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PrintPartner v1.0 Printer Graphics Program (C) Copyright 1990, Acropolis Software Robert Bequette Acropolis Software P.O. Box 5037 Fair Oaks, CA 95628 THE LEGAL STUFF PrintPartner is provided on an "as is" basis without warranty of any kind expressed or implied. In no event will Acropolis Software be liable to you for any damages, including any lost profits, lost savings or other incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use of or inability to use the program, even if Acropolis Software has been advised of the possibility of such damages, or for any claim by any other party. PrintPartner is copyrighted by Acropolis Software. You're encouraged to give copies to your friends and upload it to bulletin boards, however sale of the program for profit by anyone except Acropolis Software is strictly prohibited. With the exception of a small fee for duplication. That fee does not register you as a user of PrintPartner. If you like PrintPartner and find it useful you are asked to register as a user with Acropolis Software. (See "REGISTRATION" in this document for registration information.) FILE LIST PrintPartner comes with the following files: PP.EXE The PrintPartner Program. PP.DOC This manual. PMTOPP.EXE PrintMaster+ to PrintPartner converter. STANDARD.GPH Standard graphics file. DINO.GPH An extra graphics file. ARTNOUV.FON Art Nouv font file. BASEL.FON Basel font file. CIRCUS.FON Circus font file. CMBX10.FON CMBX 10 font file. GREENBAY.FON Greenbay font file. HOUSTON.FON Houston font file. MALIBU.FON Malibu font file. MCCLOUD.FON McCloud font file. PADOVA.FON Padova font file. SANDIEGO.FON San Diego font file. SCAN.FON Scanner font file. APPLEIMG.PDR Printer driver file. CITMSP.PDR Printer driver file. EPSON.PDR Printer driver file. MOST24.PDR Printer driver file. If you give copies of this program away you MUST include all the files in their original form. Distribution with one or more of the files missing or altered in anyway is strictly prohibited. TABLE OF CONTENTS Overview ...................................... 1 Installation ...................................... 2 Hard Drive ...................................... 2 Floppy Drive ...................................... 2 Main Menu ...................................... 3 Configuration ...................................... 3 Banners ...................................... 5 Signs ...................................... 8 Calendars ...................................... 12 PMtoPP Utility ...................................... 14 Random Notes ...................................... 15 Registration ...................................... 16 Questionnaire ...................................... 17 Page 1 OVERVIEW PrintPartner is a program to allow you to make printed banners, signs, and calendars for any event that you like. Banners can have a graphic on either end and use any font you select. Additionally PrintPartner attempts to smooth the text and graphics to make them look better. Signs may have any number of two different graphics you select and may be placed anywhere on the page you wish. Each line of text can be of a different font if you wish and may be sized and positioned to your specifications. Calendars can be for any month in any year from 1980 to 2098, with the month name in any font you select. PrintPartner allows you to save and reload any of your creations for later use. The printers that PrintPartner is know to support are: Apple Imagewriter Epson RX-80 Star NX-2400 Citizen MSP-10/15 IBM Proprinter X24 Generic 24 pin Citizen MSP-20/25 Microline 190 Series Generic 8/9 pin Citizen MSP-50/55 NEC P5/P5xl Epson FX-80/85 NEC P6/P7 Epson LQ-2500 Panasonic KX-P1124 Epson LQ-510 Star NX-10 Those are not necessarily the only printers supported by PrintPartner but they are the ones that I know the drivers work with. If you have a printer different than the ones listed here there is a good chance that one of them will work with it. If you do have a different printer that works with one of the driver please let me know what printer you are using and which driver you are using with it so that I can update the list and make it easier for other in later releases. Page 2 INSTALLATION Installation of PrintPartner is easy. HARD DRIVE SYSTEM Create a subdirectory on your hard drive for PrintPartner. I recommend PP. C:\> MD PP Now change to the new directory and copy the files from the PrintPartner disk into it. The following example is for the PrintPartner disk drive A: if you have the disk in drive B: replace the A:*.* in the example with B:*.* C:\> CD PP C:\PP> COPY A:*.* If you also have the disk of extra fonts and graphics replace the PrintPartner disk with the extras disk and repeat the copy command above. You now have PrintPartner installed on your hard drive. To start up PrintPartner just make sure you are in the PP directory, type PP and press the <RETURN> key. FLOPPY ONLY SYSTEM With a floppy drive system make a copy of the PrintPartner disk and the disk of extra fonts and graphics if you have it. Now put away your original disks in a safe place and use your copy. To use PrintPartner on a floppy only system you should place the PrintPartner disk in the floppy drive and type PP. Page 3 MAIN MENU At the main menu you are presented with the following choices: BANNER MAKER To create and print a banner SIGN PAINTER To create and print a sign CALENDAR MAKER To create and print a calendar CONFIGURATION To configure your printer EXIT PRINTPARTNER To quit PrintPartner At this and any of the other menus you use the cursor arrow keys to move the lighted bar around the menu and press the <RETURN> key to select the highlighted item. CONFIGURATION The configuration section of PrintPartner allows you to select the printer that you wish it to use. You will be presented with the following menu items: SELECT A PRINTER ADD LINE FEED NO LINE FEED TEST PRINTER EXIT SELECT A PRINTER Choosing this menu item will bring up an alphabetical list of supported printers. At the top of the screen you will also see the name of the currently selected printer if one has been selected before. Use the arrow keys to move around the listing to select your printer or one that is compatible with your printer. Press the <RETURN> key when you have it highlighted. ADD LINE FEED NO LINE FEED Not all printers are created equal. Even with two printers of the same model things might be configured differently. Since people configure their printers differently depending on what applications they use PrintPartner allows you to set it up so that it will either send line feeds after each line or not. Page 4 TEST PRINTER Choosing this option will cause PrintPartner to try and print a test picture on your printer. If the picture prints properly then you're in luck and have selected the right driver for your printer (if your printer was listed and that driver does not work with it please notify me and enclose a sample of what is being printed). If your printer isn't listed, one of the other drivers may work with it. Most printer use the same set of control codes. If the printed picture doesn't look right check this list: 1) If it is not an intelligible image you may have the wrong printer selected. 2) If there are blank lines select the NO LINE FEED option and and try the test again. 3) If the pictures prints all on a single line select the ADD LINE FEED option and try the test again. 4) If you have tried all the printers and none of them work, your printer just may not be supported at this time. EXIT Exits the configuration menu and returns you to the main menu. Additionally the configuration you have selected will be saved to the file PP.CFG. If you are using a floppy disk setup you can look at the configuration file with the MSDOS "TYPE" command and see which printer driver file it is using for your printer. You can then delete the others to make more room on the disk for saving your work or adding extra fonts or pictures to your working copy of the PrintPartner disk. Page 5 BANNERS The banner section of PrintPartner allows you to print banners for any occasion. Each banner can be done with any font you like and can also have a graphic at either end. The banner section presents you with the following menu items: NEW BANNER Clear the current banner from memory. FIRST GRAPHIC Select graphic for the start of the banner. SECOND GRAPHIC Select graphic for the end of the banner. BANNER FONT Select the font to print the banner in. BANNER TEXT Enter the text for the banner. PRINT BANNER Print the current banner. LOAD BANNER Load an old banner from disk. SAVE BANNER Save the current banner to disk. EXIT BANNER Exit banner and return to the main menu. NEW BANNER This selection will clear out the settings for the current banner (one you have loaded or decided to start again from scratch). FIRST GRAPHIC SECOND GRAPHIC These two selections allow you to select the graphics to place at the ends of the banner. "FIRST" is the graphic that comes before the text and "SECOND" is the graphic that comes after the text. After selecting one of these options, you will be presented with a list of the graphics files on the disk. As with all the other menus, use the up and down arrows to highlight the selection you want and press the <RETURN> key. If you are using PrintPartner on a floppy disk only system and want to use the graphics from another disk (such as the extras disk) remove the PrintPartner disk from the floppy drive and replace it with the other disk before selecting one of these options. After you have selected one of the graphics files you will be presented with a list of the pictures in that file, use the four arrow keys to move around the menu. You will notice that the picture on the right hand side of the screen changes to the picture for the current selection. If there are more pictures then will fit on the menu there will be a selection at the end of the list "NEXT PAGE". This option will move you to the next page of pictures to choose from. Once you find the picture you want press the <RETURN> key. Page 6 BANNER FONT This selection will allow you to select the font to print the banner in. After selecting it a screen will appear showing a list of the fonts and a picture of each of them. As you use the arrow keys to move around the list the picture on the right hand side of the screen will change to show the font currently highlighted. If there are more fonts than can be listed on one screen a choice of "NEXT PAGE" at the end of the menu. Selecting it will take you to the next screen full of fonts to choose from. If you are using PrintPartner on a floppy disk only system and want to use the fonts from another disk (such as the extras disk) remove the PrintPartner disk from the floppy drive and replace it with the other disk before selecting this option. Once you have the font you wish to use highlighted press the <RETURN> key to select it. BANNER TEXT This selection will allow you to enter the text for the banner. A window will pop up for you to type the text into. You can enter up to 255 characters for the text of the banner. If you had already entered text or loaded an old banner from disk, the text that was already entered will be in the window for editing. PRINT BANNER This selection will print the banner that you have entered. If you wish to stop the printing before the banner is finished press the <ESC> key. You will be asked if you want to abort the printing or not. Answering <Y>es will stop the printing and force the printer to the beginning of the next page. Answering <N>o will cause PrintPartner to continue the printing where it left off. LOAD BANNER Load in a saved banner. You will be presented with a menu of the banner files on the disk, if there are no banner files on the disk you will be told so. If you are using PrintPartner on a floppy only system and wish to load a banner from a different disk, remove the PrintPartner disk and replace it with the data disk before selecting this option. Page 7 SAVE BANNER Save the current banner you are working on. You will be prompted for a file name to save the banner to. Enter it and press the <RETURN> key. If you enter a bad file name or there is trouble saving the banner file PrintPartner will inform you of it. If you are using PrintPartner on a floppy only system and wish to save a banner to a different disk, remove the PrintPartner disk and replace it with the data disk before selecting this option. EXIT BANNER Exit the banner maker function of PrintPartner and return to the main menu. Page 8 SIGNS The sign section of PrintPartner allows you to print signs to announce any event, happening or information you wish to display. Each sign can be done with any font you like and may have different fonts on each line. Additionally you can select up to two graphics and place them anywhere on the page in as many different places as you like. The sign section presents you with the following menu items: NEW SIGN Clear the current sign from memory. ENTER TEXT Enter the text for the sign. GRAPHIC 1 Select the first graphic for the sign. GRAPHIC 2 Select the second graphic for the sign. PRINT SIGN Print the current sign. LOAD SIGN Load an old sign from disk. SAVE SIGN Save the current sign to disk. EXIT SIGN Exit sign and return to the main menu. NEW SIGN This selection will clear out the settings of the current sign (one you have loaded or decided to start again from scratch). ENTER TEXT Selecting this option will allow you to enter the text for the sign. When you first select this option you will be presented with a list of the available fonts to choose from. If you are using PrintPartner on a floppy only system and want to use the fonts from a different disk remove the PrintPartner disk and replace it with the other disk before selecting this option. Once you select the font for the sign you will be presented with a screen to enter the text of the sign on. At the bottom of the screen of the screen is a menu area separated from the upper part of the screen by a line. It lists the function keys you can use to effect the each line of text. Above that is the text entry area. Along the left hand side of the screen is the information area. The formatting information for each line is shown in this area. First is the font name, followed by the line formatting CNTR (Centered), LEFT (Left justified), and RGHT (Right justified). Following that is the scaling for the line *1 means normal size, *2 means two times the normal size, and *3 means three times the normal size for the font. You can use the up and down arrow keys to move from line to line in the sign and type in your text. PrintPartner will only allow you to enter as much text as will fit on the line, so if you type in more text that can be printed with the font of the current size it will simply stop allowing text to be entered. You can press <RETURN> to move to the next line or use the down or up arrow to move to a different line. Page 9 When you are on a line you can use the function keys to affect that line. From the list of commands at the bottom of the screen you can do the following to each line: F1 : Change font This option will bring up the font selection screen again and allow you to select a different font to use for this line of the sign. F2 : Change size This option will change the scaling size of the font. Pressing it will increase the size from normal size, to two times normal, to three times normal. Pressing it again will return to normal size. If increasing the size of the font will not allow all of the text on the line to printed the end of the text will be cropped until it will fit on the line. F5 : Clear line This option will erase all the text on the current line. F6 : Center/Left/Line This option will change the justification of the line. Pressing it will cycle from Center to Left to Right and then back to Center again. F7 : Delete line This option will delete the current line from the sign. In the process the lines below the current line will be moved up. F8 : Insert line This option will insert a new blank line into the sign just below the current line. The new line will have the same format setting (font, size, justification) as the current line. Once you have the text entered to your satisfaction press the <ESC> key to return to the main sign painter menu. Page 10 GRAPHIC 1 and GRAPHIC 2 These option will allow you to select and position the graphics on your sign. You can select up to two different graphics by selecting either "GRAPHIC 1" or "GRAPHIC 2" and position them freehand anywhere on the sign. After selecting one of these options, you will be presented with a list of the graphics files on the disk. Just like with all the other menus, use the up and down arrows to move to the selection you want and press the <RETURN> key. If you are using PrintPartner on a floppy disk only system and want to use the graphics from another disk (such as the extras disk) remove the PrintPartner disk from the floppy drive and replace it with the other disk before selecting one of these options. After you have selected one of the graphics files you will be presented with a list of the pictures in that file, use the four arrow keys to move around the menu you will notice that the picture on the right hand side of the screen changes to the picture for the current selection. If there are more pictures then will fit on the menu there will be a selection at the end of the list "NEXT PAGE". This option will move you to the next page of pictures to choose from. Once you find the picture you want press the <RETURN> key. Now that you have the graphic selected you will be presented with a new screen and menu that allows you to select the scaling for the graphic. On the left hand side of the screen will be the menu and on the right hand side there is a picture that shows the size of the graphic at the different scaling factors in relationship to the printed page. Use the arrow keys to select one of the options and press the <RETURN> key. Next you will be presented with the positioning screen. On the left hand side of the screen is a list of the keys you can use in positioning your graphic and to the right is a representation of the page with a flashing box in it. The box represents your graphic. You can use the arrow keys to move the graphic around the page. Use the arrow keys by themselves to move the graphic slowly and use <SHIFT> key with the arrow keys to move it around quickly. Once you have the graphic where you want it press the <RETURN> key and a box will be placed there. The flashing box will return to the center of the screen. You can now move the box around and place another copy of the graphic on the screen. Keep doing so until you have all the graphics positioned where you want them. By selecting the other menu option you can select and position a second graphic on the screen. The process is the same as it was for the first, but when you get to the positioning screen you will notice boxes made out of dotted lines. These boxes represent the positioning of the other graphic that you have selected and positioned. Page 11 PRINT SIGN This selection will print the sign that you have entered. If you wish to stop the printing before the sign is finished you can press the <ESC> key. You will be asked if you want to abort the printing or not. Answering <Y>es will stop the printing and force the printer to the beginning of the next page. Answering <N>o will cause PrintPartner to continue the printing where it left off. LOAD SIGN Load in a saved sign. You will be presented with a menu of the sign files on the disk, if there are no sign files on the disk you will be told so. If you are using PrintPartner on a floppy only system and wish to load a sign from a different disk, remove the PrintPartner disk and replace it with the data disk before selecting this option. SAVE SIGN Save the current sign you are working on. You will be prompted for a file name to save the sign to. Enter it and press the <RETURN> key. If you enter a bad file name or there is trouble saving the sign file PrintPartner will inform you of it. If you are using PrintPartner on a floppy only system and wish to save a sign to a different disk, remove the PrintPartner disk and replace it with the data disk before selecting this option. EXIT SIGN Exit the sign painter function of PrintPartner and return to the main menu. Page 12 CALENDARS The calendar section of PrintPartner allows you to print calendars for any month from January 1980 to December 2098! You can select any font to be used to print the calendar. The calendar section presents you with the following menu items: SELECT MONTH Select the month for the calendar. SELECT YEAR Select the year for the calendar. SELECT FONT Select the font to print the calendar in. PRINT CALENDAR Print the current calendar. LOAD CALENDAR Load an old calendar from disk. SAVE CALENDAR Save the current calendar to disk. EXIT CALENDAR Exit calendar and return to the main menu. SELECT MONTH This selection will bring up a menu listing all the months of the year. Use the arrow keys to highlight the month you want the calendar for and press the <RETURN> key to select it. SELECT YEAR This selection will bring up a menu listing all the years that PrintPartner will allow you to print, from 1980 to 2098. Use the arrow keys to highlight the year you want the calendar for and press the <RETURN> key to select it. SELECT FONT This selection will allow you to pick the font to print the calendar's heading in. After selecting it a screen will appear showing a list of the fonts and a picture of each of them. As you use the arrow keys to move around the list the picture on the right hand side of the screen will change to show the font currently highlighted. If there are more font than can be listed on one screen at the end of the menu there will be a choice of "NEXT PAGE" selecting it will take you to the next screen full of fonts to select. If you are using PrintPartner on a floppy disk only system and want to use the fonts from another disk (such as the extras disk) remove the PrintPartner disk from the floppy drive and replace it with the other disk before selecting this option. Once you have the font you wish to use highlighted press the <RETURN> key to select it. Page 13 PRINT CALENDAR This selection will print the calendar that you have entered. If you wish to stop the printing before the calendar is finished you can press the <ESC> key. You will be asked if you want to abort the printing or not. Answering <Y>es will stop the printing and force the printer to the beginning of the next page. Answering <N>o will cause PrintPartner to continue the printing where it left off. LOAD CALENDAR Load in a saved calendar. You will be presented with a menu of the calendar files on the disk, if there are no calendar files on the disk you will be told so. If you are using PrintPartner on a floppy only system and wish to load a calendar from a different disk, remove the PrintPartner disk and replace it with the data disk before selecting this option. SAVE CALENDAR Save the current calendar you are working on. You will be prompted for a file name to save the calendar to. Enter it and press the <RETURN> key. If you enter a bad file name or there is trouble saving the calendar file PrintPartner will inform you of it. If you are using PrintPartner on a floppy only system and wish to save a calendar to a different disk, remove the PrintPartner disk and replace it with the data disk before selecting this option. EXIT CALENDAR Exit the calendar maker function of PrintPartner and return the the main menu. Page 14 PMTOPP UTILITY The file PMTOPP.EXE included with PrintPartner is a utility that will allow you to convert your PrintMaster+ graphic files to PrintPartner format. To use the utility place it with the .SDR and .SHP files from the PrintMaster+ graphics file you wish to convert. At the MSDOS command prompt type PMTOPP filename. Where "filename" is the name of the graphics file to covert. As an example if you wanted to convert the graphics in the PrintMaster+ files ULIB.SDR and ULIB.SHP you would type: C:\> PMTOPP ulib PMtoPP will look for the .SDR and .SHP files and if it finds them it will create a file with the same name containing the pictures in PrintPartner format. From this example a file named ULIB.GPH would have been created. As PMtoPP converts the graphics file it will display the name of each of the graphics being converted. If it cannot find either the .SDR or .SHP file it will inform you of the fact and which one it was that could not be found. Page 15 RANDOM NOTES Font Selection: For banners the larger the font you select the better it will look since less scaling has to take place. Also because of the method used for scaling, fonts without a lot of curves or diagonal lines look better when printed that large. Graphic Selection: For banners the same holds true for graphics as well. The larger the graphic is to begin with the better it will look when it is printed. Smoothing faults: If you have printed some banners with graphics you will notice one of the slight problems with the smoothing of the graphics and fonts when used with banners. There is a tendency for the smoothed fonts to be "rounded". You'll notice it the most on the fonts with sharp corners. The corners will get rounded and not be sharp. Disk Space: If you are using PrintPartner on a floppy only system and wish to make room on your working copy of the PrintPartner disk you can delete the PP.DOC file and the PMTOPP.EXE file. Once you have run PrintPartner and configured if for your printer you can look at the contents of the PP.CFG file and find which printer driver it is using for your printer. Once you know what driver you need, you can delete the other driver files (those files ending with the .PDR extension) to make more room. Page 16 REGISTRATION PrintPartner is a shareware product. This is not a demo or crippled version, but a full working version. If you use PrintPartner, I ask you to send $20 to Acropolis Software to register your copy in return you will receive a disk containing the latest version and an extra sampler disk of extra graphics and fonts. When you register your copy of PrintPartner, please use the order form below. If you do not use the form, please specify that you are registering PrintPartner and indicate your preferred disk format (5 1/4" or 3 1/2"). Purchases of 10 or more copies will receive a discount making each copy of PrintPartner only $10.00 a piece. _______________________________________________________________________ Registration / Order Form Name : __________________________ Company : __________________________ Address : __________________________ __________________________ City/State : __________________________ Zip Code : __________________________ (Optional) Phone : __________________________ Basic registration (less than 10 copies) : $20 x ___ = $ ______ Site license registration (10 or more copies) : $10 x ___ = $ ______ *** California residents please add 6.75% sales tax. *** Disk Format: 5 1/4" ___ 3 1/2" ___ The product being registered is PrintPartner v1.0. You will receive the latest version of PrintPartner and the free sampler disk of extra graphics and fonts. Send check or money order to: Acropolis Software P.O. Box 5037 Fair Oaks, CA 95628 Page 17 Optional Questionnaire If you have the time could you please fill out the following questionnaire to help in directing the future of PrintPartner? Please rate how important the following features are to you on a scale from 1 to 10 (with 1 being of little importance and 10 being of great importance). Any other information or comments you have will of course be welcome. ___ Color support ___ Scaleable (smooth) fonts ___ Mailing labels ___ Wide carriage printer support ___ Greeting Cards ___ Font editor/creator ___ Graphic conversion program ___ Graphics editor/creator ___ More printers (Specify: Brand __________ Model _____________) Comments: ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________