CONTENTS
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1. MAILBAG
2. ANSWERS
7. UTILITIES
8. HINTS
9. SOURCES OF INFORMATION
1. MAILBAG
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Rob van de Steenoven writes from Holland: "We do a lot of printing from postscript files to Xerox Majestic digital colour printers A4 and A3, such as example.ps or example.prn. Our experience is that same Photoshop files placed in Illustrator/Coreldraw and PageMaker 6.0 give different file-sizes with different output quality. No one seems to know why."
We have noticed that postscript files output via NT4 seem generally larger than from Win95, though not to the extent that one of our subscribers described on the PageMakr List. But we have to add our name to the list of those who answer with a don't know. Any ideas?
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David Macklin wrote from a US email address: "I am trying to convert a file from Mac PageMaker 6.5 to PC PageMaker 6.5 and my machine won't let me open it. Can you help?"
Same version files shouldn't have a problem, other than with font substitution. The only requirement in going from Mac to PC would be to ensure the file has a .p65 extension. If it starts to open then there can be other problems usually associated with corrupt linked graphic files (see the PageMakr FAQ on the Worsley Press web site).
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Bob Mallett wrote from the UK to ask why his palettes wouldn't stay in the same place when he reopened PageMaker. We gave a standard answer that you should ensure you close PM when it is in full screen mode rather than when it is iconised or on the task bar. However Bob replied to say that this worked partially -- in that the palettes now opened where he wanted them but only for a few seconds. Any ideas?
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Rita Ramsevik wrote that she had reinstalled PageMaker and was getting an error: "unable to load icon.dll for this screen".
This happens when you have too many fonts installed under Windows. The answer is to reduce the number of fonts at least temporarily. It particularly happens when you have installed a program after PM which comes with many fonts (such as FreeHand or CorelDraw). The best answer is to install a font manager such as Adobe Type Manager Deluxe which allows you to put all fonts into sets that can be activated and deactivated as necessary.
2. ANSWERS
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Ewald Wuschke Jr. writes from Canada: "Tom Reid wrote about not being able to print out graphics with an 85 line screen. I had this same problem when I switched to the 600 dpi HP5MP and spent hours trying to figure out why I couldn't print out at 85 lpi, instead my PageMaker files printed out at 106 lpi, which I could not use satisfactorily as camera-ready copy for our platemaker and Hamada press.
"I took many measurements with many settings in PageMaker until I discovered the following. For the 600 dpi HP5MP, although the PageMaker print dialog box says it DEFAULTS to 85 lpi, it actually defaults to 106 lpi. You must select CUSTOM in the print dialog box to get your file to print out at the line frequency desired.
"With the 300 dpi Laserwriter IINT, PageMaker says it defaults at 60 lpi. In fact it defaults to 53 lpi.
"PageMaker defaults to the finest linescreen a laser printer can output at, despite what it says in the print dialog box. You must make sure CUSTOM is selected to get the desired linescreen (as long as the desired linescreen is not finer than what the laser printer is capable of)."
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Chris Mason wrote from Anguilla in the British West Indies in reply to our comments on QuicKeys now being available for Windows: "Shame, shame, shame! Your newsletter is usually very accurate and informative, and I look forward to it every time I see it arrive. I must take issue with your declaration that the PC platform lacked a good macro program. Have you tried Macro Express? I think not! I have been using both Macro Express for window specific keystrokes, and Automate for full blown automation, for months now. They work beautifully, in fact I do a live broadcast to the cable system from my computer each night using Automate to start the playback at a precise time.
"I use Macro Express to allow me to use the same keys (F4, F2, F3) for zooming in PageMaker as I use in CorelDraw, making it much easier to go back and forth. One of the great features of ME is the ability to resize a specific window to a specific size. This is very handy with my dual monitor setup, as my video editing program opens eleven windows all the wrong size when I upgrade, which is often as I beta test it. One macro key and it resizes everything to the way I like it. Other than this long-winded gripe, I love your newsletter.
"BTW, if Adobe is trying to unify all it's programs to have a common interface, why does Control-D not "Place" in Illustrator 8?"
A trial version of Macro Express (US$34.95) is a 1.9MB download from <http://www.macros.com>.
A trial version of AutoMate is a 5.6MB download from <http://www.unisyn.com>. Automate (which makes the claim "if you can do it yourself, AutoMate 4 can do it while you're not there") is available in a standard version at US$59.95 and in an advanced version with additional scripting facilities among the extras at US$179.95.
7. UTILITIES
============
David Byram-Wigfield in the UK suggests: "Anyone interested in making self-printing direct PostScript typeset archives for laser printing books may find the following of interest:
"The Cappella TinyDict v2.3 typesets ASCII text in a PostScript file, which may then be distilled into PDF. It is application and operating system independent and uses mnemonic codes to format text files of almost any length into several book page impositions. Any available PostScript typeface may be used and Mac fonts are also re-encoded for smart quotes and ISO-Latin 1 accented characters. See the TinyMenu for 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16up page TinyImp formats, as well as the TinyTables, Colour, and Columns resources, and the TinyGuide.
"A freeware demo (minus full justification) is available from:
<http://www.cappella.demon.co.uk/index.html>"
8. HINTS
========
Do you make regular use of PageMaker's power-paste? To put a copy of an object in the same position as the original use option-command-V on a Mac or Control-Alt-V on a PC. Then you can use the shift key as you drag to constrain the drag to horizontal or vertical.
Even better -- after doing a power paste, drag the item to where you want it and power paste again. The next copy will be placed at the same distance and position relative to the previous copy as that was to the original. This makes it easy to place a series of graphics, and, for example, makes it very easy to evenly distribute boxes (such as the boxes for credit card numbers).
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If you create TIFFs with clipping paths (just ensure the clipping path is active when you save as a TIFF from Photoshop), you may occasionally run into printing problems, especially if you are printing to an imagesetter.
The problem is caused by the default setting for the flatness of curves; the calculations the RIP has to do increase exponentially with the resolution, so what can be handled easily by a 600 or 1200dpi laserprinter, can become too great a burden for a 2400 or greater imagesetter.
The answer is to increase the tolerance setting when you Make Work Path in Photoshop. (Before you Name the work path and choose Clipping Path from the Paths palette menu). Adobe suggest a setting of 6 compared to the default of 2; 8 may be even better.
If your files with a lot of TIFFs with clipping paths are taking too long to print, the solution may be the same. Experiment with tolerance values until you find the highest value which gives an acceptable result.
9. SOURCES OF INFORMATION
=========================
We mentioned the Grammar and Spelling Patrol discussion list last issue, but it quickly moved because of the need for a digest version. Go to <http://groups.yahoo.com/subscribe.cgi/G-A-S-P> or E-mail: <G-A-S-P-subscribe@onelist.com>. View archives at <http://groups.yahoo.com/archives.cgi/G-A-S-P>
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Fontlab have a site offering info and links on much to do with type <http://www.fontlab.com> including demo versions of their Composer and FontLab software. Composer is now available for Mac as well as PC.
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