MACKAY@WASHINGTON.ARPA.UUCP (05/21/86)
The model shown in the query from jeff@kestrel would certainly be very difficult to manage, for the reasons outlined by David Fuchs. Am I right in thinking that this is an attempt to fake up one of those two column typescripts beloved of the low-budget computer science conference proceedings publisher? That could just be done if the leading were very open, but it would require some rather neat juggling of parts of pages. I have had to do a lot of such fakery lately, and the local solution is a bit bizarre. The only machine that can effectively be used for this sort of fakery is the Alphatype. I find myself using a 5333 (notional) line/inch phototypesetter to simulate the output of an IBM selectric (more or less). Those two column blue-line masters are a curse, and the sooner they are done away with the better. (The alphatype, which is a Rube Goldberg phototypesetter, has a few remaining virtues as a result of its ridiculously fine resolution. You could set a full signature 16 up on a single sheet, in imposition order, if you could find an imposition camera that would enlarge the results accurately. I have never found such a camera.) There are real needs for typesetters and pseudo-typesetters that allow for some sheet size other than 8.5 by 11, but i suspect that such a design will never be considered economically viable for anything but roll fed typesetters. We can still hope for the under $10,000 phototypesetter, but until it arrives, there is no substitute for the razor knife, the waxer and the light-table. Pierre -------