Conference 7.286::atarist

    The nearest to a decent desk top publisher for that sum of money is the
    old version of Fleet Street Publisher V1.1. If you shop about in the
    mags such as ST WORLD you may get for 70. Failing that join Floppy Shop ST
    at 50 Stewart Cresent, Northfield, Aberdeen AB2 5SR he may have some pd DTP
    for you. Also try The ST club at 49 Stoney Street Nottingham NG1 1LX as
    an alternative pd library.

You might be able to get "PageStream Jr." a.k.a. "Publishing Partner"
for darn near free these days.  It's a very, very, very early version of
PageStream.  Low on features, low on performance, low on price.

    To add a third title to your choice, try TIMEWORKS. This got five-stars
    from NEW COMPUTER EXPRESS and is very eay to use. If you order from MJC
    Supplies it'll cost about 60-70 pounds.
    
    Regards,
    
    Carl

    
    
    Thanks a lot I'll have a look at these and choose the best one.
    
    Cheers,
    
    Robert.
    
    P.S. Anymore ideas would be welcome.

    
    Carl,
    
    Could you tell me a little more about Timeworks. I have just seen
    an ad in ST Action for the Timeworks Desk Top Publisher. Do you
    have their address or any other info?
    
    Re:-2 I have written to both the addresses you gave me.
    
    Re:-3 I was told that Pagestream Jr was very difficult to get hold
    of but I will check it out.
    
    Robert. 

    
    I recommend Timeworks too, it's easy to handle and the printout
    with a 24-needler is simply great. Though it works with three diskettes
    and without a HD it needs quite a time to come up. You can edit
    your texts with Wordplus and load them, graphics are fine in .IMG
    or .GEM format. I use Degas to get the graphics.
    
    But the best DTP program I've seen yet is CALAMUS. The bad news
    is you need a Mega 2 or higher to work comfortably with it. With
    a normal 1040 you do not have all options.
    
    Bernd
    

    Robert,
    
    I agree with Bernd's remarks about Timeworks. I seem to recall that on
    a 520, the program wouldn't allow you to import graphics; lack of
    memory, etc. Use of a Hard Disk, though not essential, makes using the
    program a good deal easier. But this is probably true of all DTP
    programs?
    
    Calamus is at the present the undisputed ST DTP leader. However, it's
    worth reflecting that Calamus costs around 399.99 pounds.
    
    I'll write a few more specific notes on TIMEWORKS next week, unless
    anyone beats me to it!
    
    Regards,
    
    Carl     

    
    
    I have a 520 so although graphics can't be used would I still need
    a 24 pin printer or would a 9 pin make a fairly good printer to
    use as my budget is limited.
    
    I have my eye on the Star LC10 printer at the moment. 
    
    Please excuse all these questions but I am not used to using products
    such as these at home.
    
    Thanks for all your help,
    
    Robert.

    
    Hi, 
    
    It all depends on the printer driver. I have seen really grotty output
    on a 24 pin from certain drivers, and super output on a nine pin
    printer from others. Normally, to achieve a good output on a nine pin
    printer means the printer driver has to make more passes over the
    paper.
    
    Remember, that the PIN spacing on a nine and 24 pin printer are about
    the same, so although the 24 pin can claim to print 360*360 dots/inch,
    the EDGE of the outline of the character printed will have about the
    same amount of raggedness.(although the "black" area of the character
    will be more uniform in color density on the 24 pin printer).
    
    Also whichever you choose, unless you have perfect alignment of the
    mechanicals and a new ribbon, on large letters you will get horizontal
    striations of differing density.
    
    IF you can access a postscript printer, then it is possible to produce
    Postscript format DTP, using Fleet st Publisher V1.1 and the Postscript
    entension, also, if yout DTP program can produce a .GEM file, then
    there is a PD program in my public ST area, that converts gem to
    postscript. (MFPS.ARC). Postscript output is obviously very tasty,
    although, there may be descrepancies between what you see and want you
    get printed due to font size changes.
    
    Another very valuable approach is to use TEX, the page tag language is
    available as a PD offering, its best on a meg machine, (I dont know if
    you can run it on a 520). There are also dVI drivers available to drive
    an epsom from TEX, or you can port your tex file to ework and use the 
    vax tex program.
    
    Best of Luck!
    
    Pat K.

    Here are some quick and general remarks about Timeworks.
    
    1. It's an easy program to use, and though it comes with a comprehensive 
    manual, the menu options etc are intuitive to use, so you won't have to
    refer to it very often.
    
    2. Text can be imported from other word-processors, or as ascii files.
    This is then assigned to wire-frame boxes, which, after the fashion of
    such boxes, can be expanded, shrunk, etc. The size and the quality of
    the text can be subsequently altered. The package comes with a number
    of fonts. Others are available in the public domain.
    
    Text from one file can be split between wire-frame boxes, which, of course,
    can be anywhere within the file. So, should you need articles TO BE 
    CONTINUED ON PAGE 5, then this option is available. 
    
    3. Graphics: .IMG, .PI?, .GEM etc formats are treated similarly: 
    imported into boxes. Cropping options are available. There are also a 
    variety of art tools available.
    
    4. The program comes on 5-disks. On disk 1 is an Installation program
    which configures Timeworks to your system (this results in 3 disks, of
    which only 2 are system disks - the third is the data disk, where your
    documents are stored). Because it uses more than one disk, usage is
    improved with a second drive, and greatly improved with a hard-disk.
    
    5. Additional fonts present the only real difficulty. If you can
    install fonts for DEGAS ELITE, then you're half the way there. 
    
    Regards,
    
    Carl 

    Can anyone help me with this?
    
    When I load the (.MRG) output of 1st Word Plus/1st Mail in to Tomeworks
    DTP, it does strange things with character spacing ie some lines come
    out fine, but others have a few characters strung out across the line,
    then a hyphen inserted to continue the last word on the next line!!
    
    I've checked that there are no hyphens in the original doc, and played
    around with the Paragraph style options, but can't get an evenly
    spaced appearance.
    
    C     a      n         y     o      u        h     e      l     p    ?