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HISTORY.TXT
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1992-02-20
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Printers' Apprentice History File
Version 1.0 * 28 June 1991
Please read this file for the changes in this version of Printer's
Apprentice. As it can be seen, this program has been a labor of
love (and hate at times!) during the school year. Thanks to
those who have gotten in touch with me about additions &
changes to the program.
Initial Release written in Visual Basic
Simple viewing of fonts
Ability to invoke ATM & CONTROL.EXE
Color support
Rescanning of system font information
Bold, Italic, Roman, BoldItalic support
Ability to scan through ANSI codes
Points sizes 1 - 99
Screen only support
No help!
Version 2.0* August 1991
1. Added error trapping for "file not found" while shelling
to the ATM & Windows control panel
2. Added API code to determine if shelled applications
are currently running
3. Previous version only viewed ANSI 33 & above,
range is now 1 - 255. "ASCII" was also spelled
wrong in the application! (Yes, I am a college senior!)
All references to ASCII have been changed to ANSI. The ASCII
character set is only used by non-Win apps. Windows has always
used the ANSI character set.
4. Special thanks to Sage Osterfeld at Atech software (the "Publisher's
PowerPak" folks) for his suggestion that the user be able to directly
enter the ANSI code. This has been implemented as a new menu item and
an editable text box in the main window. Beer mugs to Sage! []) [])
5. The refresh font list menu item & button has been removed. The list is
now refreshed anytime the current device is changed. Printer's
Apprentice 2.0 defaults to the screen device on startup.
6. Printer's Apprentice now makes use of its own INI file to store values
for the font, size, color, user name, and ANSI #. The PA.INI is read
at startup and whenever the font lists are refreshed to determine
how the font specimen is displayed. These items may be saved to the
PA.INI file (*must* reside in the Windows directory) through a simple
menu selection. The user's name is also stored in the PA.INI file.
7. Clipboard support is now offered. Selecting Copy from the Edit menu
will send the specimen character to the clipboard in raw text format.
No formatting is sent. A link option is also there. If you paste a
link into WinWord or Excel with the autoupdate field on, the
character WinWord/Excel will change when you change the character
in PA. A nifty trick with no real purpose.
8. A DDE channel to Microsoft Word for Windows now allows you to send
the currently displayed specimen character directly to Word! All
formatting commands, with the exception of color, are sent along
with the character. The character will appear in WinWord exactly as
you saw it in The Printer's Apprentice preview window.
9. Batch printing is easy! A single menu click will bring you to the
batch operations window. Select your batch operation from the
drop down combo box. Use the "add", "delete", "add all", and
"delete all" buttons to move fonts to the print list. After
pressing go, a gauge will inform you of your printer's progress.
10. A new menu item has been added to start the Windows clipboard. As with
all other program starting options, the EXE for the clipboard must
be in current path.
11. Input from Printer's Apprentice 1.0 users everywhere has led to the
creation of an editable text box for font samples. A new menu item,
User Entered Text, has been added under Options. This puts up a
floating text box where the user may enter his/her (let us not
be sexist!) own text in the current font and style. This text
changes as the options are changed. This box is a floating text box,
it may be moved around, hidden, iconized, or closed. The print
button will dump the contents to the printer. Thanks to the users
who asked for this feature! Beer mugs to you! [])
12. Printer's Apprentice 2.0 is now copyrighted software. If you use
PA to create font samples, browse ATM fonts, or use it simply as
an on-line resource, please register your copy. A single $15
registration fee entitles you to a registration certificate,
mail upgrades of registered versions, and a guilt free concious.
Please join the users who have made the shareware system work.
Version 2.10 * Late August 1991
1. Fixed a small bug which caused PA to crash if you selected a delete
button (in Batch window) with nothing in the print list. PA would
bomb out with an "illegal function call" error... not good...
2. Resolution! Who said Windows programs are device independent!
The scupltured interface for PA 2.0 was actually a bitmap imported
from Paintbrush. It was created on a 640x480 system. Those folks
with 1024x768 monitors were seeing the bitmap shrink and distort
because of the difference in resolution. This problem has now
(famous last words) been fixed through the use of VB's internal,
device independent drawing routines. Because the bitmaps are no
longer stored in the executable file, the EXE has shrunk dramatically!
3. Some picture style fonts (dingbats & carta in particular) has
very strange leading that will cause an "Unexpected error 6" message.
This problem has been ironed out. Thanks to Lawrence E. Oliver,
Terry Ganzel, and all the others who pointed this bug out to me.
4. The printing routines have been tweaked a bit and should run
faster.
5. Various cosmetic changes have been made in the font sheets to
give more information and just look better. The header has been
standardized.
Version 2.5
1. Simple internal speed changes...
2. Printer setup is now available through the use of a public domain
DLL (PSETUP.DLL). The DLL file *must* be located in your path!
This DLL also allows direct access to the Publisher's PowerPak
control panel. To see PPak fonts, be sure the printer icon is
selected as the current device.
3. Again, various cosmetic changes. The options menu now uses bitmaps
for some menu items for that "professional look."
Version 3.0 October '91
1. Addition of a "More" button to access the user text box. You may now
edit text and see the control panel at the same time...
2. Removal of the screen and printer device options. PA 3.0 now uses
only the printer device. This was causing *many* #380 error codes...
3. Addition of a keyboard guide and both capital and lower case spec
sheets.
4. Addition of a RUN menu item that will access several utility programs
(ATM, Win Control Panel, Clipboard, Atech Publisher's PowerPak.
Version 3.01
1. Maintenance release
Version 3.5 **Important release!**
1. The 380 error has continued to persist. The cause has finally been
linked to the fact that some printer drivers do not allow the user
access to the Windows HELV font. Because some printer drivers do not
recognize the font, a 380 error popped up. This problem has been
solved through the use of a set up process. The user is given the
option of selecting a system font from the appropriate font list
for the printer. MANY users have gotten in touch with me about
this error. Again, my apologies. Thanks to all who have attempted
to get in touch with me.
2. The user may select the default view of the Printer's Apprentice
window and then save it by selecting the Save Options menu item.
The option is saved in the PA.INI file.
3. A truncation algoritm has been added to the full spec sheet. The text
no longer simply runs off the page, but stops at a natural spot on
the page.
4. Some really W I D E fonts have the tendency to run into each other
on the full spec sheet. It ussually happened between the numerals
and symbols on the top half of the sheet. To prevent this, the
symbols have been moved to the next line. Thanks to Bob Ulius for
pointing out this glich.
5. Some cosmetic changes have been made on the inventory sheets. In
particular, several users requested the name of the font be
printed in another type family. Dingbat faces would not print in
English, rather a string of symbols would appear! The system font
(see 1 above for an explanation of the system font) is now
used to print the name of the font on the left and the typeface
itself is used to print a string of ABC's. Note, if the
face name is too long to fit into the space, it is truncated. Again,
thanks to Bob Ulius and others for requesting this change.
6. Again, W I D E fonts had a tendency to spill outside the borders
on the capital & lower case specimen sheets. A font reducing
algorithm has been introduced to shrink the font down to a size
that will fit the page.
7. The system font can be changed during run time by choosing
the menu item from Options.
8. Users with a HUGE number of font were reporting lockups on
the red & green timer bar that pops up. For simplicty, this
has been replaced with a simple counter (for now?).
9. The addition of an on screen keyboard of an on screen keyboard makes
it easy for you to find your dingbat / picture font characters. Just
choose Keyboard from the options menu.
10. Somewhat improved documentation. Please excuse typo's as the manual
was rushed out to get PA in the pipe...
Version 4.0 (February 1992)
1. A hidden gem in the Windows Programmer's Reference Guide (published
by Microsoft) led to the general improvement of the ANSI chart and
other spec sheets. The ANSI chart no longer chokes on Adobe's Carta
or other fonts with strange internal leading.
2. The keyboard guide has been improved to handle Carta, etc, and
includes a quick ANSI chart at the bottom. The keyboard guide now
lists both the on and off keyboard characters of a face in an easy
to read format. To place credit where credit is due: the idea came
from the documentation distributed with Atech's typefaces.
3. The menu organization of the program has been altered slightly to
accomodate a view menu. From this menu you can access the companion
on-screen keyboard and ANSI chart.
4. As stated above, a new on screen ANSI chart has been added. Selecting
ANSI Chart from the View menu brings up a small chart. You may browse
chart by using the scroll bar and jump to a particular character by
clicking on it. The selected character will appear in the main
Printer's Apprentice window. Like the keyboard, this window may be
minimized on the desktop. It's icon is the Printer's Apprentice
laser with a small book in front of it, signifying the appendix
placement of ANSI charts in most reference guides!
5. Spacing on the inventory sheets has been corrected.
6. A brand new setup dialog box has been added to the options menu. Making
the Setup menu pick will bring up the setup/preferences menu. Four
options are currently in the box: System font (as explained above),
User name, Inventory sheet point size (new), and a default to the
enlarged window check box. The old save options menu item has been
changed to save only the text attributes of the current font to the
PA.INI file. All other stuff is in the setup box...
7. The inventory sheet has been changed so that the point size is user
selectable between 10 and 48 points. Smaller point sizes result in smaller
type and thus few trees are destroyed, but bigger point sizes let
you see more of the font... You make the choice! The option is located
in the new setup dialog box.
8. The old Save Options menu has now been changed to Save Text Atttributs.
Only the current font name, size, and color is saved to the PA.INI file
when you select this option. Other options may be found in the
Options Setup menu item.
09. Due to the unpredictable nature of the Printer Setup routines, this
option has been removed for the time being. The code was based on
some public domain code posted on Compuserve. It worked fine for me
with the few drivers I used it with. Unfortunately, for others it
was causing UAE's and crashing the system. Hopefully Windows 3.1 will
include a single API routine to get to the dialog...
10. Clicking on the single font sample on the left side of the screen will
cycle through the font attributes (i.e. Roman, Bold, Italic, BoldItalic).
11. An introductory registration screen has been added. This screen is
removed in the registered version.
12. Printing has been integrated into one simple menu click as suggested
by several users (thank you!). Selecting the FILE_PRINT command
will reveal a single dialog box from which you may select one/a few/all
print spec sheets for the particular font. The FILE_PRINT ALL SHEETS
command has been removed since you may select all the sheets from the
print dialog box.
13. An additional specimen sheet has been added. Specimen Sheet II is a
more comprehensive sheet than the original Specimen Sheet I. The new
displays the face in standard weight, plus one other attribute selected
by the user. The user also has the option of printing the sheet in
all capital letters for those capital only faces. These options are
accessed by pressing the MORE >> button on the FILE_PRINT dialog box.
The default settings are Bold and Upper/Lower Case letters. These
different options are also available in the FILE_BATCH PRINT dialog box.
Just use the drop down list box to select the options you want.
14. Printer's Apprentice can have a possible of three separate windows
littering the desktop: the main window, the keyboard, and the ANSI
chart. Previously, minimizing the main window had no effect on the
other utilities. Now, minimizing the main window will cause the
two other utilities to hide themselves... When the main window is
restored, the others will restore themselves to whatever state they
were in previously.
15. Double clicking on the list boxes in the batch printing dialog will
add the selected font to the print list or remove the font from the
list.
16. Cosmetic enhancements both on screen and the printed page
lurk everywhere.
17. The capital letter spec sheet has been removed. It was originally
created out of the need for a spec sheet that would turn out
acceptable pages for font sets with only the capital character set.
Specimen sheet II has the ability to print in all caps and it looks
a lot better....
Version 4.02 (Maintenance release, 12 February 1992)
1. A small glitch was sending Specimen Sheet II to the printer as separate
documents rather than separate pages in batch mode. This caused the
Print Manager to halt if you sent more than 20 pages in batch mode.
2. Small cosmetic error on the ANSI chart.
3. When printing in all caps for Specimen Sheet II, part of the page was
still in lower case...
Version 4.05 (Whew! February still)
1. Due to excessive postage and diskette costs, Printer's Apprentice now
includes an on screen registration process. Just select the
Register This Copy item from the help menu and enter the password you
receive from the author. Your copy of Printer's Apprentice will
instantly turn itself into the registered version.
2. A minor bug caused the Specimen Sheet II with BoldItalic to print in
all capitals, even if lower case letters were selected.
3. Another bug was making the header box on the printed page
fill with a pattern at weird intervals.