garry@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Garry Wiegand) (04/01/88)
I have a thick computer manual that's written all in Tex. I've been
printing it on a small Postscript laser printer at 300 dpi. For the
second edition, I would dearly love to find a means, at whatever cost,
of getting it printed at real "book" resolution.
I've talked to many printers and phototypesetting companies around here
and in Boston. A few of them have high-resolution laser film recorders.
[There's a rumor of a 600 dpi laser-printer, but noone seems to own one
yet.] A few of the film recorder places will take Postscript files on Mac
floppies (presumably from desktop-publishing software packages.) Nobody
professes any knowledge of Tex or .DVI files.
Doing it in postscript sounds like a big hassle: we've already figured out
that all-new pixel files and 100 to 200 floppies might be involved. The
extreme size comes from the hi-res pixels and the limited Postscript
pixel memory - dvi2ps has to keep dumping and re-loading characters as it
goes along.
So: help! Can anyone point me to a printing company that *knows* Tex?
garry wiegand (garry@oak.cadif.cornell.edu - ARPA)
(garry@crnlthry - BITNET)
("So, I need to 'metafont' some pixel files. What resolution does your machine
run at?" "Oh, anywhere from 300 to 2500 dpi. We just turn the dial.")thisted@gargoyle.UChicago.EDU (Ronald A. Thisted) (04/02/88)
> Can anyone point me to a printing company that *knows* Tex?
ArborText, Inc., PO Box 7993, Ann Arbor, MI 48107
(313) 996-3566
They produced my book, Elements of Statistical Computing, Chapman & Hall
(1988) directly from .dvi files I sent them on a tape. They used an
Autologic APS-5 phototypesetter and charged about $4.50/page. They are
highly professional and knowledgeable.
Ron Thistedgarry@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu (Garry Wiegand) (04/08/88)
Last week I asked about printing companies "that knew TeX". A number
of people were kind enough to send me replies. The consensus was that
the TUGboat newsletter had a number of ads and was generally well-worth
subscribing to, and that there were several commercial companies worth
recommending. Details follow...
garry wiegand
garry@oak.cadif.cornell.edu
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** From: Karen L. Butler <KLB@SEED.AMS.COM>
** Organization: (American Mathematical Society)
Hopefully your frustration has ended. Most of the time we can answers
your questions about TeX and if we can't we can direct you to someone else.
Membership in the TeX Users Group is on a calendar year basis (January 1, to
December 31, 1988). The price for 1988 membership is $30.00 for an individual
(we also have institutional memberships). In any case, if you forward your
postal address we can forward an information packet regarding the Users
Group etc. If you have a specific question ie where to purchase TeX for a
particular computer let me know and I can forward that by email. My telephone
is 401-272-9500 x323 just in case you prefer a human voice. Have a good day!
***************************************************************************
** From: sob@harvisr.harvard.edu (Scott Bradner)
** Organization: Harvard University, Cambridge MA
We can do it here. We have a linotron L300P & support all of the cmr
fonts in the normal sizes and magsteps. Call me for more info.
Scott Bradner
Harvard University
617-495-3864
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** Return-Path: <lll-tis!lll-crg!lll-winken!uunet!tektronix!reed!barry>
** Organization: Reed College, Portland OR
The TeX User Group (TUG) keeps a list of commercial TeX suppliers -- call them
at 401-272-9500. The American Mathematical Society (same phone) themselves
offer TeX phototypesetting on their AlphaType CRS machine.
Barry Smith
Kellerman and Smith
***************************************************************************
** From: Brian T. Schellenberger <mcnc!sas!bts>
** Organization: SAS Institute Inc, Cary NC
Computer Composition Corporation
1401 West Girard
Madison Heights, MI 48071
(313) 545-4330
advertises this service heavily in TUGBoat. The TeX users group magazine,
TUGBoat, periodically publishes lists of all the places known to do this
(there are quite a few). You should really join the TUG anyway (addresss
is in the TeXBook). Lots of good information; without TUG, you aren't
getting the full potential of TeX, I can almost guarantee.
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** From: rusty%cartan.Berkeley.EDU@berkeley.edu (rusty wright)
** Organization: Math Dept., UC Berkeley
Here's our help file for "high quality" tex output:
HIGH QUALITY OUTPUT
For high quality troff output you can use the Computer Center's APS-5.
In theory one should be able to use the Computer Center's APS-5
typesetter for high quality Tex output but in practice this is
probably not the case for most people. The Computer Center does not
have the current TeX fonts; they only have the old Almost Computer
Modern fonts, and they don't have a complete set of magnifications.
The incomplete set of magnifications will most likely affect users of
LaTeX. They are also using a fairly old version of the LaTeX macros.
Here is a list of companies that accept TeX or .dvi files and provide
high quality output. Before plunking down your money you should make
sure that they are using the current Computer Modern fonts (and
possibly the AMS fonts) and have all of the necessary magnifications.
American Mathematical Society
P.O. Box 6248
Providence, Rhode Island 02940
(401) 272-9500
Ampersand Typographers
176 Wicksteed Avenue
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
(416) 422-1444
Computer Composition Corporation
1401 West Girard
Madison Heights, Michigan 48071
TeXSource
3333 West Alabama
Suite 109
Houston, Texas 77098
(713) 520-7206
Textset, Inc.
416 Fourth Street
P.O. Box 7993
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48107
(313) 996-3566
Universitatsdruckerei H. Sturtz AG Wurzburg,
Postbox 67 20
Beethovenstrasse 5
8700 Wurzburg I
Federal Republic of Germany
(09 31) 385-323
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** From: olson@tcgould.tn.cornell.edu (olson)
** Organization: Cornell Theory Center, Cornell University, Ithaca NY
How about Addison-Wesley. The marketed TeXtures for the Mac for a while
and I know of one prof here as LASSP who is/was editting a conference
procedings to be published by AW, using TeXtures, and some macro package
the AW had put together for the job.
...
***************************************************************************
** From: Dan Johnston <dan@soma.neuro.bcm.tmc.edu>
** Organization: Neurology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Tx
Try: TeXSource
3333 West Alabama
Suite 111
Houston, TX 77098
(713) 520-7206
***************************************************************************
** From: Rick Snodgrass <rts@cs.unc.edu>
** Organization: University Of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
ArborText will convert LaTeX or TeX or dvi files to glossy positive
paper at 722 dpi (autologic engine). See Calingaert, Program
Translation Fundamentals for an example of their work.
***************************************************************************
** From: hal@gvax.cs.cornell.edu (Hal Perkins)
The TeX User's group newsletter Tugboat has ads from some companies
that will typeset pages from TeX masters or dvi files. The American
Math Society also does this--according to their ad they charge $5/page
for the first 100 pages and $2.50/page for the rest. I can send more
details if you're interested.
***************************************************************************
I'm actively pursuing the several companies. My thanks again to all of you.
- garry