1. MAILBAG
2. FONTS -- 24,500 OF THEM
3. QUICKEYS - AT LAST FOR WINDOWS
4. UTILITIES
5. IT'S ALL GARAMOND TO ME
6. UPDATES
7. HINTS
8. SOURCES OF INFORMATION
9. LAST WORD
1. MAILBAG
==========
Frank Anthony writes from Australia: "I read with enthusiasm your Format newsletters. Especially this last one was very interesting. I am writing with reference to your CD subject, and agree with all the things that your mention. Also I would like to add some pointers. I use a program from DataViz, "Conversions Plus"; at installation it installs a Mac driver that allows to open, view, print, convert, decompress, decode, and use Mac disks on a PC platform. For $325 I have used and recovered many zip and floppy disks from Macs. I have also been able to look at cdroms.
"One of the features is called Name Doctor, that allows to correct the file extensions name conventions. In regard to Photoshop not recognising the eps file, the problem could be twofold: 1) if the file not actually an eps and is a ps file 2) eps files created on a Mac can add an extra command at the beginning of the file; before %!PS- which is what Photoshop or Illustrator look for as the beginning of the file. Also you can look at opening the file as a generic eps, in "open as".
"Just to talk about something else: do you know of an extension that allows to preview a graphic file in the place dialog box in PM6.52? It is frustrating to look for a pic among hundreds, if you don't remember the name or have many with similar names and numbers."
We pointed Frank to the latest version of ACDSee 32 <http://acdsystems.com> which will open thumbnail views of huge folders remarkably quickly and at the PhotoTiler PageMaker plug-in from Andromeda which we mentioned in Forum 12 <http://www.andromeda.com>
Frank makes a valid point on why software will not open some eps files: remember they are text files so you can open a problem one and compare the first lines to one which you know works.
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Tom Reid wrote from the USA: "I am a relatively adept user of PM65 for the PC but I am having a problem that I can't seem to solve. I cannot get any TIFs or CGMs or WPGs or any kind of graphic to print out with an 85 line screen. I have Photoshop and CorelDraw and I've tried using these to help but I am not proficient in these programs."
We replied that a big advantage of PostScript is to define halftone frequency, angle etc from the print dialog. Without PostScript you either accept the way the printer halftones pictures or pre-screen the pic. In Photoshop this is done by selecting Bitmap under Image and in the resulting dialog selecting Halftone screen...
You can set the 85 lines per inch setting (and usually 45 degree angle with, most commonly the round or ellipse dot shape -- PostScript changes dot patterns according to density). These are settings for the file at 100% size. If you change the size of a pre-screened picture within PageMaker you will be altering the halftone screen frequency.
Commercial printing firms do not generally like prescreened graphics, so this would only be generally usable if you are producing output from your printer which is camera-ready artwork.
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Don Drozdenko writes from the California: "I have recently acquired PageMaker 6.5 and will begin publishing an antique newsletter (Grinder Finder - antique coffee mills) in Jan. My question is about fonts. The basic program offers a set of fonts but these seem to be limited. I do have the Type-on-Call CD, but it has been difficult downloading the various font sets from Adobe because their instructions are poor and their 800 service number closes at 5pm Pacific Standard time.
"Anyway, do you recommend that I stick with the Adobe-only available fonts, or are there alternative fonts that can be downloaded free from the Internet?"
We replied to suggest that if Don wanted to use a lot of fonts, he should get a font management program such as the deluxe edition of Adobe Type Manager. ATM handles TrueType and Type1 fonts together. The only remaining warning is to ensure you do not have the same font active in more than one format at the same time.
Adobe's own fonts are very good, but I'd suggest no better than most of the other major font foundries.
We have also used a number of the free fonts in both formats, with mixed results. Some are very good, some tend to corrupt the files -- mainly by making them impossible to print, so, I would suggest that if you see a free font that you really *need* to use, go ahead but be suspicious of that font if you have any printing problems.
To be extra cautious, make a backup of the file without that font. (You could take such a font into Freehand, Illustrator or CorelDraw and make a tif or eps of a single line to bring into PageMaker).
Programs such as CorelDraw include wide selections of fonts, especially display fonts, and they are now from reputable vendors. It can be cheaper to buy one of these programs than to buy a smaller number of those fonts direct.
2. FONTS -- 24,500 OF THEM
==========================
FontShop's new FontBook is thick, heavy and yellow. It has printed examples of more than 24,000 typefaces from 65 type foundries -- 1500 pages with supposedly every typeface that has been digitized and is available for retail sale. With it comes a separate 160 page index.
The samples include the full alphabet and a short text sample from each weight plus information about who made it and when. For many it also gives alternate fonts that have the same characteristics.
Check it out at the Fontshop GmbH site: <http://www.fontfont.de> or at the US site: <http://www.fontfont.com>
We were disappointed to find that the Australian price of FontBook is $235 as against $99 in the US (US$99 equals about A$160 in a direct conversion) but it seems you can only buy it from FontShop offices or agents, and they won't deal outside their own area. We accept that there's a big freight component in a 1500pp hardcover book but the US isn't its home base either.
3. QUICKEYS - AT LAST FOR WINDOWS
=================================
One of the mysteries of the Windows platform has been why there has been no top-grade macro and shortcut program. Mac users have for years had QuicKeys -- now that program is available for Windows.
A free 30-day demo version of QuicKeys for Win95, 98 and NT is available for download from CE Software's web site.
As well as simple tasks, QuicKeys can automate longer tasks such as compressing and sending files via E-mail by recording the keystrokes and mouse-clicks involved (keystrokes are to be preferred).
We've been using a late Beta version for a few weeks and hope they've overcome the occasional system lockup which we've blamed on it (as being the only new program installed), but perhaps the greatest compliment to it that despite this beta problem, it is still on our system.
It was simple to install and get working but we will have to grab a few more minutes to automate more tasks.
It costs US$49.95. A trial version is downloadable from <http://www.cesoft.com/products/quickeys.html>
4. UTILITIES
============
We've mentioned font utilities before that help show what fonts actually look like from within Windows (as you can do easily on a Mac, and even more easily with the Mac-only Adobe Type Reunion). Here is another Windows utility: SmartFont. This displays currently installed fonts using the actual fonts. It can be set to be always on top and a double click on a font brings up a sample window to display whatever is on the clipboard. It can be customised in many ways. 37k.
<http://www.smartcode.com/smart.htm>
7. HINTS
========
The PageMaker bullets plug-in works well when there is nothing at the beginning of a paragraph, but if you are receiving text from others, the normal situation seems to be that text contains a centred dot and either a space or a tab. To use the following script (which we call "blob.spt"), place the cursor at the beginning of the first par that needs a proper bullet. It selects the first two characters, applies the dingbats font, resizes it and moves to the beginning of the next par.
You can change the typeface, the blob character (a lower case l is the big dot in Dingbats), space character (an en-space in this), the size, and you could also add a baseline shift if necessary.
TextSelect +char 2
TextEnter "l" + ^(ensp)
TextSelect -char 2
Font "ZapfDingbats"
Size 6
TextCursor +para
return
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Need foot and inch marks when you have typographic quotes selected: In PageMaker use Ctrl-Alt and the ' or " key on a PC or Option-Command and that same key on a Mac. The PC reference card we have seems a little confused on this.
8. SOURCES OF INFORMATION
=========================
The Independent Press Association in the USA is currently working with the Alternative Press Center (publishers of the Alternative Press Index) to produce a Guide to the Independent Progressive Press. <http://www.indypress.org>
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Technical Writers List: send an email message to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.OKSTATE.EDU, with nothing in the subject field, and a message of SUB TECHWR-L <firstname> <lastname>
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The Framers forum for users of FrameMaker software is at <http://www.frameusers.com>
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The place to search for email lists on any subject is at Liszt <http://www.liszt.com> or at L-Soft http://www.lsoft.com/lists/list_q.html
9. LAST WORD
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Russia's press moguls are up in arms over a new government decree which would require them to prove that their publications are not bad for people's health. If a newspaper's print is too small, its columns too narrow or its ink too thin, Russia's Health Ministry wants to know. <http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_221000/221952.stm>
This brought a reaction in an email list that newspapers may be lightly inked because it has been common in many parts of that country to use cut-up pieces of newspaper as toilet-paper because real toilet-paper is comparatively expensive and hard to come by. I would suggest this is common in many other countries -- I recall newspapers were reused in this way in the UK only a few decades ago.
Gordon Woolf
The Worsley Press
Hastings, Australia.
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