¢DTP Atari8¢¢by Eric Bemrose¢¢¢ Perhaps the best known of the text processing programs available is the Daisy-Dot series from Roy Goldman.¢¢ I'll pass over the first Daisy Dot program, because I don't have it, and instead start with Daisy-Dot II. This is an improved version of the original, which produces a high quality proportional text using special NLQ fonts that are printed with the dot graphics mode of your printer.¢¢ Daisy-Dot II (DDII from now on) is in the Public Domain and is available from the NOSAUG PD Library. Daisy Dot II is Disk U37, with extra fonts and utilities on Disk U38.¢¢ DDII is on a double sided disk, which contains the Print Processor, Font Editor, Font Utilities program, 15 fonts, and Billboard by Chris Wareham. Twenty four pages of documentation is supplied in DDII format, read the READ.ME file to see how to print it out. The program needs a minimum of 48k to run, and supports the Epson EX/FX/JX/LX/RX/MkIII, and Star Gemini SG/NP/NX printers.¢¢ As this is only a processing program, a text file must first be created with a word processor. The file must then be printed (not saved) to disk in order to create a formatted file. Therefore this is an ideal program to use with the pre-formatted documentation files found on many disks.¢¢ The general shape of the page is thus created using your word processors commands. However DDII has its own commands that can be inserted into the text file. These are preceded by the backslash character (\). Created by pressing ESCAPE, then SHIFT and LEFT ARROW. The DDII commands are detailed below.¢¢FONT. A new font can be loaded at any time, even between letters in a word if required. If you have a RAMdisk, printing with multiple fonts can be speeded up considerably, as printing pauses to load the font. The text file can also be loaded from the RAMdisk.¢¢DENSITY. Single, double, double draft and quadruple density can be selected for any line. Double density is the default, double draft is of lesser quality but prints twice as fast, good for test printing. Single density is also more 'dotty', but it is twice as wide, good for large headings. Quadruple density is half as wide as double, good for footnotes, etc.¢¢SPACING. Spacing between characters can be increased from zero up to twenty columns apart, default is two columns.¢¢BLOCK LEFT. Sets text to the left margin. This is the default condition, this command cancels block right, centering and justification.¢¢CENTRE. Sets centred text for all following lines until cancelled.¢¢BLOCK RIGHT. Sets text to right margin for all following lines until cancelled.¢¢JUSTIFICATION. Sets an even line between left and right margins until cancelled.¢¢RIGHT MARGIN. This can be set from zero in 0.5 inch (12.7mm) increments.¢¢BOLDFACE. Sets bold printing on and off, for complete lines only.¢¢WIDE. Sets double wide printing on and off, which can be mixed with normal text on a single line.¢¢UNDERLINE. Sets continuous underlining on and off.¢¢APPEND. Allows the chaining of text files to allow the printing of a long document.¢¢TAB. DDII has its own tab commands to suit the proportional fonts.¢¢VERBATIM. This command loads files as is, and is used to load graphics dumps.¢¢NEW PAGE. Forces a line feed and resets the line count, for use when including a graphics dump, which disrupts the line count. The DDII page is 66 lines long to suit 11 inch paper.¢¢ Global formatting commands are available from the main menu of the print processor to control the choice of font, density, spacing, justification, boldface, double wide text, and right margin. These choices will be overridden by the relevant local commands in the text file.¢¢ The main menu also controls printing of pages. All, one, or a range of selected pages can be printed. Odd or even pages can be selected for printing on both sides of the paper. Double column printing can also be done if two files are created in left and right column formats, then printed with the odd and even setting. Up to 99 copies can be printed at a time.¢¢ The font editor is also an improved version of the original, it can create or edit the special NLQ fonts used by the print processor. The fonts are restricted to the 91 ASCII characters 32 to 95, 97 to 122, and 124, but these can be edited to create whatever character is needed. Some fonts, such as BORDERS.NLQ, contain only special characters and graphics.¢¢ The font utilties program has two options. The first allows conversion of standard Atari fonts into the NLQ format. The converted font will then need to be edited to improve the quality, and to remove blank columns that are not needed in a proportional font.¢¢ The second option italicises NLQ fonts. This also creates unwanted blank columns with some characters, they will also have to be removed with the editor.¢¢ Finally there is Billboard. I will be looking at this program in more detail in a later article. This is a program intended for printing standard 62 sector files in graphics 7.5/8/9 with Epson printers. This version has been modified to allow printing to disk as well as its normal function. The graphics dump so created can now be included into a text file using the Verbatim command. This dump can also be used by other programs such as Mini Office II. The picture can be blocked to left, right, or centre, in four densities, with a choice of sizes. Pictures can also be printed sideways, or inversed if needed.¢¢ In conclusion, this is an excellent program that can produce documents to a near professional standard. It has inspired an offshoot program, Dot Magic, that will be examined in the next column.¢
