ericd@ms.uky.edu (Eric Durbin) (10/14/89)
I'm in search of a good slide production software package for a
Mac II.
Can anyone send me some recommendations?
Here are my first contacts rated from best to worst:
Visual Business Systems: VBS#5 (I'm yet to see this for sale anywhere)
Aldus: Persuasion
MicroSoft: Power Point
Cricket Software: Cricket Presents
--
[] Eric B. Durbin (606)257-4581 [] ericd@ms.uky.edu []
[] University of Kentucky [] ericd@UKMA.BITNET []
[] 165 Markey Cancer Center [] {rutgers, uunet}!ukma!ericd []
[] Lexington, KY 40536-0093 [] EBD-WANGVS300 []wiechman@athos.rutgers.edu (NightMeower) (10/18/89)
In article <12936@s.ms.uky.edu> ericd@ms.uky.edu (Eric Durbin) writes: > I'm in search of a good slide production software package for a > Mac II. > > Can anyone send me some recommendations? > > Here are my first contacts rated from best to worst: > > Visual Business Systems: VBS#5 (I'm yet to see this for sale anywhere) > Aldus: Persuasion > MicroSoft: Power Point > Cricket Software: Cricket Presents Disclaimer: I do not work for any of the companies making presentation software, but have used VBS, Aldus, and MicroSoft in varying amounts. I do however work for a film recorder producer -- Agfa Matrix. End of Disclaimer. Before you make a final decision on which software is best you must consider how you are going to get your images actually on film. If you are purchasing your own film recorder you can "standardize" on any software package, however if you are going to be dealing with an outside service bureau check with them first. Some bureau only handle particular formats. Of the software packages that you mentioned. I believe Persuasion is the best. Persuasion should be shipping or soon be shipping Persuasion 2.0, a major improvement to Persuasion 1.0. Persuasion easily beats PowerPoint with its ease of use, mulitple slide masters, and automation for creating slides. Oh, on other place where Persuasion beats PowerPoint and that is price. Persuasion is probably more expensive than PowerPoint, butit is money well spent. VBS No.5 has problems because it is designed more as a charting program than as a presentation program. If you only need a few slides at a time then you might go with this product. The real drawback to this program is if you choose to go with a service bureau and they do not have the VBS No.5 software and hardware then you are left with VBS's exported PICT. This PICT imbeds line approximations for the outline text that is rotated in the third dimension depth. This text then looks really unacceptable. I have not really used Cricket Presents so I'll not pass any judgement on it. If you either buy a PostScript-compatible film recorder or your service bureau has PostScript capability then Aldus Persuasion and Microsoft PowerPoint are the way to go. I do not believe that VBS's software will work well with PostScript especially the text that is rotated in the third dimension. My ranking: 1. Aldus Persuasion (wait for version 2.0 if possible) 2. Microsoft PowerPoint 3. VBS No.5 (no PostScript) Cricket Presents (unranked) Warning company plug coming up!! Many service bure{us use Agfa Matrix Divsion film recorders. In fact, those people that attended the Apple 1989 Worldwide Developers Conference saw mostly images that were created on our film recorders. More than 97% of the slides were done imaged on our equipment. If you are going to be producing a lot of slides then an investment in a film recorder could save you money in the long run. Many service bureaus charge a minimum of $6 per slide which quickly adds up over time. Plus there is the added benefit of being able to have a shorter turn around time if you do it yourself (make last minute adjustments, catch those errors, etc.) We currently have three film recorders with varying prices and quality which use a QD rasterizer with outline fonts. The QD rasterizer is sufficient for most slides: ProColor ~6000 SlideWriter ~12000 QCR-Z ~25000 (requires additional hardware ~2000) You can add PostScript capability to these film recorders for ~18000 with our ChromaScript. This was developed in conjunction with Adobe and is 100% PostScript compatible. This is the only Adobe certified film recorder product on the market. The unit is a stand along rasterizer which appears on your LocalTalk network similar to a LaserWriter. This allows you to continue using your Mac unhampered by image creation when you are running MultiFinder. To the best of my knowledge although most QD rasterizers are MultiFinder compatible, once they begin rasterization the CPU time to create an image soaks up all or just about everything making your Mac usless. QD rasterizers work well batching overnight. -- =========================================================================== Kevin S. Wiechmann arpa: wiechman@rutgers.rutgers.edu This is only a test... for the next sixty seconds...
daver@hplsla.HP.COM (Dave Ringoen) (10/19/89)
Kevin,
You got my interest in the Agfa recorders. Do you have any information
on which service bureaus where have the Agfa Postscript-capable recorders?
I occasionally need to have slides made, but don't know how to track down
who can make them.
Dave Ringoen Lake Stevens Instrument Division, Hewlett Packard
8600 Soper Hill Road, Everett, WA 98205-1298, (206) 335-2236
uucp: hplabs!hplsla!daver domain: daver%hplsla@hplabs.hp.com
Home: 3202 104th Pl. SE, Everett WA, 98208, (206) 338-0714wiechman@athos.rutgers.edu (NightMeower) (10/20/89)
In article <5290002@hplsla.HP.COM> daver@hplsla.HP.COM (Dave Ringoen) writes: > Kevin, > You got my interest in the Agfa recorders. Do you have any information > on which service bureaus where have the Agfa Postscript-capable recorders? > I occasionally need to have slides made, but don't know how to track down > who can make them. > > > Dave Ringoen Lake Stevens Instrument Division, Hewlett Packard > 8600 Soper Hill Road, Everett, WA 98205-1298, (206) 335-2236 > uucp: hplabs!hplsla!daver domain: daver%hplsla@hplabs.hp.com > Home: 3202 104th Pl. SE, Everett WA, 98208, (206) 338-0714 As of the present moment there are only nine PostScripts RIPs that are capable of driving our film recorders in the US. The product is still in being tested and will begin shipping hopefully by the early in the first quarter of 1990. There is no list of the test sites that can be made available at this time. Once the product is out of the "early support sites" program then a list of those bureaus can be made. I would like to underscore that many people can get very nice results through our own QD rasterizer. The film recorders currently ship with Conductor, a specially modified QD rasterizer. We have our own outline font technology which allows us to have text rotated in any 2-dimensional way without the "jaggies" that you are accustomed to see. Those of our service bureaus that remain up to date can support Courier, Helvetica, Times, and Symbol in any style or rotation. These service will also be receiving the option to upgrade their software to include the other LaserWriter Plus fonts (Avant Garde, Palatino, New Century SchoolBook, et al). There are a couple of areas where PostScript RIPs have a large improvement over our QD rasterizer. Any other font that is not one of the standard LW+ fonts can not be handled by Conductor, but the PostScript RIP can handle downloadable fonts. The other area that comes to mind is Bezier curves. Bezier curves are not supported by the QD rasterizer, but the RIP has that capability. If you are interested in finding a service bureau near you, we can give you a few names and numbers Kevin -- =========================================================================== Kevin S. Wiechmann arpa: wiechman@rutgers.rutgers.edu This is only a test... for the next sixty seconds...