity icon, "GRAPHICDUMP"

    3;  all of this in letter quality, with the printer in "other" mode;
  using one of the standard CBM_MPS1000 printer driver off of the WB 1.3 
  Amiga Extra's disk.   I think I even got all of this to work using the
  EPSONX[cbm_mps-1250]  driver too. 

     That Pagestream would support at least whatever printers were
  compatible with the CBM print drivers.




    P.S.  Is there any way I can verify that the (ANY) program will print
          on my printer BEFORE I drop $120.00?


                                *** May God Bless ***
                                    John Chicoine



   

    re: .6
    
    I suspect you can get a really nice 1200 dpi color printer for
    $4,000,000.  You might need a large room to hold it, though.
    
    To verify that the software works with your LA75, take your LA75 to
    the dealer and connect it to his demo machine, then run the dealer's
    copy of the software.
    
    re: .5
    
    I have trouble believing that any software, no matter how clever, can
    make a 180 dpi LA75 look even close to as good as a 300 dpi printer.
    I did the original VAX GKS support for the LA75, and a Beebe-based
    TeX driver for it, so I've spent a lot of time staring at LA75 output.
    The LN03 looks much better, in my (not very) humble opinion.
        John Sauter