1. ELECTRONIC INK?
2. MORE ABOUT INDESIGN
3. INDESIGN SCRIPTING
4. GETTING ON LINE
5. ATM DELUXE FOR MAC: WITH TYPE REUNION
6. A CONVERSION PROBLEM
8. HINTS
9. SOURCES OF INFORMATION
10. LAST WORD
1. ELECTRONIC INK?
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What will the newspaper of the future look like? Maybe the future lies in a liquid called "Electronic Ink".
The prediction is that we will buy one copy of a newspaper, presumably either a very expensive newspaper, or paid for like a mobile phone, by the cost of the service used.
It will consist of paper "printed" with electronic ink that is laid on the page and which carries an image as at present. However the image is created by tiny balls (currently 100,000 to the square inch) that turn black or white according to an electro-magnetic charge. Once charged they stay as they are until they go through a similar imaging process, and they require no power, and no electronic connections, to stay as they are set.
So, you have your newspaper, and can read it as now, but when you want to update, the newspaper is connected to a unit which changes the on-off orientation of the tiny balls.
Sound too futuristic? Well there is a paper sign, just a little thicker than a standard paper poster in the Penneys department store in Marlborough, Massachusetts, that can be changed as often as needed. It is the first public use of the system.
The following is an extract from Editor and Publisher's electronic version: "Weighing in at less than four ounces per square foot, the current version of E Ink's flexible electronic display is still hefty in comparison with the 0.16-ounce weight of the same area of 30-pound newsprint. And while it may be rolled, folded -- but perhaps not creased -- and even cut to shape or size, it is only somewhat resistant to accidents like spilled coffee."
E Ink says its "culminating dream" is to "create electronic paper with real pages that can be leafed through, thumbed over and read on the beach." They claim it is "a real ink". They add: "You can put it in a bottle and print it onto a surface, any surface".
E Ink has a web site at <http://www.eink.com/> and investors in the company include Motorola and the Hearst Corporation.
Other suggested uses include a hiking jacket with a map on the sleeve to show where you are.
2. MORE ABOUT INDESIGN
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Adobe have issued the second of their "In Depth" guides to InDesign, this time dealing with text and typography. Among aspects we see as of particular use in our kind of narrow-column publication production is the improved multi-line type composition. This should avoid many "rivers of white" caused by a limit on the number of consecutive lines for which hyphenation is allowed. However, the option of single line composition is retained, so we suspect that much power is needed for multi-line composition if you opt to reconsider more than two or three lines.
Also allowed in this automatic line composition is "glyph-scaling". This means is the horizontal scaling of type -- such as we currently use to cope with some composition problems by selecting a type width of 99 or 98%, or, less often 101%, rather than adjusting the kerning or tracking. We have found that in PageMaker, this character width adjustment is more reliable in copying from one file to another and causes fewer re-run problems.
You can switch on highlighting of composition problems, with violations being highlighted in varying percentages of yellow according to how serious they are.
In hyphenation the controls extend to cover a minimum number of letters in words which can be hyphenated, and limits on how many letters can be before and after a hyphen, as well as the usual ladder limit.
Justification options are extended to include justified text with the last line centered or aligned right.
Character styles can apply multiple character variations to selected text and the character palette also allows for mapping of fonts which have specific options such as genuine small caps. Characters can be stretched or condensed in height as well as width.
Drop caps are now applied from the character palette, and can apply to any number of characters. There is also a visual display of the settings for rules above and below paragraphs.
There is an ability to substitute ligatures automatically -- and these will not affect spellchecking.
There is a new space called a "flush space" which adds space at that point to fully justify a line -- useful to use between the end of a paragraph and those end-of-story dingbats common in newsletters and magazines (we'll probably see them become more common in newspapers).
InDesign will allow new design effects with type -- such as applying gradient fills to type (and to the outline and fill of type independently). Text can be converted to bezier outlines and adjusted as required. Such an outline can be used as a frame to hold graphics or other text. Clipping paths imported with Photoshop files can become text-wrap outlines.
Searches for special characters becomes easier with a fly-out menu instead of the strange meta-characters required in PageMaker.
For full details in a 15-page 456kb PDF available at <http://www.adobe.com/products/indesign/>
3. IN DESIGN SCRIPTING
======================
It seems InDesign scripting will not be the same on both platforms. The Mac will use AppleScript, and Windows will use Visual Basic. However, Olav Martin Kvern, who is writing the InDesign Scripting Guide says they aren't so different, and his guide will give every example in both formats.
On the PageMakr List, in answer to criticism of the lack of a common scripting language such as PageMaker has, Olav wrote: "PageMaker scripting is very nice, but I can't write a PageMaker script to control FileMaker or run Photoshop filters on the images in my PageMaker publication. To do that, I've got to go outside PageMaker--which leads me to either AppleScript or VB (depending on my platform)."
He adds: "It's a dilemma facing every cross platform application developer. Do you conform to the system standards--and take a beating from your cross platform users? Or do you make your scripting system cross-platform and limited to only your application--and take a beating from the platform police?"
Olav tells of "XPress users" who claim that PageMaker doesn't "do" scripting--"all because it doesn't use the AppleScript object model. He adds: "When I point out that PageMaker can indeed be driven from AppleScript, and that the Windows version of PageMaker can be scripted (or driven from VB), unlike the Windows version of XPress, they stare at me blankly."
"Once you get the hang of it," he states, "script development for InDesign using the AppleScript object model (on the Mac) and the VB object model (in Windows) is much easier than writing PageMaker scripts. (The model, by the way, is very similar between the two platforms--I find it pretty easy to translate VB to AppleScript and back again)."
4. GETTING ON LINE
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The Yale Style Guide is an excellent guide to how to create web pages, especially those for such as newspapers where large amounts of text may be needed. The section on typography is particularly worth reading. It is available as a book, but the whole content is on the web at: <http://www.webstyleguide.com>
They do tend to concentrate on tables as the means of formatting pages, whereas, what we have recently read on standardised style sheets makes us feel the future lies in that direction -- and we are reworking our web pages to use style sheets.
However, the biggest problem remains that browsers do not interpret HTML commands in the same way, so you need to view any proposed web pages not only in Internet Explorer and Netscape but in several versions of each of those browsers.
5. ATM DELUXE FOR MAC -- WITH TYPE REUNION
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According to an Adobe press release: "ATM Deluxe 4.5 lets you set a preference to activate, deactivate, or delete font sets whenever the Mac is restarted, a convenient way to cut system overhead and reduce font management tasks. When a job is ready to give to the service bureau, the user can quickly gather the required fonts just by dragging and dropping them from ATM Deluxe to disk -- another key time-saver."
The release adds: "During the development of a new advertising layout over the course of a week, for instance, a designer could group the fonts needed for that campaign into a set with a preference to automatically activate the set at start up. When the job is out for review, a designer could change the preference so ATM Deluxe deactivates that particular font set at restart, because she knows she will need to use the set again but not in the near future. Or for short, one-off jobs, a designer could create a font set with a preference to delete at restart, so the fonts used for that job won’t clutter up the system when he starts work the next day."
ATM Deluxe 4.5 includes 15 display fonts and is bundled with Adobe Type Reunion Deluxe 2.5 for Macintosh, which sorts typefaces according to family name, listing style, and weight variations in a submenu under each name, shortening font menus by up to 60%.
ATR Deluxe also provides a WYSIWYG font menu feature, allowing users to display each font menu name in its own typeface.
The included fonts are such as Cutout, Giddyup, MOJO, Myriad Tilt, NYX, and others.
The package also includes Acrobat Reader 4.0 and Adobe PostScript 8.5.1. It can be purchased online at <http://www.adobe.com/type> for US$69.95. Upgrade pricing from ATM Deluxe or ATR Deluxe is US$49.95.
Macintosh platform only. There's a downloadable detailed PDF.
6. A CONVERSION PROBLEM
=======================
Jeff Shapiro wrote: "I was wondering if you could help me with a "problem" that I've come across. I've got a customer that wants to upgrade his hardware and software. Currently, he is using Pagemaker 3.0 and would like to move to PM6.5; however, he has several thousand files that would need to be converted. The solution that Adobe provides--PM 3x converter--is not a realistic solution. What we need is either a program that will directly read the 3.0 files or a program that will convert all files in a folder, even if the folder has sub-folders (which most of his folders do)."
We suggested that the PM3 converter (downloadable from the Adobe website) might be controlled by AppleScript (the job is on a Mac), but Jeff tells us it can't. That leaves us wondering about using a macro program such as QuicKeys or OneClick. Any advice on how to deal with those "several thousand files" in multi-level folders?
8. HINTS
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A separation comes out only on the black plate -- first place to check is Links Manager to see if the graphic is still in RGB mode. In fact a quick scan through the listing under Links Manager could save much time later on many jobs.
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How do you ensure that PDFs will print to a specific LPI setting? With just Acrobat you can't -- LPI has to be set in making the PDF, though if you are developing this as a workflow pattern, it would be well worth investing in Crackerjack, an Acrobat plug-in that allows you to control the PPD, and much more from the full version of Acrobat.
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We mentioned the following tip elsewhere and were surprised it produced several emails of thanks, so it is probably worth repeating: Double clicking the icon on the left hand end of a Windows title bar does close the window. I know you are supposed to use the cross on the right hand end, but the old way still works. It is also helpful for those who use both platforms and expect a close box on that end -- a single click brings up a menu with close as the expected option.
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Have problems on a Mac with PDF files which the Mac won't open with a double click because they were made on a PC and the Mac doesn't recognise them as belonging to Acrobat? There's a little utility on the Acrobat 3 CD called PDF-Typer which overcomes this and which isn't automatically installed. You can also set the PC Exchange control panel to associate the .pdf extension with Acrobat Reader or drop the icon on a desktop alias for the Reader.
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However, a warning comes with the above advice about using PC Exchange control panel to "Map PC extensions to Mac OS file types on PC disks". This can make it difficult to import files into DTP programs because the Mac associates them only with their original program. If, for example, your Word 97/98 import filter in PageMaker doesn't work, this may be the cause.
9. SOURCES OF INFORMATION
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For those interested in AppleScript, one of the better resources is the Macscript email list. To subscribe send an email to: LISTSERV@dartmouth.edu
Subject: subscribe
Message: subscribe macscrpt <your full name here>
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Information on the publications of the American Society of Newspaper Editors is available at <http://www.asne.org/index.cfm>
10. LAST WORD
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It was reported on the copy-editing list that in tests by a major US university of "working editors" three out of four did not see an error in the phrase "What is the principle difference between the two?"
Gordon Woolf
The Worsley Press
Hastings, Australia.
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