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From: jpa@colman.newcastle.ac.uk (John Aspden)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hypercard
Subject: Field print quality on Laserwriter using PostScript fonts
Message-ID: <4564@cheviot.newcastle.ac.uk>
Date: 8 Jun 89 18:14:39 GMT
Sender: news@newcastle.ac.uk
Organization: Computing Laboratory, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, NE1 7RU
Lines: 34

I have a problem printing in Hypercard on a LaserWriter.
 
Most of the cards in a stack contain lots of information in lots of
fields, many of which overlap, but only a few are shown at one time,
so when viewed in Hypercard they look tidy.
 
When I print, I want to show all the information at once, so showing
all the fields and using "print card" wouldn't work, as the
overlapping would be a mess. What I do is to have a couple of special
cards on the end of the stack with different backgrounds, and I copy
the information from the card I want to print into the two print cards
and then "print 2 cards". All of the fields have textfont Helvetica,
and most of them appear PostScript-ish when printed, but some fields
just appear as bitmapped text. Is this a bug? A known restriction?
 
Configuration: HC 1.2.2, System B1-6.0.3, Finder B1-6.1, Mac IIx, lots
of memory, HC partition size 1000K under MultiFinder. Several INITs.
 
More information:
 
On one of the cards, some of the information is symbolic - I display
symbols to indicate some properties are present, and hide symbols to
indicate absence. I do this by hiding/showing opaque (but empty)
fields which cover the symbols, and which if visible, hide the
symbols. I also have small fields below the symbols which may also be
obscured by the opaque cover-fields. Thus, if a symbol is visible, its
descriptive text is too; if hidden, no descriptive text is visible.
 
I thought it may be a limit on the number of fields which can print
properly, but when only symbol 5 is visible, its text appears
bitmapped, but when only symbol 10 appears, its text is good. If all
the symbols are visible, symbol 5's text is good!
 
Any assistance gratefully received.