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PrintPartner v1.1 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. FILE LIST PrintPartner comes with the following files: PP.EXE The PrintPartner Program. PP.DOC This manual. PP11.NEW What's new to this version. PMTOPP.EXE PrintMaster+ to PrintPartner converter. STANDARD.GPH Standard graphics file. DINO.GPH An extra graphics file. ARTNOUV.FON Font files. BASEL.FON CIRCUS.FON CMBX10.FON GREENBAY.FON HOUSTON.FON MALIBU.FON MCCLOUD.FON PADOVA.FON SANDIEGO.FON SCAN.FON APPLEIMG.PDR Printer driver files. CITMSP.PDR EPSON.PDR MOST24.PDR LASERJET.PDR 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 Picture Editor ...................................... 14 PMtoPP Utility ...................................... 18 Random Notes ...................................... 19 Registration ...................................... 20 Questionnaire ...................................... 22 Page 1 OVERVIEW PrintPartner is a program to allow you to make printed banners, signs, and calendars. 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 and may be sized 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. You can edit pictures and create new one. The printers that PrintPartner is known to support are: Apple Imagewriter Epson FX-850 Star NX-10 Citizen MSP-10/15 Epson RX-80 Star NX-2400 Citizen MSP-20/25 IBM Proprinter X24 Generic 8/9 pin Citizen MSP-50/55 Microline 190 Series Generic 24 Epson FX-80/85 NEC P5/P5xl HP LaserJet III Epson LQ-2500 NEC P6/P7 HP LaserJet II's Epson LQ-510 Panasonic KX-P1124 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. PrintPartner needs at least 384K of RAM to run. 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 PICTURE MAKER To edit and create pictures 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 SELECT PRINTER PORT 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. SELECT PRINTER PORT Allows you to select the printer port PrintPartner should output to. The currently supported ports are LPT1, LPT2, and LPT3. 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. BANNER HEIGHT Select the height 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. BANNER HEIGHT This selection will allow you to select the height of the banner. The choices are Full height, 2/3 Height, and 1/2 Height. You select which one you want using the up and down arrow keys and pressing ENTER when you are on the choice you want. The height of the banner effects the length of the banner. The taller the banner the longer it will be. Use this option to scale down the size of the banner when the default full height size is too large for the situation. 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 allow you to select and position pictures on your sign. You can select up to two different graphics. Selecting "GRAPHIC 1" or "GRAPHIC 2" and position them freehand anywhere on the sign. After selecting one of these options, you will see a list of the graphics files. Just like with all the other menus, use the up and down arrows to select the file you want and press RETURN. If you are using a floppy disk system and want to use the graphics from another disk remove the PrintPartner disk from the 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 see a list of the pictures in that file, use the four arrow keys to move around the menu. Notice that the picture on 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 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. To the right is a representation of the page with a flashing box in it. The box represents your graphic. Additionally, there may be other boxes in on the right side of the screen. Boxes with made of dashed lines represent the placement of the other graphics on the page (GRAPHIC 1 if you are positioning graphic 2 or GRAPHIC 2 if you are positioning graphic 1). Boxes (typically rectangles) made of dotted lines represent the text you have entered as it will be placed on the page. 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. The SHIFT-ARROW keys do not seem to work on all machines so there is another option to select from: [F]ast mode. Pressing the "F" key will toggle fast mode off and on. When fast mode is on the normal arrow keys will move the box quickly just as if you were holding the SHIFT key down. 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 dashed 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 PICTURE EDITOR The Picture Maker section of PrintPartner allows you to edit existing pictures and create new ones. The Picture Maker section presents you with the following menu: NEW PICTURE Clear the current picture. EDIT PICTURE Start editing the current picture. LOAD PICTURE Load a picture to be edited. SAVE PICTURE Save the current picture. DELETE PICTURE Delete a picture from a graphics file. EXIT Exit picture maker and return to the main menu. NEW PICTURE This clears the current picture from the drawing area, giving you a blank slate to start working from. You will first be asked if you want to erase the picture. This is to prevent you from accidentally erasing a picture that you did not want to erase. EDIT PICTURE This command allows you to do the actual editing of a picture. When you select this command the menu on the left side of the screen will be replaced with a list of keys that you can use in editing the picture. The Arrow keys, the Shifted Arrow keys. Draw mode: [M]ove, [I]nvert, [B]lack, [W]hite. [F]ast to toggle the fast move mode on and off. [S]ave to revert buffer. [R]evert to saved image. [SPACE] to place a black dot. [ESC] to stop editing. When you first start editing there will be a blinking dot at the upper left side of the drawing area. That is were any of the drawing mode functions will take effect. You can use the arrow keys and the shifted arrow keys to move the dot around the drawing area. On some systems the shifted arrow keys do not seem to work. You can instead use the [F]ast toggle function to speed up the movement. When the fast mode is on the normal (un-shifted) arrow keys will move the dot around quickly just as if the shift key as pressed. You can slow the movement down again by toggling the fast mode off again with the "F" key. Page 15 Depending on which drawing mode you are in, moving the dot will cause different things to happen. [M]ove : The dot is just moved without effecting the drawing area. [I]nvert : The area the dot moves over will be inverted. Meaning that the black dots under it will turn white and white dots will turn black. [B]lack : The area the dot travels over will turn black. [W]hite : The area the dot travels over will turn white. The drawing mode can be changed at anytime by pressing the first letter of the mode you want to be in M, I, B, or W. Pressing the spacebar [SPACE] will place a black dot where the dot is currently blinking. This makes drawing diagonal lines easier. When you are in the move drawing move you can place a dot move the current dot, place a dot, move the current dot and so on. [S]ave to revert buffer saves the current picture in the drawing area to a buffer. You can then used the [R]evert command later to restore the picture in the drawing area to the one just saved. [R]evert to saved image. This will take the image saved in the revert buffer with the [S]ave command and replace the one in the drawing area with it. You will be asked if your really want to revert to the old image before the picture is actually replaced. When you revert to an a saved image the saved image will be placed in the drawing area and the current dot will be moved to the upper left corner of the area. Additionally, you will be placed back into the move mode. If you had not saved an image in the revert buffer the saved image is the picture as it was when you first entered the EDIT PICTURE function. Pressing the [ESC] key will take you out of the picture editing mode and return you to the main picture maker menu. Page 16 LOAD PICTURE This command loads a picture from a graphic file into the drawing area. It works just like all the other graphic selection commands. You will be presented with a list of graphic (.GPH) files to choose from. Use the up and down arrow keys to select the one you want and press the RETURN key. You will then be presented with a list of picture names. Use the arrow keys to move around the list. As you move you will see the highlighted picture on the right side of the screen. If there is a NEXT PAGE at the end of the list you can select it to move to the next screen full of pictures to choose from. When you find the picture you want, press the RETURN key to select it. The picture will be loaded into the drawing area on the right side of the screen. You can now use the EDIT PICTURE, and SAVE PICTURE commands to do things with it. SAVE PICTURE This command allows you to save the picture in the drawing area (even a blank picture) to a graphics (.GPH) file. When you select this option you will be presented with a list of the graphics files on the disk. Additionally, there will be an item at the top of the list "New File". If you select one of the files the picture will be placed in that file. If you select the New File option you will be prompted for the name of the file to make. Once you enter a good file name it will be created and the picture will be added to that file. Now that you have selected the file to place the picture in you will be prompted from the name to give the picture. You can use any typable characters you want in the picture name, and it may be up to twenty (20) characters long. When you are finished typing in the name press the RETURN key. The picture will be added to the graphics file you selected. If there is already a picture with the same name as the name you entered for this picture you will be told so and asked if you want to replace the existing picture with the new one. By responding yes the old picture will be deleted and the new one added to the file. If you respond no the save operation will be aborted and you will be returned to the main picture maker menu. Page 17 DELETE PICTURE This command allows you to select a picture in a graphics file to be deleted. It works just like all the other graphic selection commands. You will be presented with a list of graphic (.GPH) files to choose from. Use the up and down arrow keys to select the one you want and press the RETURN key. You will then be presented with a list of picture names. Use the arrow keys to move around the list. As you move you will see the highlighted picture on the right side of the screen. If there is a NEXT PAGE at the end of the list you and select it to move to the next screen full of pictures to choose from. When you find the picture you want press the RETURN key to select it. You will then be prompted to make sure that you really want to delete that picture from the file. If you respond with a Yes, the picture will be deleted from the file. If you respond No, you will be returned to the main picture maker menu. EXIT Exit the picture maker section of PrintPartner and return to the main menu. Page 18 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 19 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. Screen Graphics: Due to the varying aspect ratio on the large number of different display card and monitor combinations for MSDOS machines the graphics and fonts shown on the screen may not always look like they will on the printer. They may look stretched or shrunk either horizontally or vertically. 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. Delete the other driver files (those files ending with the .PDR extension) to make more room. Laser Printing: Due to the 1 to 1 aspect ratio used by laser printers items printed on them will be slightly compressed horizontally. Loading Saved: Saved signs are not always compatible between printers. If you create a sign, it may not print properly if you start using a different printer driver. If the printer drivers have the same horizontal and vertical resolution it will look alright. Otherwise you would be better off remaking the sign. But then how often do you change printers? Page 20 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 sales tax. *** Disk Format: 5 1/4" ___ 3 1/2" ___ The product being registered is PrintPartner v1.1. You will receive the latest version of PrintPartner and a sampler disk of extra graphics and fonts. Send check or money order in US funds to: Acropolis Software P.O. Box 5037 Fair Oaks, CA 95628 Page 21 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 --- Gift wrapping paper printing ___ More printers (Specify: Brand __________ Model _____________) Comments: