| ★ APPLICATIONS ★ BUREAUTIQUE ★ TAS-SIGN ★ |
TAS-SIGN (Amstrad Action) | TAS-SIGN (8000Plus) |
Remember that poignant moment when you discovered that the most impressive text you get from LocoScript is 10 pitch double space bold? For anyone mentally scarred by this discovery Tasman have come up with a natty little program to churn out signs with letters up to seven inches high. The problem with any sign writing program is that to get decent results from the PCW's simple printer takes a long time. If you want to print something in reverse double strike double density meshed (best quality) in Tas-Sign you still are better going for a long walk rather than watch it print. On the other hand a single strike single density sign comes out comparatively quickly. And Tas-Sign does give you plenty of choice. It allows up to five lines of text with a maximum of 32 characters in each. There are four different fonts to choose from, all specially designed for targe signs, which print out impressively crisply. If that's not enough the text can be reversed, underlined, centred or in one of eight different hatchings or patterns. And why not finish it off with a fancy border? If you mix too many styles in the same sign you can end up with a real pig's breakfast, but if you contain your natural exuberance the quality is quite impressive. The result can be printed out in Landscape form if you want, ie. sideways across page after page of continuous paper for really long signs. Real perfectionists can start tinkering with the letter spacing options (proportional, fixed or kerning) or stretch or condense the characters to suit. In fact the main complication with the program seems to be the range of choices offered. But don't be put off if you only want it for a simple application - it's still fairly easy to pick up. Small characters don't look very effective, and you can't go below about one inch high, although you can vary it arbitrarily up to about six and a hatf inches. There are still one or two problems to be sorted out with minor bugs We found the letters X and N printing out damaged at over 200 dots high in the 'Casual' font, and the manual's pretty table of special characters (Yen signs and others) are not implemented for the PCW, but only on the PC, 8000Plus |
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