Producing a Magazine on a PC For a MAC Based Print Shop

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WYGIWYS by Colin Mort I wanted to move away from producing camera ready copy on a low resolution printer to a more up to date interface, and better printing. I blundered to a solution. If you know how to do it already, I'm stating the obvious. If you are facing the problem for the first time it might help you.. I use SERIF PagePlus 3.0 under Windows 3.1 because it was the cheapest DTP (or Page Layout) software I could get. The introductory version came free with a computer magazine. It enabled me to do almost everything I am now doing. If you don't already have Page Layout software, look out for a copy and try it out free. The cheap upgrade to the Serif Publishing Suite brought PagePlus 3.0 with more facilities than I will ever use! I paid for version 3.0, but you can find it free now. COPY After some research I made some .eps (postscript) files on the PC, put them on floppy disk, in both PC and MAC formats, and sent them to the print shop to test. After a couple of attempts we had something that worked! Now I use PC formats and send the magazine on a zip disk. All credit to Meridian Printers of Spalding for the excellent co-operation and technical advice they gave me. Graphics is included in these files, leaving just the high resolution work (photographs) to the print shop. Since I got a cheap flat bed scanner, there have been precious few of these. A full page scan at resolution of 300dpi (and higher) would take forever with the cheap scanner- over an hour. Putting lots of memory in the machine helped by reducing Windows paging. But the scans were still very slow. The software was using disk rather than memory. Creating a BIG RAM drive* and using it for the scanning software's temporary files was MUCH quicker. It took some really deep digging to find out how to redirect the scanner software's temporary files - fortunately this is specified in an INI file for the scanner used. PRODUCING THE FILES Microsoft Windows (3.1) provides printer drivers. There are some for laser printers, and some include the facility to create a postscript file as an alternative to printing directly. So you can install and use a printer you don't actually have! The Agfa 9000 was the first one on the list of available printers, so I installed and tried it. Because it worked, I have looked no further. "A postscript file will be printed by any postscript printer at the maximum resolution of which the printer is capable." Great! The Agfa may have a resolution of only 1200dpi, but it doesn't matter. Consult your Windows manual or online help to find out how to install a printer. Install the Agfa 9000, or your own choice, but DON'T make it the default printer, unless you do actually have an Agfa! Of course, you may already have a postscript printer installed. If it offers the option to produce a postscript file, you won't need to install an "imaginary printer". Just use what you already have. I haven't checked if Windows 95 will allow you to install an "imaginary printer". When your work is completed print it to file or files (eg 1 per page if using floppies) as the very last stage in the production process. You can send a zip disk, or floppies or whatever both you can produce, and the print shop can read. You can include scanned photographs in your page(s) and print them yourself for proofreading and as proofs for the print shop to show what you want. But if you want the print shop to strip them in at high resolutions, you will have to strip them OUT before creating your files. Remember to leave a space for them. A box with wrap around specified will do. The Agfa printer set up offers compression of bit maps as an option. You may need it. You will need to work with your print shop and specify print options that they can work with and so on. The options I use are, I think, all defaults except for the advanced settings where I check the "Compress Bit Maps" box. TECHNICAL If you use Postscript fonts the print shop must have the same fonts from the same source (they could be fonts built into their equipment, or others bought in), or your text may get re-aligned. This could destroy your layout. However, if you use Windows True Type Fonts, and produce a postscript file, then the file will (should!) include all the information required to print them, and the print shop doesn't have to have the fonts at all. (So saith the manual! It works!). You should therefore avoid using fonts which are not True Type. Some music packages which use truetype fonts can print to clipboard so when you paste into your DTP, it's still using fonts, not bitmaps! Useful! If you have your own Postscript printer, it too will print these True Type Fonts, even though they are not built in. The SERIF manual says you should produce Postscript files for your print shop, NOT Encapsulated Postscript (xxx.eps). It says these files can be "output to" an image setter by the print shop. Well, the Agfa printer driver offers only Encapsulated, and that has worked for me! Hey Ho, did I say blundered?! Well, the SERIF manual recommends the Agfa 9000 PS driver for this use, so maybe I'm not the only one confused. This approach has worked for me. You should test out whatever approach you wish to try with your print shop, or try mine. They are very helpful, and their rates are competitive, because they specialise in booklets. There are limitations. Other than stripping in graphics, the print shop can do nothing with your xxx.eps files except print them as is. Or you may feel this is good because WYGIWYS (what you get is what you sent). You control the layout Ref1: SERIF PagePlus 3.0 manual - pages 105 and on for a much fuller treatment of the PC / print shop (MAC based) interface. Ref2: Windows 3.1 Resource Kit - pages from 318, and from 333. That nice Mr Gates had it all worked out! Please email us if you have not found what you want to know about harmonicas in this web site. Return to top