sgate@stsci.EDU (Steve Southgate) (07/14/88)
Question for Laserwriter/Postscript/Shakespeare whizzes (NEED HELP PLEASE):
I just purchased a copy of Shakespeare (Desk Top Publisher by Infinity),
and found that it produces Postscript output. At work I have access to
Macs that are hooked up to a LaserWriterPlus (which happens to be the Laser
printer recommended for this particular software package, although any
true postscript printer should be compatible). The Macs are also hooked up
to VAXes.
I attempted to print some output from Shakespeare, that I created on my Amiga
at home, on the LaserWriter at work using the following scheme:
First, I directed my Shakespeare output at home to a file. There is a menu
option supporting this function, so I can't imagine I did that incorrectly.
Second, I Kermit-ed the file to our VAXes at work. As Postscript is actually
an ASCII code sequence (it is read by an interpreter in the LaserWriter),
the transfer is pretty reliable. I visually verified the output after the
transfer, and it looked good.
Third, a friend and I transferred the file down to a Mac Plus from the VAX
using Red Ryder software (as an aside, let me say that I find working with
Macs to be a pain in the neck -- I'm glad I own a real computer ;-) ).
Fourth, as this document had no "application" associated with it (I'm using
Mac jargon now), we had to look all over hell and back to find some software
that would let us look at the damn file (ie, an "editor", what a concept).
Finding that, we were able to verify that the file *appeared* to be OK.
Fifth, again, as this postscript file had no "application" associated with
it, we had to look all over hell and back to find a program ("PSout", I
believe) that would send the Postscript file directly to the Laser printer
without just printing the Postscript source code itself (I was getting ready
to do harm to a few Macs at this point).
Finally, the stuff goes to the printer, but I get an error. I found some
postscript manuals, and was able to determine that the error was programmatic
(not syntactic). I was able to look up the error. The error was on a "get"
operation to a supposedly "stacked" "dictionary" that apparently either wasn't
"stacked" or was stacked but didn't have whatever it was that the program
wanted to "get". My knowledge of Postscript is practically nil, so you'll
have to pardon my vague interpretaion.
Called Infinity. Described the scenario. Their guy said they'd never had
their postscript output NOT work. He was surprized, but couldn't really
be difinitive because, after all, this wasn't a supported procedure.
Don't know what's wrong. Could be that the LaserWriter is initialized in a
particular way, and that this initializaiton is screwing things up.
Could be, and I forgot to ask Infinity, that Shakespeare initializes
the printer a particular way, and my method prevents that from happening
(although I think the only initialization it does is tacked onto the
beginning of the file).
Please mail/post help. If mailed, and it works, I'll re-post.
Thanks much,
Steve Southgate
Space Telescope Science Institute
Baltimore, MD
sgate@stsci.edurichard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton) (07/15/88)
In article <377@obi-wan> sgate@stsci.EDU (Steve Southgate) writes: > >Called Infinity. Described the scenario. Their guy said they'd never had >their postscript output NOT work. He was surprized, but couldn't really >be difinitive because, after all, this wasn't a supported procedure. Amazing. A friend of mine ws reviewing this package for a magazine. He kept emailing me PostScript files. They flat out did not work. The illustrations cale out all one colour (grey) ans the text came out clipped along the left margin. Now if these were files of his own making I might have some sympathy. But these were the demo files supplied with the package. All I kept thinking when I kept seeing garbage come out of the printer was "God, this program is going to sell a lot of Mac's". My friend was told to hold the review until the next version came out. It didnt, it was late, the article went to press. The upgrade finally arrived, and still doesnt do correct postscript output. If I had bought this package, I'd be furious. I use my own software to play with postscript however. There is at least one REALLY GOOD DTP package that outputs postcript, It's propage, I believe. Nice. -- If you were to flatten out Wales, it would be bigger than England. richard@gryphon.CTS.COM {backbone}!gryphon!richard
whitcomb@ic.Berkeley.EDU (Gregg Whitcomb) (07/15/88)
In article <4858@gryphon.CTS.COM>, richard@gryphon.CTS.COM (Richard Sexton) writes: > > In article <377@obi-wan> sgate@stsci.EDU (Steve Southgate) writes: > > > >Called Infinity. Described the scenario. Their guy said they'd never had > >their postscript output NOT work. He was surprized, but couldn't really > >be difinitive because, after all, this wasn't a supported procedure. > > Amazing. > > A friend of mine ws reviewing this package for a magazine. He kept > emailing me PostScript files. > > They flat out did not work. The illustrations cale out all one colour > (grey) ans the text came out clipped along the left margin. Now if these > were files of his own making I might have some sympathy. But these were the > demo files supplied with the package. > > -- > If you were to flatten out Wales, it would be bigger than England. > richard@gryphon.CTS.COM {backbone}!gryphon!richard I have had some postscript problems with Shakespeare as well but have been able to get ok output. I wouldn't advise anyone to buy the program for the postscript capability. I was unimpressed with its lack of text handling capability which is practically nil. On the good side, it does very well with pictures. Another problem with the postscript generation is that since Shakespeare doesn't understand what the postscript font sizes are, it s-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-s text to make sure a full line of text on your screen takes a full line on the postscript output. If you're lucky enough to have the postscript fonts on the Amiga, this may not be much of a problem. It would also have been nice if they provided a "scale" operation (analogous to the postscript scale command) so that if I want 3'' postscript characters, I can get them without using a 216 point font size! In fact, since such a point size doesn't exist in postscript (most are in the 10-30 range), Shakespeare simply dumps a bit map for fonts of that size. There are tricks you can play with the dpi value you assign to your documents (you can thus get the 3'' postscript fonts if you really need them), however, I can't possibly see how regular text size characters and 2'' title characters could possibly be incorporated on the postscript output easily. So what does this all mean... I can't recommend Shakespeare for standard desktop publishing which is heavy on the text side. I DO recommend Shakespeare for doing posters which incorporate lots of figures and minimal text. Finally, don't get Shakespeare if you want a Postscript desktop publishing package. If you have a nice color printer (HP paintjet, NEC CP6), then you will be pleased with what you can get it to do. -Gregg Whitcomb whitcomb@ic.berkeley.edu
spencer@eris.berkeley.edu (Randal m. Spencer [RmS]) (07/16/88)
Recently on *comp.sys.amiga* sgate@stsci.EDU (Steve Southgate) wrote: ... ...Question for Laserwriter/Postscript/Shakespeare whizzes (NEED HELP PLEASE): ... ... ...Called Infinity. Described the scenario. Their guy said they'd never had ...their postscript output NOT work. He was surprized, but couldn't really ...be difinitive because, after all, this wasn't a supported procedure. I said it on the phone and I will say it again, send me the file you are trying to print and I will try to print it from Shakespeare, that would be a first step. Then I would recommend looking into how you are transfering the file (are you using text mode in kermit? that might have some effect), but I don't have that set up you described so I can't test it to see what you are doing wrong. I don't imagine that many will be able to help you over the net if you don't start with simple things like "is the generated file something that WILL print?". Again I say, send me the file, otherwise, "good luck..." ...Thanks much, ... ...Steve Southgate "He who dies with the most toys... is dead" -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Randy Spencer P.O. Box 4542 Berkeley CA 94704 (415)222-7595 spencer@mica.berkeley.edu I N F I N I T Y BBS: (415)222-9416 ..ucbvax!mica!spencer s o f t w a r e AAA-WH1M