NEW RELEASE - DTP+ Graphics CD-ROM
Floppyshop are pleased to announce the forthcoming release of DTP+,
the first of our new range of CD-ROM products for the Atari range of
computers. This quality product is the culmination of several months'
work and has come about as the result of a massive collaborative
effort between Floppyshop, John Weller (Mr DTP himself!), countless
Shareware authors and several of the leading companies and individuals
operating in the Atari market. It is this combined effort which has
resulted in a single CD-ROM which is undoubtedly the DTP and Graphics
enthusiast's dream. Lets look at what's on offer.
SO WHAT IS IT
DTP+Graphics is a collection of fonts, clip art, DTP support programs,
printer drivers, printer utilities, word processors, image processing
packages, vector graphics packages, all popular non-commercial
graphics packages, demos of DTP related commercial programs and more
besides. It includes everything you need to enhance you existing
Desktop Publishing and Computer Graphics setup, regardless of which
package you use. In fact, much of the contents are generic and can be
used with more than one application. In addition, there's a small
section with a number of useful bits and pieces designed to enhance
the use of your computer in general. Over 90% of the contents are in
English and there's an easy to use catalogue which gives an overview
of each and every program on the CD along with the full directory path
to the relevant program/file. Finding things just couldn't be easier
and everything is uncompressed and ready to run so there's no time
wasted dearchiving or space occupied on your hard drive, almost
everything runs direct from the CD.
FONTS
Wasn't it all the rage when Compo brought out their 500 Fonts CD-ROM?
So you thought that 500 fonts for 50 pounds was a bargain? Well here's
news for you, the fonts section (and it's ONLY one section) of
Floppyshop's DTP+Graphics contains over 3,600 fonts for all popular
Atari packages. There are 14 types of fonts with the largest
collections being Calamus (almost 1200), True Type (almost 500),
PostScript (over 400), GDOS (about 450), Signum (over 200) and Fontkit
(over 150). Of course there's PageStream, Publishing Parner, That's
Write and Degas fonts too. Yes, EVERY font in our collection to date!
This includes the prestigious Oxieware and Bournemouth CFN collections
(semi-professional fonts released as PD) and a PostScript version of
the Bournemouth collection. These high quality fonts make up around
50% of the Calamus and PostScript collections and would cost
around 80 pounds alone even at PD prices!
CLIP ART
It is said that picture paints a thousand words and there's nothing to
beat a pertinent graphic to add a bit of class to an otherwise dull
flyer, poster, newsletter or magazine. Well we've done it again.
There's over 8,000 clips included in our Clip Art section on
DTP+Graphics! We've weeded out the duplicates and categorised
everything into logical sections for ease of use. As you would expect,
IMG accounts for the lion's share (over 5400 items!) and has been
split into 84 main subject headings and several sub-headings besides.
Included here are complete collections by Stan Otterburn and John
Weller (these are astounding) and others. Other bitmapped graphics
include over 160 GIF images (256 colour), over 1000 PCX clips split
into 24 categories and a few hundred Degas and Tiny clips. As for
vector clip art, DTP+Graphics contains almost 800 clips in GEM
Metafile format and over 200 Calamus CVGs.
DTP SUPPORT UTILITIES
These have mostly originated from our various DTP support disks.
There's everything imaginable to enhance the use of Calamus,
PageStream, Publishing Partner and Timeworks. There's also several
utilities aimed at GDOS and SpeedoGDOS users as well as useful file
templates for Calamus, PageStream, Publishing Partner and Atari Works.
Also in this section are demo versions of the top DTP sections,
including DA's Layout TC v6.1 and Calamus 96, both 'hot off the
presses'.
FONT EDITORS
Includes GEMFED for designing GDOS and Degas fonts, font editors for
Publishing Partner and PageStream, Fontedit - the forerunner to FaST
Club's Fontkit/Fontkit Plus, specialised font designers for creating
downloadable fonts for Star and HP printers, and more...
PRINTER DRIVERS
Almost 300 printer drivers for just about every imaginable printer
type (including the SLM804!) and application. The majority are for
First Word/Wordplus (some other applications can also use these
drivers) but there's also a good selection of SpeedoGDOS drivers, most
notable amongst these are 600/720 dpi drivers for the newer Epson,
Hewlett Packard and Canon models. There are HP drivers for near enough
every application ever written!
PRINTER UTILITIES
Printer controllers/command senders, screen dump utilities and other
useful utilities for use with the Canon BJ300, NEC Pinwriters,
Panasonic KX-P series, Epson LQs, Star NL series and others.
WORD PROCESSORS
Word processors, text editors, spell checkers and dictionary listings.
All the popular packages are here along with demo versions of
commercial ones.
GRAPHIC PROGRAMS
This section comprises of over 120 Mb of graphics related programs and
associated data files. There's traditional art packages, image
processors, graphic conversion utilities, image viewers, animation
packages, image printing utilities, vector graphics editors, 3D
packages, a massive raytracing sub-section, graphics tutorials,
fractal generators (including landscape generators), stereogram
creators and much more. Just about every non-commercial package worth
talking about is included here. There's even a Falcon specific
sub-section with around 20Mb of graphics related material for use
exclusively on that machine (a sizable proportion of the software in
the general graphics section is also Falcon compatible).
COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN
All the popular non-commercial CAD packages are on the CD along with
demo versions of the commercial ones.
PICTURES
OK, so nobody buys a CD specifically for images but there was enough
space left to include around 2,500 images in Degas, NEO, Tiny,
Spectrum 512, IFF, EZA, GIF, PCS and JPEG formats. This includes a
special collection of over 500 astounding JPEGs of photographs taken
by professional photographer Nigel Scott.
ANIMATIONS
As with pictures you would not buy a CD specifically for animations.
The space was available so why not fill it with quality! There are
ninety of the best FLI animations included on DTP+Graphics. These are
all 256 colour animations but can be easily viewed in any almost any
resolution (including monochrome) using Brainstorm's Movie100
animation player which is of course included.
OTHER SOFTWARE
This includes useful software for any Atari. These programs are not
DTP or Graphics related but are virtually indispensable once you've
tried them out. There's also a small Floppyshop section with demo
versions of all our commercial products as well as full versions of
the DegasArt tutorial (parts 1, 2, & 3), Family Roots v1 (the
forerunner to our popular genealogy program) and the registered
version of Xlator, a very capable German to English translation
program. Last but not least is an exclusive release of the full
version of the Edith Professional text editor on DTP+Graphics. This
quality product is almost impossible to obtain nowadays but it's
included free with DTP+Graphics.
So How Much Does It Cost?...
Special Offer
NEW RANGE OF CD-ROM PRODUCTS
Of those CDs which are available, the vast majority are almost
entirely German in their content. Whilst fully acknowledging the fact
that many of the very best Atari software packages have come out of
Germany, untranslated software is of little or no use to those of us
who don't understand the language. This is something Floppyshop are
currently addressing with their new series of English language
CD-ROMs, the first of which will be released at the Birmingham and
London Atari shows in April.
There is a wealth of English language software just waiting to be
discovered, yet only the excellent Suzy's B's Atari Software Treasury
has ever made it onto CD-ROM. We do not claim that our collections
will be 100% English language, but at least 75% of the contents will
be. The majority of the programs are original English language
programs, some are official English versions of foreign language
programs, others are amateur translations. And for those which
remain in German, we have included two excellent German to English
translation programs to help you along!
Can't Find It?
Our CDs come fully catalogued with descriptions of all programs on the
disk. No that's not a joke, the descriptions are taken from our
regular Shareware catalogue and adapted specially for CD use. Each
program is referenced by its directory path and cross-references to
other related programs are to their directory paths too. If you need a
program to perform a specific task, use the search facility in the
catalogue or the program name and up pops the description and
directory path required. It couldn't be easier.
Ready To Run...
Extras
Finally
We regret that constraints of time prevent us from entering into
personal correspondence about the timing and contents of future
releases. We will continue to make further announcements as more
titles become available. Compiling these CDs is a massive task, let us
get on with it and you won't be disappointed with the results.
ATARI SHOW UPDATE
POSITIVE IMAGE v2
DTP+ Graphics
POWERUP
FONT PACKS
OXIEWare Fonts - A superb collection of semi-professional Calamus
fonts from Sweden. They are ALL complete implementations and are of a
much higher standard than the usual PD and Shareware fonts. The
OxieWare collection spans 16 disks.
THE BOURNEMOUTH CFN COLLECTION - An impressive collection of over 300
fonts on 20 disks. They are the result of PostScript fonts converted
by John Weller for use with Calamus. What makes these almost unique is
the fact that they are supplied as complete font families (with
genuine italics and bolds rather than the usual slanted and thickened
versions). Where else will you find a complete family of Helvetica in
19 weights and styles? Time and effort have gone into this
collection, the result being a collection of professional fonts at PD
prices.
THE BOURNEMOUTH POSTSCRIPT COLLECTION - This is the colection of
PostScript fonts which formed the broad basis of John Weller's
Bournemouth Collection. All in all this is a very well presented
collection with its main strength being the sheer number of complete
font families rather than one off single fonts. Supplied on 16
disks.
CLIP ART
OTHER PRODUCTS
WEB NEWS
FINALLY
Despite the length of this description, we've missed out a lot! The
disk has a full 650Mb compliment of data. This is not a half filled
CD! There's neither time nor space to feature everything on the CD.
Even at today's bargain basement PD disk prices it would cost you
around 1200 pounds to amass a collection like this! Relax, we're not
going to charge a horrendously high price
DTP+Graphics will be released on 26th April at the Birmingham Atari
Show. We will have limited stock with us at both the Birmingham and
London Shows (but will bring along more if pre-ordered) so please
pre-order now to reserve your copy. Tell us which event you will be
attending and we will take your copy with us. All orders recieved by
21st April 1997 qualify for a =A35 reduction. Those of you collecting
your copy at the Atari Shows can also disregard the P&P charge. If you
cannot make it to the Atari Shows, you can still take advantage of
the pre-launch price (P&P WILL apply in this instance!) and your order
will be sent out on or before Monday 5th May.
Sprachen sie Englisch?
The Atari CD market is growing, there's no doubt about that. The only
factor which is putting customers off 'taking the plunge' and buying a
CD-ROM drive for their Atari is lack of software. It's the old chicken
and egg scenario.
The biggest problem with the current range of CD releases is that you
can't find anything on the disc! You simply don't know where to look
or if you do find a program it's difficult figuring out whether or not
it's what you really need for the job! Some have crude indexing
systems, others have none at all. Doesn't it make you feel like it's
all just shovel-ware. Cram as much as you can onto a CD and make a
quick buck! Do the people who compile these CDs know that the programs
actually do, do they care, do they own Atari computers? We do on all
three counts!
One of the biggest criticisms of existing CD-ROMs is that a proportion
(sometimes all) of the software is supplied in archived format. Yes,
this does mean that you get even more data packed onto the disc,
there's no denying that. The main disadvantage is that (without a
proper cataloguing system), the archive names are even less meaningful
than the program names. You spend hours decompressing archives in the
hope of finding the program you need to do the job. It's akin to
finding a needle in a haystack! Even with a proper cataloguing system
you have the added problem of finding space for everything. How many
of you own a 1.2 GB (or larger) hard drive? Here at Floppyshop we
believe convenience to be the answer and have supplied everything
uncompressed and ready to run. The majority of programs and files can
be run directly from the CD time and time again, without occupying so
much as 1K of space on your hard drive. OK, so some programs are picky
and object to this but they are few and far between. Most modern
programs run from anywhere provided all files are kept together
in a common directory. You've bought your CD-ROM drive, so why pay for
a huge hard drive too?
All CDs from Floppyshop will include a number of useful utilities
which every Atari owner should have in his/her collection. In
addition, there will be demo versions of Floppyshop's range of
commercial software as well as a few commercial packages thrown in for
free. For example our first release, DTP+, includes the complete
DegasArt (parts 1, 2 & 3) graphics tutorial, the full Family Roots v1
and the registered version of Xlator, an excellent German to English
translator program and last but certainly not least, the full version
of Edith Professional, an impressive text editor/binary file editor
worth 35 pounds which is exclusive, being available on no other CD.
Everyone who has ever purchased goods from Floppyshop knows that we
are knowledgeable about our products and that our catalogue is second
to none. Our CDs offer no less, our customers expect no less!
Depending on the response we get to our first two releases, the plan
is to produce about 5 or 6 CD-ROMs during 1997 with more to follow in
1998. Our current collection is large enough to sustain this and new
programs continue to be added at an encouraging rate. So why not buy
your Shareware compilation CDs from the experts. Anyone can botch
together a CD, but only a Floppyshop CD has quality and ease of use
written all over it!
FLOPPYSHOP LATEST
We are working round the clock to give our customers the best possible
selection of products. It's absolutely mad here at the moment with us
working on no less than five new product releases! Along with existing
commercial releases and special Shareware packs (which proved very
popular last time round), we are aiming to have 20 products (compared
to 9 last time) available for sale (five of which will make their
debuts at the Shows). Everything depends on time and it's going to be
tight! Here's a brief rundown of what we can talk about, there's lots
more than we're keeping under wraps until the last minute!
This one is a MAJOR upgrade on the current release (v1.12) and should
be ready in time for Birmingham and London. If not, it will hopefully
make its debut in Glasgow. This product is 'in development' so we
cannot give out any details at the moment, suffice to say it's going
to be BIG NEWS. Don't contact us just now for details, we're too busy
getting it finished and unwilling to discuss new features until they
are completed. Suffice to say, we'll issue a fresh bulletin nearer the
time.
The first of many new CD-ROM releases from Floppyshop. As the name
suggests, this is the one stop answer to all your Desktop Publishing
and Graphics needs. How does 3,600 fonts in Calamus, PostScript, True
Type and other formats sound? Not enough? Well, how about 8,000 pieces
of Clip Art? Still not satisfied? Well there's word processors,
printer utilities, printer drivers, DTP support utilities, image
processing packages, vector graphics packages, near enough every
monochrome and colour graphics package on the Shareware/Freeware/PD
scene, graphic conversion utilities, a prestigious collection of
professional 'photographs' and a whole lot more besides. See separate
press release on this one very soon.
A brand new commercial game. Who said nobody produces Atari games any
more? Power Up is a racing car game from MC Soft. The game is seen
from an overhead perspective looking down on the track. Five cars
participate in each race, two of which can be player controlled.
Control is by keyboard or joystick and is much more responsive than
similar games of this type. Power Up is unique in that it runs on any
Atari computer but has the ability to utilise the blitter and DMA
sound (at 25 Khz on the STE/ 50Khz on the TT and Falcon) if your
hardware supports it. There's even a special fast scrolling mode for
Falcon owners. Even STFM owners get digitised music! It can also
output sound to Replay, Replay Professional, Playback, MV16 and
Prosound Designer cartridges. There will be 12 different tracks on
which to compete, each track having five different scenarios. More
details on Power Up nearer the time.
Last year our Oxieware collection created a fair amount of interest
amongst customers. We will be bringing it along this time too, but with
the addition of the Bournemouth collections. Here's a brief summary of
what's what:-
Our Public Domain Vector Clip Art colection in GEM format was popular
last time so we will have more stock for these Shows. In addition we
will have an exclusive commercial set of Vector Clip Art disks by John
Weller in Calamus CVG format. These are currently being completed (the
first three disks are astounding!) and we expect the set to comprise
of five or six disks. More details on this new product nearer to the
Shows.
We will of course have have all our commercial software, Positive
Image v1.12, Family Roots 2, EZ-Art Professional, Easy Stitch and
DegasArt along with a number of specially made up Shareware packs
covering such a wide range of subject matter than there's guaranteed
to be something for everyone. There's also another brand new wildly
addictive game but we're not talking about it just yet...
Our WWW pages are currently being updated (sorry but these things get
out of date so quickly!). The new site will feature all our new
releases and several new services we are about to launch. Although
everything is unchanged at the moment, we expect the new pages
to be up late April or early May. Keep an eye on:
http://www.netkonect.net/tachyon/flopshop/
The above information (with regard to product features and
availability) is provisional and subject to change without notice.
Prices are not yet finalised but you can be sure of a bargain on the
day. As more information becomes available, we will be posting updates
to this bulletin. Thank you for taking the time to read this message.
We look forward to seeing you soon.