daphne@uunet.UU.NET (10/28/87)
I have just started a Desktop Publishing Service business, called
The Desktop Solution and am now in the process of purchasing
equipment and software. My plan is to offer this DTP service to
small businesses for the production of newsletters, brochures,
company reports and manuals.
I have been advised to purchase Ventura Desktop Publisher, Version
1.1, to run on an AT and use an HP Laser Jet Series II. The full
configuration I have been looking at is:
AST Premium Model 80 with 640K
40 MB Hard Disk
1.2 MB Floppy
Wyse 700 Display and Card
Microsoft Mouse
Microsoft Word, Version 4.0
HP Laser Jet Series II with 1.5 MB
Is there anyone who can suggest a better configuration or offer any
general comments on what I have been planning. Any advice or criticism
offered is most appreciated.
--
Daphne Cassidy, (mnetor, yetti, utgpu !geac!daphne)
Geac Computers Ltd.
Markham, Ontario, Canada, eh?
----------------------------------------
Submissions to: desktop%plaid@sun.com -OR- sun!plaid!desktop
Administrivia to: desktop-request%plaid@sun.com -OR- sun!plaid!desktop-request
Paths: {ihnp4,decwrl,hplabs,seismo,ucbvax}!sun
---
Chuq "Fixed in 4.0" Von Rospach chuq@sun.COM Delphi: CHUQtim@ora.UUCP (Tim O'Reilly) (11/02/87)
> I have just started a Desktop Publishing Service business, called > The Desktop Solution and am now in the process of purchasing > equipment and software. My plan is to offer this DTP service to > small businesses for the production of newsletters, brochures, > company reports and manuals. Ventura runs pretty nimbly on just about anything, so if cost is an issue, you can get just about any fast AT (or even XT) clone. And I'd look at the Xerox "Nutshell" full page display. (Someone else besides Xerox sells it, but I'm not sure who it is.) I haven't used the Wyse 700, but from the advertisements I've seen, the aspect ratio looks wrong for a full-page display. (Is it really full page?) Also, I don't know the Laserjet II, but... We used to use the old LaserJet and switched to the LaserWriter because of the advantages of PostScript--one of which is an easy path to typesetting if your users want better quality than the laser printer offers. There are now quite a few service bureaus (including our own) which provide PostScript typesetting services at a very reasonable cost. If you are using a PostScript laser printer, you can send the identical output file to the typesetter. So I guess I'm calling all of your choices into question, except Ventura--not so much from a definite opinion that there is anything wrong with your choices as the sense, from your posting, that you had not researched all of the alternatives. One other point, in a positive vein: if you are going to be doing long documents, and you have a UNIX frame of mind, you should really get MKS toolkit, from Mortice Kern Systems, in Waterloo, Ontario. This provides goodies like awk and sed on the PC, which you can use to edit the text files ventura keeps in parallel with the formatted "chapter files." This gives you editing power for the cases where wysiwyg doesn't cut the mustard. The ability to work with either a coded file using powerful text editing tools, or in wysiwyg mode, is what makes Ventura stand out from the competition, in my opinion. -- Tim O'Reilly (617) 527-4210 O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., Publishers of Nutshell Handbooks 981 Chestnut Street, Newton, MA 02164 UUCP: uunet!ora!tim ARPA: tim@ora.uu.net ---------------------------------------- Submissions to: desktop%plaid@sun.com -OR- sun!plaid!desktop Administrivia to: desktop-request%plaid@sun.com -OR- sun!plaid!desktop-request Paths: {ihnp4,decwrl,hplabs,seismo,ucbvax}!sun --- Chuq "Fixed in 4.0" Von Rospach chuq@sun.COM Delphi: CHUQ