Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!bionet!agate!helios.ee.lbl.gov!nosc!jensen@trout.nosc.mil
From: jensen@trout.nosc.mil (Layne K. &,B217/1,31687,5787549)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Page Stream - > Postscript & more
Message-ID: <874@nosc.NOSC.MIL>
Date: 2 Feb 89 16:38:58 GMT
References: <1673@ssc.UUCP>
Sender: nobody@nosc.NOSC.MIL
Lines: 52

From article <1673@ssc.UUCP>, by fyl@ssc.UUCP (Phil Hughes):
> 
> Well, it may create PostScript but it won't write it to disk.
> First, PageStream V1.0 crashed so fast that I never got to actually
> attempting to print anything.  But, yesterday I went to see of there
> was anything that works on an Atari that will produce PostScript (before
> we trash the 1040 and buy an Amiga).  I played with Calimus which seems
> like a great program but it doesn't talk PostScript (yet).  So, I loaded
> PageStream V1.5 to test it out.  Upon entering a command to write
> PostScript to a disk file it crashed.  Oh well.

Since I'm the one who made the original request for help in writing
PostScript to disk from PageStream V1.5, I guess I should follow up with
what I have learned.

I have been successful in sending several small documents to the disk and
subsequently printing them.  There seem to be just a couple of things to
watch out for.  First, you can only use screen fonts for which the
corresponding PostScript printer fonts are available.  For the PS V1.5
distribution that means only Tyme (Times-Roman) and Helv (Helvetica).  (Can
anyone comment on the availability of other Laserwriter fonts?)

Secondly, make sure that you have the PostScript printer files available on
the disk to which the output will be written (preferably in a folder named
PSFONTS).  Before I had my output disk arranged that way the program would
hang in the process of looking for the PS fonts.

Other than that, just make sure that the PostScript driver is loaded, and
choose the print-to-disk output option.

On another subject, does anyone know how to reliably change the font style
(type and size) at the start of a document?  If I create a new document,
layout columns, then try to change the default font style, it doesn't seem
to "take" on the first few tries.  It seems like I have to type at least one
character, erase it, then try the change again, or highlight a string and
change it, then do a global change, or some such contortions.  Am I missing
something?  Once the first global style change has been successful I don't
have any problems changing again.

The more I use PageStream, the more I like it, and think that this latest
version is certainly usable.  (But I look forward to more bug fixes.)  I'm
a complete novice at desktop publishing on this or any other machine, so
I can't really make good comparisons, but I think PS is worth the money.

I get the impression that there are good discussions concerning PageStream
going on in the paid-services realm (Genie, Compuserve, etc.?), to which
many of us don't have access.  Could someone who does have access please
pass on any useful tidbits to us on Usenet?  'preciate it.

Layne Jensen
Naval Ocean Systems Center           jensen@nosc.MIL
San Diego, CA                        ...!sdcsvax!noscvax!jensen