psc@lznv.ATT.COM (Paul S. R. Chisholm) (03/18/88)
< If you lined all the news readers up end-to-end, they'd be easier to shoot. >
We now publish *three* newsletters in my household, and I'm seriously
looking into doing more of it on the two PCs there. (Hey, before you
get too jealous: last night I had to troubleshoot three problems
*after* I left the office and got home. I think I need a break.)
I have an AT&T 6300 with 640K and a 20M hard disk, a Logitech bus
mouse, an Epson FX-286 printer, PC Paintbrush (which seems to be in
gonzo mode this week), PC-Write 2.71, and access to a Postscript
printer at the office. What I don't have is any WP or DTP package that
can print two columns. (Actually, I have Newsroom Plus, but it can't
wrap text from one page to another, so it's pretty useless.) Other
things I don't have are $1500 to $2000 for a Laserjet clone (or $4000
for a Postscript printer), or an inclination to use the office
printers for home activities. I don't need to incorporate PC
Paintbrush graphics into the newsletters, but it would be nice.
Does anyone have experience with using a high-end word processor like
Microsoft Word, or a low-end desktop publishing package like First
Publisher, with a nine-pin Epson printer? Do these programs create
fonts with the printer's graphics modes, and if so, how nice do they
look? I could get MS Word and Softcraft's Fancy Word, but now we're
talking serious money. Does anyone have a feel for how easy Fancy Font
is to learn and use by itself, as opposed as a back end to a word
processor?
Since I have a wide carriage printer, I theoretically could print 14 by
22 inch "pages" in 18 point, and they reduce these pages to 7 by 11 in
the copier when I reproduce the newsletters. I'd hope that 18 point
print would have twice the detail of 9 point, and would look much
better. Are my assumptions reasonable? Has anyone tried this?
-Paul S. R. Chisholm, {ihnp4,cbosgd,allegra,rutgers}!mtune!lznv!psc
AT&T Mail !psrchisholm, Internet psc@lznv.att.com
I'm not speaking for my employer, I'm just speaking my mind.