Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!snorkelwacker!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!uw-june!dylan
From: dylan@cs.washington.edu (Dylan McNamee)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: WYSIWYG hardcopy (was Re: ProWrite 3.0 summary)
Keywords: features, description, ProWrite, new product
Message-ID: <12187@june.cs.washington.edu>
Date: 7 Jun 90 19:58:16 GMT
References: <1990Jun5.201807.15693@uncecs.edu> <102835@convex.convex.com>
Reply-To: dylan@june.cs.washington.edu (Dylan McNamee)
Organization: University of Washington, Computer Science, Seattle
Lines: 67

In article <102835@convex.convex.com> swarren@convex.com (Steve Warren) writes:
> stuff deleted...
>I want my *printout* to look good!  I don't *care* if the screen looks
>great!  The screen appearance will be gone forever after I finish my
>letter and mail it to someone.
>
>1) When I start a fresh page it goes out to see which printer driver
>   is currently set up in preferences and sets the total pixel-width
>
	I agree with the premise here, that screen appearance is less
important by far than final page appearance.  I strongly disagree with
the proposal though...at all stages until actual printing, the document
should be completely printer Independent.  This may seem to be impossible,
but read on...
>
>4) When the document is printed it will look as clean as any Mac document,
>   provided it is printed on the printer that was selected for it when
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  
	this is almost as goofy as the way "bad" amiga programs do it now!
>
>Now, IMHO you haven't lost anything if you created your document for one
>printer and later print it out on another printer and get inconsistencies

	IMHO, you have lost quite a bit....
>
>However, when you print it on the printer it was created for, you have
>gained much.  You have finally obtained the Holy Grail of word processing
>on the Amiga: hardcopy bitmaps with pixel-integrity .

	In a better world, you could have both device independence and
"perfect" printer output.  At the risk of creating a mild uproar, I'll
describe my current project:  The "Post1.x" program by Adrian Aylward
has allowed anyone with a Preferences printer to print and display PostScript
programs on the Amiga.  If a printer supports 300 dpi, fonts, graphics, etc,
all get printed at the highest resolution.  The device independent nature
of PostScript supports ALL resolutions, and produces the best possible output
on the device given.

	The trick then, is to get your document into PostScript.  Many of the
commercially available packages can do this, but they're expensive.  One 
could write in "raw" PostScript, but this gets very tiring.  Hence my project:
I am writing an interactive PostScript editor.  It will edit (perhaps just
import at first) text, and create and modify object oriented graphics.

	The graphics/text display will be maintained by the Post interpreter,
and the output will be a PostScript file, printable on any PostScript device,
including the Amiga running Post.  It will be truly WYSIWYG in the sense that
Post will be displaying the Postscript code as it is edited.  Smaller fonts
will probably be illegible at 75dpi (the resolution of a 640X825 screen) but
12 point text looks acceptable.

	Now for the status:  I have the basic interface almost completed,
and will actually be creating PostScript files within the month, unless
something unforseen pops up.  I will let the net know when/where it is 
available.  Depending on user feedback it will either be freeware or 
shareware (<~$30).

>--
>            _.
>--Steve   ._||__      DISCLAIMER: All opinions are my own.
>           v\ *|     ----------------------------------------------
>             V       {uunet,sun}!convex!swarren; swarren@convex.COM

I'm open for comments/suggestions...

dylan mcnamee
dylan@cs.washington.edu