| ★ APPLICATIONS ★ PAO/PRESSE ★ SCREEN MASTER (KDS ELECTRONICS) ★ |
| SCREEN MASTER (KDS ELECTRONICS) (Amstrad Cent Pour Cent) | Wysiwyg Printing (Amstrad Action) | SCREEN MASTER (KDS ELECTRONICS) (Computing with the Amstrad) |
Richard Monteiro reviews a new printer utility in which what-you-see-is-what-you-get. Screen Master is a printer utility similar in nature to Tasman's Tas-Sign (reviewed issue 24); enabling you to create poster-size printouts. KDS releasing a software package comes as a surprise because their previous ventures have been hardware orientated. These have included the 8-bit printer port, mini-max modem, serial interface and so on. KDS's program works on a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) principle; anything that appears on the computer screen will be replicated on paper. The screen has one line taken up by an eight-option menu, the rest is reserved for your design. Most options are selected with the use of the cursor cluster. A stab at the return or enter key will either cause a window to appear - filled with a further menu - or executes the highlighted option. First on the eight-option menu is File. As the name implies, all file-handling tasks take place here. Standard or compacted screens may be loaded or merged into Screen Master. Similarly standard screen-files may be saved and then used in your own programs. You could design a screen within the Art Studio or some other graphics package, load it into Screen Master and then proceed to print the picture. User-defined graphic characters and background textures may also be loaded and saved. It is possible to customise Screen Master and then save the customised version. This will load automatically whenever you run Screen Master.
From the Work menu you can enter text, draw free-hand, create boxes or oblongs and edit either screen or graphics. Before entering text or graphics symbols, a box appears which can be increased or decreased in any direction. When text is eventually entered it takes the shape of the box; in this way text of any height or width can be created easily. Even when the text has been planted on the screen, you can position it else: where and alter its size. Sadly only the Amstrad character set is available for use. If you want to use other fonts then you'll have to design them yourself. Free-hand drawing allows you to select a character or graphic symbol and plaster it liberally over the screen. Although this option has its uses, it would be greatly improved if there were a selection of pen sizes with which to draw. In this way you could draw anything from a single pixel (or dot) to an eight by eight matrix of dots. By using the edit option it is possible to plot or remove individual dots - laborious. Boxes are ideal for highlighting sections of a poster or notice; Screen Master allows you to define boxes or rectangles in a number of border-styles. The Mode menu allows you to perform operations that affect the whole screen. For instance, opaque or overwrite mode ensures that text written to the screen will destroy anything previously positioned underneath. Transparent mode does the opposite: new text will mix with previous screen contents. Inverse alters everything on the screen from black to white and vice versa. Screen Master operates in Mode 2. If you try and load images created in other Modes the result can look odd. For this reason KDS have included a routine that converts either a Mode 0 or Mode 1 screen to Mode 2. Further full-screen functions are available from the Screen menu. Screen clearing, left to right reversing and flipping from top to bottom are available. If it's sections of the screen you wish to manipulate then the Block menu is the place to go. Blocks may be defined and then cleared, inverted, moved, copied, reversed from left to right, flipped from top to bottom and rotated in any direction by 90°. Printing partner The composition of text and graphics characters is easily altered from the Texture menu. There are six hatches or patterns to choose from, but if none take your fancy you can design your own from the Work menu. Using a similar method, the background pattern may be changed. Again there are six textures to choose from, and others may be designed. Arguably the most important section within Screen Master is the Printer menu. From it you can print standard size screen dumps or enlarge the output - either horizontally or vertically - by factors of two, three, four or eight using any Epson compatible machine. As you can see, it would be very easy to paper your walls with the output. Printing takes place either across or down the page. There are options for either seven or eight-bit printer output. If you don't have KDS's 8-bit port then you must select the seven-bit option. This option needs no interface; it prints seven lines of dots, missing out the eighth line (or bit). But don't worry, gaps don't appear in the printout as the line spacing has been specially tailored. In most cases the output is perfectly acceptable. Of course, for the best possible results the 8-bit port comes in handy (see the box on 8-bit printing). The version of the program tested had a couple of bugs, which KDS are aware of. They aren't serious - a window handling problem and text not behaving as it should on screen - and KDS are working on rectifying them. For an easy-to-use way of creating eye-grabbing posters, Screen Master is the business. The pop up windows and obvious controls mean you'll get down to designing a lot faster than with many other packages -the manual is virtually redundant. There are relatively few printer utilities about: KDS's offering is very welcome. GOOD NEWS
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