| ★ APPLICATIONS ★ BUREAUTIQUE ★ SIGNWRITER ★ |
SIGNWRITER (8000PLUS) | SIGNWRITER (Popular Computing Weekly) |
Sign of the times for the Amstrad PCW Tony Kendle reviews a new type of desktop publishing package especially for use on signs, posters and other advertising-type things. Over the last year there has been a boom in the number of desktop publishing programs of varying sophistication. In most cases, ‘print quality' pages are really only possible with the use of laser printers way beyond the pocket of most micro users. But even the most crude DTP programs and cheap dot matrix printers have together proven themselves to be invaluable for producing fanzines, newsletters, posters and signs. Signwriter is a simple text font and graphics printer that is capable of producing signs, posters, letter headings, calendars, tickets and, to a limited extent, newsletter pages. Text can be centred, justified or flush with the left and right margins, but beyond that the program provides almost no formatting options such as tabs or columns. Nor can it import text from word processors unless this is first surrounded by some rather complex internal control numbers designating print size, etc. However, the program is really an extremely clever piece of work that allows the user to, almost effortlessly, produce output that is completely flexible in size. It works by defining the outline of each character in terms of a complex of linked curves and lines rather than as a matrix of dots; the technical term is a vector design. The outline that is so determined can be then mathematically scaled to any size, in millimetre steps, and the printout is automatically calculated and adjusted to maintain the highest possible resolution. This method is rather more demanding than, say, with AMX Pagemaker, but it is possible to produce quite complex type styles, graphics, logos, etc, and to prove it there is a file of animal pictures. There were six font files provided with the demo package (although one provides just scientific and foreign characters) and another four are close to release. All extra fonts cost just £5 plus the cost of a disc. Once designed, different fonts can be merged together. Such hybrid fonts can then be used to produce more complex output with possibly several apparent changes in type style across one line. The only real limitation is the complexity of the individual characters, and the number of characters in the line, which can in extremis exceed the processing power of your computer. In this respect PC users can be much more adventurous than those with either a BBC or PCW. Entering the text of your ‘sign' is a very easy process. You can define maximum height of each textline, the gaps between the lines, the spacing between individual letters, the sign width, and so on. Blocks, boxes and lines can be added for a completely professional output. The sign text can be orientated horizontally or vertically on the page. Photo reduction of the output improves quality. It is not possible to view a graphics representation of the resulting sign before printing, but a fast draft mode print is provided for dummy runs to allow final adjustments. As well as dot matrix and laser printers, Signwriter is being adapted to drive plotters and even metal cutters. Many useful features are included in the program, such as the ability to reverse a sign so that it can be used to produce transfers for T-shirts and to add sequential numbers to tickets. The PCW version only supports the supplied printer, and works much more easily on a machine with expanded memory or two disc drives, but is perfectly usable on the normal 8256 if you do not mind a little disc shuffling. The graphics display for the font design is particularly slow on the PCW, which is attributed to the fact that the Amstrad video display is not documented, forcing the programmers to use the creakingly slow GSX routines. Wight Scientific's documentation is entertaining, to say the least - Signwriter came with a positive fistful of updates and explanatory leaflets. The program is undergoing constant revision and purchasers are entitled to claim one upgrade free and subsequent ones cost £5. I was highly impressed with Signwriter, and even more so with the intelligent, way it was presented and documented. PCW |
|  |
|
Page créée en 389 millisecondes et consultée 1742 fois L'Amstrad CPC est une machine 8 bits à base d'un Z80 à 4MHz. Le premier de la gamme fut le CPC 464 en 1984, équipé d'un lecteur de cassettes intégré il se plaçait en concurrent du Commodore C64 beaucoup plus compliqué à utiliser et plus cher. Ce fut un réel succès et sorti cette même années le CPC 664 équipé d'un lecteur de disquettes trois pouces intégré. Sa vie fut de courte durée puisqu'en 1985 il fut remplacé par le CPC 6128 qui était plus compact, plus soigné et surtout qui avait 128Ko de RAM au lieu de 64Ko. |
