waggoner@omews1.intel.com (Mark Waggoner) (06/02/91)
I have a couple of questions about desk-top publishing programs that I hope
someone can answer. I am specifically interested in Pro-Page and Pagestream
but if you would like to comment on other packages, feel free to do so.
- Can it print to a non-postscript printer using the printer's full
graphics resolution. I mean really using the printer's resolution,
not just scaling the screen to the printer's resolution as
Prowrite, for example, does.
- How long does it take to print a moderately complex page this way?
(Tell me what kind of system you are using).
- How fast are screen updates? Sub second? Multi second? Tens of
seconds? Minutes?
Thanks for any help you can provide.
--
Mark Waggoner waggoner@ichips.intel.com (503) 696-4590
No, I don't speak for intel.chem194@csc.canterbury.ac.nz (John Davis) (06/03/91)
In article <1991Jun2.013507.26940@ichips.intel.com>, waggoner@omews1.intel.com (Mark Waggoner) writes: > > I have a couple of questions about desk-top publishing programs that I hope > someone can answer. I am specifically interested in Pro-Page and Pagestream > but if you would like to comment on other packages, feel free to do so. > > - Can it print to a non-postscript printer using the printer's full > graphics resolution. I mean really using the printer's resolution, > not just scaling the screen to the printer's resolution as > Prowrite, for example, does. I use Pagestream 2.1 (mainly for our local user group newsletter) - it can use either it's own printer drivers (optimised for use with PS - ones for HP laserjet, Epson 9 pin, Epson 24 pin, Nec 24pin, DeskJet, Postscript etc are provide) or the normal Preferences driver (so if you you've got a particularly odd-ball printer, but happen to have a prefs level driver for it you can still use it). Either way, it drives the printer to full resolution (since it uses scalable fonts). > - How long does it take to print a moderately complex page this way? > (Tell me what kind of system you are using). On a 25MHz 2500 it takes about 1min to create a reasonably complex page (graphical ad, with a couple of IFF bitmaps in it). Time to print it then depends on the output device - several minutes for my old 24pin NEC (at 360x360dpi), about 3min to send it to a Brother Hl8 laser (LaserJet II clone) using the old 1.3.2 parallel.device, or about 1min40sec using the new 1.3.3 parallel.device running in fast mode (the new 1.3.3 device is really worth getting for talking to PCL laser printers!). Basically you're limited by the speed at which your printer can accept data. Sending to a postscript printer isn't really any quicker for complex pages either (ones with bitmapped gfx or custom fonts on it) as the time taken for the laser to process the page can be considerable, though it does free your amiga to get on with other things whilst the printer does it's stuff... > - How fast are screen updates? Sub second? Multi second? Tens of > seconds? Minutes? depends on how far you're zoomed in, what level you've got greeking set at etc. If the whole screen is being re-drawn using scalable fonts or has a lot of graphics on it it can take a good 10-30sec for a page - for 12/24 point though PS uses pre-generated screen fonts which speed things up dramatically (at the expense of 'true' WYSIWYG). For a simple page of 12pt text redraw times are a couple of secs max. ----------------------------------------------------------- | o John Davis - CHEM194@csc.canterbury.ac.nz o | | o (Depart)mental Programmer,Chemistry Department o | | o University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand o |
fhwri%CONNCOLL.BITNET@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu (06/05/91)
> > > I have a couple of questions about desk-top publishing programs that I hope > someone can answer. I am specifically interested in Pro-Page and Pagestream > but if you would like to comment on other packages, feel free to do so. > > - Can it print to a non-postscript printer using the printer's full > graphics resolution. I mean really using the printer's resolution, > not just scaling the screen to the printer's resolution as > Prowrite, for example, does. Both Pro Page and PageStream can print at the printer's highest resolution; I get terrific and near-laser results with my HP Deskjet. Both packages use Compugraphic fonts, which are completely scalable, with no jaggies. PageStream also can use Adobe Type 1 fonts, which also are scalable. > > - How long does it take to print a moderately complex page this way? > (Tell me what kind of system you are using). The longest I have seen a page take to print on my 68000 A1000 was about 15 minutes. This necessarily precludes multiple copies, but that's why there are photocopiers.> > - How fast are screen updates? Sub second? Multi second? Tens of > seconds? Minutes? PageStream is fairly slow on my machine, a lot faster on an accelerated Amiga. It's especially slow when typing into a page, but importing wordprocessor files is pretty snappy. I use PageStream despite its slowness because of its raw power--it can do many things that Pro Page cannot, and it does most things better. It compares QUITE favorably to PageMaker and Quark Express, both of which I have used on Macs. > Thanks for any help you can provide. > > -- > Mark Waggoner waggoner@ichips.intel.com (503) 696-4590 > No, I don't speak for intel. > You're welcome. --Rick Wrigley fhwri@conncoll.bitnet
ryan@amix.commodore.com (Ryan Sheftel) (06/07/91)
waggoner@omews1.intel.com (Mark Waggoner) writes: > > I have a couple of questions about desk-top publishing programs that I hope > someone can answer. I am specifically interested in Pro-Page and Pagestream > but if you would like to comment on other packages, feel free to do so. > > - Can it print to a non-postscript printer using the printer's full > graphics resolution. I mean really using the printer's resolution, > not just scaling the screen to the printer's resolution as > Prowrite, for example, does. > > - How long does it take to print a moderately complex page this way? > (Tell me what kind of system you are using). > > - How fast are screen updates? Sub second? Multi second? Tens of > seconds? Minutes? > > Thanks for any help you can provide. > > -- > Mark Waggoner waggoner@ichips.intel.com (503) 696-4590 > No, I don't speak for intel. Well, I am using ProPage 2.0 on an Amiga 2000 with 68010. As for the screen updates, it is fairly fast expect for the fonts for some reason. I think it is becuase I do not have a big enough font buffer. As for output it is great! It uses CompuGraphic fonts which will output at the highest resolution of the printer. The output is very fast. I use Ventura on a 286 at school, and while the text editing is not as good, it is still very fast and perfectly fine for the flyers our Amiga company puts out. ---------- Ryan Sheftel UUCP: uunet!cbmvax!amix!undrground!ryan Internet: undrground!ryan@amix.commodore.com
jc@crosfield.co.uk (jerry cullingford) (06/07/91)
In article <kZw532w164w@undrground.UUCP> undrground!ryan@amix.commodore.com (Ryan Sheftel) writes: > >Well, I am using ProPage 2.0 on an Amiga 2000 with 68010. As for the >screen updates, it is fairly fast expect for the fonts for some reason. I >think it is becuase I do not have a big enough font buffer. As for output >it is great! It uses CompuGraphic fonts which will output at the highest >resolution of the printer. The output is very fast. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ What?!! Are we talking about the same program here? PPage 2.0 on my 68000 A2000 and an HP deskjet+ takes about 30 mins to print the two page newsletter at 300dpi with the 1.3 deskjet driver, and about 20 minutes with the SG_deskjet one. Compare that with the output from AmigaTeX, also at 300dpi, also with graphics, which comes in somewhere in the 30 SECONDS - 1.5 minutes range. It's actually faster to save postscript output from PPage to a file, then stick that through the postscript interpreter ("Post" and "Postlj", PD I think) that came with my latest AmigaTeX upgrade, than to go straight from PPage to the printer. AmigaTeX blows PPage away for speed - I'd happily print several copies of a TeX document, but for PPage I'd have to use CMD to stash the raw printer stuff in a file. OTOH, PPage is better at newspaper/magazine style messy layouts - Horses for courses, really - but the output is sooooo slooooow. (And I'm not impressed with gold disks overseas support, either - remember the free 1.3 -> 2.0 upgrade? Not if you're outside the states it wasn't.. No "cost of postage" either, which would have been understandable.. more like 'we couldn't care less'. Given that attitude (having phoned the states to check) we decided that mailing in our registration cards would be a waste of time.) Oh, BTW - PPage won't do colour seps except to a postscript printer. -- +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ | | Jerry Cullingford #include <std.disclaimer> +44 442 230000 | ,-|-- | jc@crosfield.co.uk (was jc@cel.co.uk) or jc@cel.uucp x3203 | \_|__ +-----------------------------------------------------------------+ \___/