Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!uunet!mcsun!ukc!axion!tharr!gtoal
From: gtoal@tharr.UUCP (Graham Toal)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Newspaper going electronic from hot metal.
Message-ID: <1474@tharr.UUCP>
Date: 5 Dec 90 01:46:17 GMT
Reply-To: Informat@ed.ac.uk (Informat London)
Organization: Public access to Usenet in the UK
Lines: 59

This is a request for info on electronic publishing of real newspapers.

My boss runs a small UK journal-publishing house; he's Polish, and
keeps in touch with friends from back home.  He wants to help in the
effort to modernise Poland and has offered to help his friends with
their typesetting needs.

Unfortunately this means that *I* get the research to do :-)
His friends publish the newspaper of one of the major trade-unions.
At the moment they print papers using old-fashioned hot metal typesetting.
They want to move to electronic page makeup.  They've visited London
and looked round major newspapers like the Times and Independent, but
the systems used there are too expensive for them -- they're looking
for something simpler and cheaper -- I don't think they'd object too
much if there was say a tradeoff in effort used to make up a page
for instance.

They have a reasonable budget and can afford stuff like 386 PC's and
ethernets etc.

Since I've been asked to put a request on the net second-hand, I
don't think I ought to reproduce their specification document here
as it might be commercially sensitive (probably not but I don't
want to offend), however I think it's OK to list their 'motherhood'
statements at the top of their document:

the system they end up with should:

  -- be able to incorporate their existing base of several dozen
     ATs and XTs
  -- also use faster machines: 386, 486 and - in the future - RISC
     and newer architecture computers
  -- be able to communicate with some Mac graphics stations
  -- enable communication with most external networks and laptop
     travel computers
  -- be as open as possible
  -- be foolproof against misuse and tampering
  -- be a modern and full-featured system, one that is in accordance
     with world trends in operating systems

My conclusions from this are that they'll go for Unix, and not Dos :-)
However they've also expressed an interest in Xerox Ventura Publisher
Gold -- as far as I know only available on DOS.

Does anyone have any constructive comments on this?  Either directly
relevant or mildly apropos, all will be welcome.

(Replies to Informat@uk.ac.ed please.  Route via ukc rather than
nsfnet-relay since it is mildly commercial and the nsfnet people
in the UK are getting touchy)

Graham Toal pp Vitek Tracz

PS Although they don't have it at the moment I think they are hoping
for eventual usenet access.
PPS Any constructive comments except 'try TeX' -- we're a TeX site
ourselves and already know its limitations.
-- 
(* Posted from tharr.uucp - Public Access Unix - +44 (234) 261804 *)


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