ePress creates standalone electronic business cards (eCards) which can be distributed on conventional media or over networks to facilitate exchange of personal information.
Typical use of an eCard would be to send it as an attachment to an e-mail message to provide the recipient with more than the usual text-only signature.
Requirements
ePress requires System 7.1 and the Thread Manager to run. The Thread Manager is built into System 7.5 (or later versions), and can be installed in previous systems in the form of a system extension (distributed from Apple). eCards require System 7 or better.
Conditions of Distribution
This software is available free to the public. Please do not modify the program without my permission and please notify me if you plan to distribute it.
Version History
･ 4.0.7 - First attempt to modernize ePress after quite some time of inactivity; the code has been modified slightly and some bugs which appeared with newer versions of Mac OS should be fixed; the documentation has been updated with new contact information; the separate localization plug-ins and the Simpsons plug-in have been incorporated into a unique package.
･ 4.0.6 - Minor changes to the code and interface. Documentation has been updated with new contact information.
･ 4.0.5 - Fixed a bug that deleted some eCards whenever saving changes to disk.
･ 4.0.4 - More bug fixes related to the Clipboard operations.
･ 4.0.3 - Fixed a bug associated with the scroll bar in the eCard editing window. Improvements in interface performance and functionality.
･ 4.0.2 - Added support in plug-ins and eCards for another resource type: ﾔclutﾕ (Color Lookup Table). This version of ePress is backward compatible with existing 4.0.x eCards.
･ 4.0.1 - Improved reliability. Some minor interface changes. Drawing operations and interface responsiveness can be significantly faster on most machines. The clipboard now supports ﾔppatﾕ and ﾔcicnﾕ resources properly. ePress doesnﾕt attempt any longer to import pictures and icons whose dimension is larger than eCardsﾕ boundaries.
･ 4.0.0 - Final release.
･ 4.0b3 - Public beta release.
Author Information
I spend most of my spare time learning to write software for the Mac. You might have seen some of my other freeware projects (Address Pad, Internet Launcher) or the only commercial package I worked on (the ichat Pager). I am originally from the province of Naples (Italy). I moved to Austin, TX a couple years ago and left that wonderful city a few months ago to come to Boston. I am now attending Boston University, whose tuition will make me a lot skinnier and less prone to give software away for free. If you wish to make a donation for this program, offer me an interesting job for the summer or if you just want to send me a postcard (very appreciated), please use the following contact information:
Gabriele de Simone
45 Hemenway St, #2
Boston, MA 02115
U.S.A.
E-mail: zelig@bu.edu
Homepage: http://people.bu.edu/zelig
Aknowledgements
Many thanks to all the beta testers and localizers who helped me with this project and to the dearest users who sent contributions of many sorts to encourage development of new ePress versions. It's mainly because of their participation that I decided to keep working on such a scope-limited program. A special mention goes to the anonymous contributor who sent me those wonderful ﾔDebugﾕ glow-in-the-dark boxers from the Metrowerks GeekWare collection.
Plug-in Architecture
The new plug-in architecture built into ePress accepts three types of documents which can extend the applicationﾕs functionality (but not modify its interface or behaviour). Localization and Code plug-ins actually contain the data ePress uses to create eCard applications. Snapshot plug-ins are libraries of graphic elements you can install in your eCards (snapshots, background patterns and interface palettes).
･ Localization plug-ins contain the language-dependent interface elements of an eCard (menus).
･ Code plug-ins contain object code and application resources of an eCard.
･ Snapshot plug-ins contain any or all of picture, Finder icons, color icon, pattern and palette type resources (ﾔPICTﾕ, ﾔICN#ﾕ, ﾔicl8ﾕ, ﾔicl4ﾕ, ﾔcicnﾕ, ﾔppatﾕ, ﾔclutﾕ).
Any file can be changed to a plug-in by simply setting its type and creator to reflect the desired kind of plug-in (it has to contain compatible resources to be used, though). For a plug-in to be recognized on application launch, it must be located anywhere within the ePress folder.
Cross Platform Compatibility
One major drawback of eCards is their inability to run on other platforms. Keep this in mind when sending your eCard over networks: only Macintosh recipients will be able to view its content.
Also, when sending your eCard as an attachment to your Internet mail, make sure that the eCard is compressed and encoded before being attached to your message. Mail programs usually support automatic encoding of a message attachments. Some even provide automatic compression. Cross platform implementation of eCard though the Java language is being considered for future versions.
Importing Other Graphic Files
If QuickTime 2.5 (or later) and Macintosh Easy Open are installed ePress will let you import (via the ﾔInsert > picture file...ﾕ menu command under the ﾔFileﾕ menu) other popular graphic formats such as GIF and JPEG. The conversion to the PICT format is done transparently and automatically for you by QuickTime. The rules on the maximum width and height of importable pictures also apply to these converted files.
QuickTime Compressed Images
ePress lets you import and paste QuickTime images into eCards, for the fact that QuickTime compressed PICTs are treated equally to conventional PICT data. Though compressed images are smaller to distribute than their uncompressed equivalent, remember that the receiver will be able to view these images only if QuickTime is installed on his/her machine. Though QuickTime is very likely to be installed everywhere these days, using uncompressed images is an easy workaround. Uncompressed images also load faster than compressed ones on eCard launch.
Why doesnﾕt my snaphot draw correctly?
There are some rare cases when a snapshot is not viewed when the eCard is opened. If the snapshot you install in the eCard is complex (such as for a 24-bit image) the default application memory partition may be insufficient to view the snapshot. Simply increase the eCard application memory (in the Finder ﾔGet Infoﾕ window) to view your image correctly.
What happens if I use fonts from my personal collection?
One of the great improvements over the previous versions is support for styled text. However, before browsing your huge personal collection of fonts looking for the fanciest candidate to use in your eCard, keep in mind that the recipient will view your eCard correctly only if the fonts you use are also installed on his Macintosh.
Times and Helvetica, for example, are very likely to be found on every Macintosh on earth; other fancy fonts, while great looking, may produce unpredictable results when viewed on a Macintosh where that particular font family is not available.
Background Patterns
The type of resource ePress uses to draw background patterns is ﾔppatﾕ. This format is also used by Appleﾕs Desktop Patterns control panel. However, when you copy a pattern from Desktop Patterns, a picture, not a ﾔppatﾕ resource, is copied into the clipboard. If you later paste that pattern in ePress, the picture is - as you should already now - imported as a PICT-type snapshot. To successfully paste patterns you need to copy them with a resource editor (like ResEdit) or create ﾔppatﾕ resources yourself (again, with a resource editor or some other pattern utility).
Custom Palettes explained
Beginning with version 4.0.2, you can customize the colors in eCardsﾕ interface by installing a ﾔclutﾕ type resource. ePress (and eCards) uses any ﾔclutﾕ resource which contains at least 9 colors and ignores all colors in the table whose index is higher than 9. The first seven colors are used for all interface elements except text contained in text fields. The last two colors in the ﾔclutﾕ palette (indexes 8 and 9) are used as the text back and fore colors. As for the current version, the text fore color is practically ignored and its value substituted by the color(s) you apply in the ePress editing window. The text fore color has been solely provided for future versions which might need that value for other interface elements.
The ﾔPersonal Infoﾕ menu commands
As with previous ePress versions, it is possible for the user to save all textual information and some customization settings into a private ﾔPersonal Infoﾕ record. This way, it is possible to avoid re-entering all your personal information each time you have to make your own eCard.
It is also possible (via the option in the ﾔPreferencesﾕ window), to paste these information every time the ﾔNew...ﾕ command is chosen from the ﾔFileﾕ menu (making it the default information from which to start building a new eCard).
To store these ﾔPersonal Infoﾕ, choose the ﾔCopy to Personal Infoﾕ command (under the ﾔEditﾕ menu) whenever a new or existing eCard is being edited. Similarly, choose ﾔPaste Personal Infoﾕ to fill out the current eCard with the ﾔPersonal Infoﾕ (if you saved any). The previous content of the eCard is replaced by the new text.
Keyboard Shortcuts
･ Holding down the Option key and pressing the left and right arrows in the eCard editing window lets you view the previous/next snapshot in the current plug-in.
･ Holding down the Control key and pressing the left and right arrows in the eCard editing window lets you view the previous/next pattern in the current plug-in.
･ When the Credits in the about window are scrolling, the up and down arrows control the scrolling speed, while the tab key pauses/restarts the animation.
