jennifer@bsu-cs.bsu.edu (Jennifer Freeman) (02/27/91)
Ok.... what is the 'best' desktop publishing program for the Amiga? I have heard PageStream and Prof. Page both mentioned locally, as well as get Amax and run PageMaker. What opinions are out there on this?
tucker@tahoe.unr.edu (Aaron Tucker) (02/27/91)
In article <12500@bsu-cs.bsu.edu> jennifer@bsu-cs.bsu.edu (Jennifer Freeman) writes: > >Ok.... what is the 'best' desktop publishing program for the Amiga? I have >heard PageStream and Prof. Page both mentioned locally, as well as get Amax >and run PageMaker. What opinions are out there on this? Well, is Nike better than Reebok? Tough question. I suppose it matters who is wearing the shoe. I like Professional Page because I am used to it. It was the first DTP package I learned and am very familiar with it. It has its limitations of course, like those gawdawful text boxes. But, it is a very solid program and has good support both from Gold Disk and other third party vendors. Pagestream is supposed to be real good. I used a friends v1.8 for a while, but it was really buggy and atrocious to work with. I have heard that the latest version is excellent however, and even allows editing of ProDraw clips. That is a neat trick. Of course both support 24bit IFF files, and I think that Pagestream supports TIFF files directly also. Both support EPSF and Pdraw clips, and PPage supports Aegis Draw 2000 files also, if I remember right. Of course there is always Pagemaker. But, you are going to have to buy AMAX II ($120?), 128K ROMS ($200), Pagemaker ($550) and a Mac Drive ($200). You might as well just buy an accelerator for your machine and enjoy the speed. Pagemaker is the DTP standard (No matter what QuarkXPress users say.) It is used by most if not all printing services for PCs. Saxon Publisher is starting to make some noise also. I haven't used it, but it looks nice. Anybody have any experience with this one? Just make sure the package you get if it is not one of the above has POSTSCRIPT support, so you can send your file to a beareau for high quality output. Juan Trevino
patrick_meloy@outbound.wimsey.bc.ca (Patrick Meloy) (03/01/91)
>>Ok.... what is the 'best' desktop publishing program for the Amiga? I have You will no doubt hear all sorts of things about PPage, Pagestream, Saxon, and PageMaker (On Amax). There is also one other option. Use the Atari ST Emulator and run Calamus SL (Boo Hiss Atari UGH!, there there is the flame so leave yours out please :) Calamus runs faster on a plain 1040ST than ANY of the other programs on 25 Mhz machines. I wouldn't doubt that running it on the ST Emulator would still be faster. The SL version has postscript and colour seperations too, so no probs there. If there is an Atari Dealer near you go take a peek at it, you may be quite suprised. Now, since I am a dedicated Amiga fan (gotta shotgun here for anyone that says I'm not :) Take a look at PPage, version 2.x finally has just about everything I can think of needing in a DTP package (with the exception of 'tiled' output). Gold disk has done a bang-up job of supporting the product, lots of upgrades and features with every new version. My only gripe is the speed and frequency of screen updates. Though I have found some neat tricks to speed things up. --------------------------------------- | patrick_meloy@outbound.wimsey.bc.ca | | 'The Outbound' BBS Vancouver BC | ---------------------------------------
Steven_Biddle@cavebbs.gen.nz (Steven Biddle) (03/01/91)
Well, I own Pagestream 2.1, I can ssay it's an excellent program, but having not used Pro Page 2.0, I couldn't compare the two. However, Pagestream, and I assume Pro Page as well, really require 1 Meg + to work, I only have 1 meg currently, and although it's the minumun, it gets awfully slow printing to dot matirix printers, or importing pictures.. Steven Biddle - Wellington, New Zealand. Mail: Steven_Biddle@cavebbs.gen.nz The Cave MegaBBS, Box 2009, Cave4 +64 4 642260 (4 lines) 1200/2400/9600V32 Wellington, New Zealand Cave3 +64 4 642269 (2 lines) Fido 3:771/130
nguyent@balboa.eng.uci.edu (Thien Nguyen) (03/02/91)
In article <patrick_meloy.0481@outbound.wimsey.bc.ca> patrick_meloy@outbound.wimsey.bc.ca (Patrick Meloy) writes: >>>Ok.... what is the 'best' desktop publishing program for the Amiga? I have > >You will no doubt hear all sorts of things about PPage, Pagestream, Saxon, and >PageMaker (On Amax). There is also one other option. Use the Atari ST >Emulator and run Calamus SL (Boo Hiss Atari UGH!, there there is the flame so >leave yours out please :) > >Calamus runs faster on a plain 1040ST than ANY of the other programs on 25 Mhz >machines. I wouldn't doubt that running it on the ST Emulator would still be >faster. The SL version has postscript and colour seperations too, so no probs >there. If there is an Atari Dealer near you go take a peek at it, you may be >quite suprised. > >Now, since I am a dedicated Amiga fan (gotta shotgun here for anyone that says >I'm not :) Take a look at PPage, version 2.x finally has just about >everything I can think of needing in a DTP package (with the exception of >'tiled' output). Gold disk has done a bang-up job of supporting the product, >lots of upgrades and features with every new version. My only gripe is the >speed and frequency of screen updates. Though I have found some neat tricks >to speed things up. Hmmm... I like to see the UNDO feature on the PPage 2.x. I have used both and I keep going back to Page Stream 2.x. Both are really slow even on the A3000. I like to see Microsoft Word for the Amiga. Even though I have 2 Amigas A1000 and A3000, I have to use Amax when I want to write proposals, and report papers. Nothing in the Amiga world come close to Microsoft Word 4.0. Anybody out there used Amax II with Laser Jet II compatible printers? What kind of printer driver are you using, and how is the performance? > >--------------------------------------- >| patrick_meloy@outbound.wimsey.bc.ca | >| 'The Outbound' BBS Vancouver BC | >---------------------------------------
jol@sei.cmu.edu (DR. J) (04/27/91)
Hi. I'm looking into buying a DTP package. Price is not a problem. Which one would you recommend and for what reason(s)? Thanks for any info. ################################################################################ jol@sei.cmu.edu "Life not worth dying for // (412) 268-7602 isn't worth living for". \\ // Software Engineering Institute AMIGA \X/
fhwri%CONNCOLL.BITNET@yalevm.ycc.yale.edu (04/27/91)
> > Hi. > > I'm looking into buying a DTP package. Price is not a problem. > Which one would you recommend and for what reason(s)? > > Thanks for any info. > > ############################################################################## > jol@sei.cmu.edu "Life not worth dying for // > (412) 268-7602 isn't worth living for". > Software Engineering Institute AMIGA \X/ > There are three major DTP packages available: 1: Professional Page 2.0 is $395 list. It's the upgrade of the first serious DTP package for the Amiga. Advantages: Compugraphic Fonts Import ProDraw clips The Text Editor, which allows you to rapidly edit text Disadvantages: You have to create a box to hold anything Gold Disk's customer support is abysmal Slow at printing The CGCache takes up enormous (>5 meg) amounts of hard drive space 2: Pagestream 2.1 is $295 list Advantages: Compugraphic fonts Proprietary fonts (20 disks or so) Adobe Type 1 fonts to dot matrix (!) The *best* font handling, and the *most* styles Superb structured graphics tools Multiple documents open at once Probably the best manual of the three (MUCH improved over their first manual) Soft-Logik's customer support is excellent Import ProDraw clips etc. Disadvantages: Still locks up on occasion can take a while to display a large font list 3: Saxon Publisher is $*** (can't remember the price) Advantages: Allows nonrectangular columns (a unique feature, but I question how often you'd use it...) Nice tagging functions Disadvantages: Postscript output only at present (I think) No Compugraphic support? I am a Pagestream fan, I must admit. I use a HP Deskjet and the output is first-rate. The printing is speedy and I can use my hard drive to hold FONTS, and not the enormous CGCache that ProPage requires. If I need to edit text rapidly, I can multitask Transwrite with it, select text, output ASCII to RAM:, delete the selected text, edit the text in RAM:, and import ASCII right back. Not as convenient as ProPage, but just as useful. Pagestream also imports more different types of graphics than any other program. Its structured graphics tools are the most intuitive I have seen, and they work very well. Variable zoom, too, and you'll be glad you have it. The big new features in ProPage 2.0 were tagging and rotation of objects, something that Pagestream always has had. --Rick Wrigley fhwri@conncoll.bitnet
jol@sei.cmu.edu (JUN LEE) (04/28/91)
Thanks for the info. JOL