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Clip 'n' Save Release Notes
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1993-03-02
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RELEASE NOTES FOR CLIP 'N' SAVE
Dedicated to Cameron Alexander Swann
I've had a problems with coupons and dotted rules since I moved my
work to the Mac. I can use the plug and play options in Quark. Or I
can roll my own with a dashed stroke in Illustrator. The former
option provides no control, while the latter offers no precision.
"Close enough is good enough" is the unwritten subtext of The
Macintosh Way. But for typographers (and their customers), "almost
right" is WRONG. This software makes this problem go away.
Clip 'n' Save (C&S) does this: it creates dotted or coupon rules or
borders to your specifcations. It writes Encapsulated PostScript
(EPS) files that can be placed directly in your publishing software
or opened for further editing in your drawing software. You can
specify the type of object to create, its geometry, the weight,
length and gap length of the ruling. You can see how the specified
object will look prior to writing the file. And if you have a
particular way of working, you can save your preferences, so that
they will be the default settings with subsequent launches.
C&S is compatible with both systems 6 and 7, is 32-bit clean,
Multi-Finder compliant, and it always does its share of the dishes.
It writes Adobe Illustrator 3.0 or Adobe Illustrator 1.1 (Aldus
FreeHand-compatible) files, at your option. These files have a PICT
preview, so they can be imported by publishing software with no
further editing. The Illustrator objects created are actual
multiple-control-point objects (as distinct from dashed rules), which
permits substantially easier editing for trapping in your drawing
software.
Cutting Clip 'n' Save down to size...
C&S consists of two dialog boxes and the menu bar (plus a few error
alerts and the "About..." box). In the menu bar, Quit quits (there's
a shock!). The entries in the Edit menu are greyed out (since this is
a dialog), but CMD-X, CMD-C and CMD-V will work. The Preferences menu
lets you save your current settings to use as future defaults (Save
Preferences), change the current settings to the most recently saved
preferences (Restore Saved Preferences), or change the current
settings to the "factory" defaults (Restore Defaults).
In the "Settings..." dialog, Object type is a picture radio button.
Just click on the type of object you want to create. Very probably,
the software will see most of its use in making coupons, but the
rules are provided to make is possible to create very precise grids
in Illustrator or FreeHand. By moving copies of these rules by
precise amounts, you can control corner and intersection alignment,
which is very difficult to achieve by hand with dashed rules.
File version lets you select what type of file to create. If you use
Adobe Illustrator, select "Illustrator 3.0". If you use Aldus
FreeHand, select "AI 1.1 (FreeHand)". To edit a C&S file from
FreeHand, you have to open it through File Open (no D&D, boo hoo!).
The file will be opened into an untitled document.
At the top of the Object specifications section, there are six edit
text fields. You fill these the measurements of object's attributes.
Measurements can be expressed in picas and points, inches or
millimeters. You only need to fill in the fields appropriate to the
type of object you are creating. So for a Horizontal Rule, you can
leave Depth empty. For a Vertical Rule, you can leave Width empty.
And for all three objects, you can leave Corner Radius empty, since
this field (which someday may permit Rounded Rectangles) is
unimplemented in this version.
Width and Depth describe the actual geometry of the object, from edge
to edge. Rule weight is the weight of the rules that will be used to
create the object. Rule length is the desired length of the rule
segments. Gap length is the desired length of the interruptions
between rule segments.
The measurements you enter into these fields are parsed
intelligently. If a measurement doesn't make sense (when you hit
Preview or Start...), the software will beep and highlight the bad
field. Picas are flagged with an infix 'P' or 'p', with subsequent
numbers being interpreted as points (e.g., 24p6). Inches are flagged
with '"', and millimeters are flaged with 'm', 'M', 'mm', or 'MM'.
Inches and millimeters are strictly postfix (e.g., 2.25" or 37mm). If
there is anything following an inches or millimeters flag, the field
will be highlighted for correction. If a measure has no picas, inches
or millimeters flags, it is interpreted as points. Fractional values
can be expressed with a decimal point. In all cases, legal
measurements are being converted to points, since this is what
Illustrator eats.
These are some measurements and their results:
ENTERED RESULT (in points)
------- ------
162 162
p162 162
13p6 162
P162 162
13P6 162
2.25" 162
2.333333" 167.99999
37m 104.88191
37M 104.88191
37mm 104.88191
37MM 104.88191
162+162 Error (no calculator functions)
13p6p7 Error (multiple qualifier flags)
2"4m Error (multiple qualifier flags)
37mm2.25" Error (multiple qualifier flags)
Below the measurements fields are four pop-up menus. Position and
Corners are ignored unless you are creating a rectangle. Position
controls where the rules will sit with respect to the path described
by Width and Depth. Inside the path makes the most sense to me, but
the other options are provided to give you the choice.
Corners controls how the corner pieces are created in rectangles.
Full-length rules can be too dark, particularly with heavy rule
weights, so the option is provided to use Half-length rules.
Okay, here's the dirty little secret, the raison d'etre of Clip 'n'
Save: the math almost never works out perfectly. This is why dashed
paths in Illustrator are usually so goofy. Unless _you_ do the math
exactly right, there will be some small amount of space left over,
which Illustrator will do nothing intelligent with. But: all that
_can_ be done is to finesse one or more values by small amounts, to
make the math work out right. The Finesse pop-up lets you specify
which values to fudge. (The default setting is to finesse the gaps,
and you are advised to leave it at this setting if you are setting
Rounded Endcaps).
The Endcaps popup lets you specify whether the ends of each rule
segment are to be Squared or Rounded. This is provided, primarly, so
that you can create precise dotted (bullet) rules. If the Rule weight
and the Rule length are equal, you'll get circular rule segments. If
the Rule length is greater than the Rule weight, you'll get sausage
shapes, perfect for that Oscar Meyer cents-off coupon (grin).
The buttons along the bottom of the dialog are pretty
straightforward. Preview brings up the Preview... dialog box, which
illustrates what the final object will look like. You can use
Preview... to establish that your settings are yielding the visual
effect you want to achieve. If the Width or Depth are greater than
the screen width or depth, the dialog will be clipped to fit. In that
event, you will see only the top left corner of the object.
The Start... button creates your new EPS file. You will be prompted
for a file name in a standard SF box.
About the dedication...
Clip 'n' Save is dedicated to my son, Cameron, because he taught
himself to walk while it was in development. My daughter Meredith is
a binary-state child; she switches from incapacity to mastery
instantaneously. Cameron is more of a gradualist, a Motie Engineer of
babyhood if you will. And: of course: the metaphor is coming even if
you _won't_ (grin). Because: even though I've been making Mac
software for nearly a year, this is the first big project in which I
didn't keep a hand on the furniture, so to speak. So Cameron is here
and forevermore immortalized because he and I learned to "walk" in
the same way and by the same means.
That's it, I think. If you run under System 7+, you might put this
in your Apple Menu Items folder, to keep it handy...
Best,
Greg Swann
11/27/92