The following text is from the booklet which accompanies the book Amiga Desktop Publishing. The text has been taken from the book and not altered and because of this may not be complete. It has been placed on this CD in case any thing in here is of use to those trying to use Post. I have also placed on the CD all the files that I used to do the manual. They will need to be re-edited as fonts are missing and thus text wrappping is all astray.
For those interested IN using Post though, it should be easy enough to do and at the end you can print it out for a complete guide to using the program.
Watch out for a CD in the future which will be an all formats guide to DTP.
Larry
\dpT\ff<(CG)Times>\fs<9.000>\K\lf<12.000>\ps<100>\ls<0.000>\t<0>\c<Black>\FP<1>\pn\pv<0.500>\dS<NORMAL>o help you get to grips with PostScript, a page description language (PDL) that has become with synonymous with desktop publishing, I have complied two disks that go hand-in-hand with a tutorial in this booklet. By working through this tutorial, you will see what a PostScript file looks like on-screen and on paper. This is because Post enables you to print PostScript files to non-PostScript printers. Amongst the example PostScript files are a black & white one, a three colour separation and a colour PostScript file where you can have a look at how colours are simulated by the use of four process colours (CMYK).
You can also use Post to test your own PostScript files. It will work with most PostScript files. It isn't perfect mind you and can take a while to get to grips with. Which is why I've designed this tutorial to get you going.
If you do suffer problems it could be a number of factors causing the errors. I have had untold problems with PageStream, yet it prints fine to my PostScript printer. This could be because of some of the settings in the start-up panel of Post. One final point. Post is no substitute for a PostScript printer. It is an ideal stop gap though until you decide on whether PostScript is for you.
\dS<NORMAL subhead>Disk Contents
\dS<NORMAL>
\dS<NORMAL bold>Disk 1\dS<NORMAL>
This contains Post and associated utilities. To view or print the readme files, just double click on the document file of your choice.
\dS<NORMAL bold>Disk 2\dS<NORMAL>
On here you will find some PostScript Type 1 fonts to use with the tutorial in this manual. There is also some screen shots from Post so that you can see how Post should look when you get it up and running.
\dS<NORMAL subhead>What is Post?
\dS<NORMAL>
In short, Post is a PostScript interpreter. This means it will take a file which contains PostScript commands and convert them into an image you can see on-screen or on paper. It was written by a fine fellow called Adrian Aylward from the UK and although he has stopped development on it, another person in the United States called Robert Poole has updated it to fixes some bugs. However, he too has stopped development as far as I know.
Post has been around many years now but because of the quite complex documentation, many Amiga owners have steered clear of it. Hopefully this tutorial will show how simple it is to use.
\dS<NORMAL bold>Post has many uses:
\dS<NORMAL italics> · You can use it to check colour and black & white PostScript files
· You can use it to print PostScript files to a non-PostScript printer
· You save PostScript files as IFF-ILBMs.
· Learn more about PostScript in an interactive environment
\dS<NORMAL>
As well as Post, there are many other utilities that come with it. These are not dealt with in this booklet and if you want to use these utils, there is ample documentation on the disks.
\dS<NORMAL subhead>Memory
\dS<NORMAL>
Post is quite a memory hungry program. When you ask it to create a page, Post creates it in memory before printing it to screen, disk or an output device. Because of this, you will need at least two megabytes of memory, although more is an advantage, especially for using Post to output PostScript files to a non-PostScript printer. With 7Mb, I was unable to print a 600 dpi page using Post. More memory will also enable you to multitask with programs like ProPage.
\dS<NORMAL subhead>Installation\dS<NORMAL bold>
Overview
\dS<NORMAL>This installation requires a hard drive. I'm sure you can install Post
on a floppy based system, but working with PostScript files requires a hard drive. There is proof of this when you unpack some of the example PostScript files which are many hundreds of kilobytes.
Just a single separation for the cover of this book (Not included in this package) was 2.3Mb. It is for this reason that I have decided that anyone considering using PostScript, must already have a hard drive. If you don't, then keep this package handy until you do, because it is a very helpful program to have around if you don't have a PostScript printer.
This installation also assumes you don't have ProPage. If you do, then I would recommend you create the drawer called Post inside the PPage drawer. There are some genies available from Don Cox that enable you to send files to Post from within ProPage and it works best if the Post drawer is within ProPage's drawer.
\dS<NORMAL subhead>Copying files from place to place
\dS<NORMAL>Before we go anywhere, I'd like to go through a general copy procedure. There are many ways to copy files, the one I prefer is a directory utility. If you have one of these, no doubt you will be familiar with how to copy files using it. If you don't have a directory utility, then let's take a look at two other ways. This will be the last time I actually do a step-by-step copy procedure in this booklet. Wherever I say copy a file, you can come back to this if need be and follow the instructions here.
\dS<NORMAL bold>Workbench --- Copy\dS<NORMAL>
\dS<NORMAL INDENTED>· Open the drawer where the file is you want to copy.
· If there are no icons for the object you want to copy, select from the Windows menu, the Show menu item and then the submenu item All Files. (make sure the window on Workbench is active by clicking in it)
· Using the left mouse button, Click on the file's icon and continue to hold down the left mouse button.
· Drag the icon into the drawer you want to copy it to.
· Hey presto, the file is copied.
\dS<NORMAL>
\dS<NORMAL bold>Shell --- Copy\dS<NORMAL>
The Shell is the more powerful command and is fairly simple.
\dS<NORMAL INDENTED>· Select the Execute Command from the Workbench menu.
· Type in the string gadget, Newshell as per the screen shot.
· Make sure the disk you want to copy fromis in a drive.
\dS<NORMAL>To copy the Post files from DTP_Disk1 to the Post drawer in a partition called Work, do the following. (If your partition is called something else, change Work to the name of your partition)
This will copy both files in the one operation. This symbol is the shift key and the back slash key. (Right-hand side of keyboard on numeric row.)
Using these examples, you should now be able to adapt them to copy files from one disk to another.
\dS<NORMAL subhead>Installing Post:\dS<NORMAL>
(Post is on DTP_\dS<NORMAL bold>Disk 1)\dS<NORMAL>
We are now going to create a drawer called Post in a partition on your hard drive for Post to go in. Try to use the Partition that has the most space left on it. Avoid your System (Sys:) partition which is normally called Workbench. If you have a partition called Work, do it there.
\dS<NORMAL INDENTED>· Go to Workbench and double click on the icon for a partition (Such as Work:). A window should open.
· Now go to the Window menu and select New Drawer. Erase the text, (unnamed1) in the gadget and type Post and then click OK.
· Copy into that drawer the following files --- `Post and Post.info'
· Also copy the file `init.ps' into the same drawer as Post.
· Copy the `Post.library' from the Libs drawer on DTP_Disk 1 to the Libs drawer in your Workbench partition.
\dS<NORMAL>
\dS<NORMAL bold>Please note: \dS<NORMAL>There is a Post.library2620 which is for those with a 68020, 68030 or 68040 in their Amiga. You will also need an FPU. If you have these, you can use the faster library. Just make sure to rename it Post.library. It may crash your machine if you don't. (it did mine)
You will need some fonts for the tutorial, so do the following.
\dS<NORMAL bold>Disk 2\dS<NORMAL>
\dS<NORMAL INDENTED>· Place DTP_disk 2 in the drive.
· Go to Workbench and create a drawer called PSFonts in the Post drawer.
· Copy all the files in the PSFonts drawer on DTP_disk 2 to the PSFonts drawer that should be inside the Post drawer.
· Use a text editor/word processor to assign the PSFonts drawer. I used various programs, like the Article Editor, Wordworth, FinalWriter and Protext. If you're comfortable with Ed, use it.\dS<NORMAL>
\dS<NORMAL INDENTED>· We now need to extract the example PostScript files on DTP_Disk 2, so they are ready for the tutorial later. On disk 2 are a set of icons with the word Extract pictured on them. Double click on each of them and they will extract the files from DTP_Disk 2 to RAM. If you have limited memory, you may have to extract one file to RAM and then move to it the drawer called Post. You can use the `Show All' Windows menu item to see a files icon, enabling you to move the file from RAM to the drawer called Post.
\dS<NORMAL>
\dS<NORMAL subhead>Warning:\dS<NORMAL>
If the scripts fail, which they should not if you have a standard system, the files can be extracted using a utility such as Lz or Lha. The scripts have been tested and worked fine on both WB2 and WB3 machines.
\dS<NORMAL INDENTED>
· One last job. A Postscript file is on disk two that is not compressed. It's called Rosette.ps. Copy that to the Post drawer.
\dS<NORMAL bold>Post is now installed. Simply re-boot and you're ready to start the tutorials.
\dS<NORMAL>
\dS<NORMAL subhead>Installing the Other utilities.
\dS<NORMAL>
For what we are doing here, the other utilities are not needed. You may though find them useful, so it may be worth reading the docs for them. Following is a brief run down of what they are and where they should go.
\dS<NORMAL bold>Font Utilities:\dS<NORMAL>
These are for creating bitmap equivalents of a PostScript font. Many of you will probably opt for Compugraphic equivalents but bitmaps do have some advantages as outlined in the main book. The utilities are used from the command line and should go in the C directory. They are:
\dS<NORMAL INDENTED>· MKBmap
· MKMetric
· MKATC (creating atc files for old versions of ProPage/PageSetter.\dS<NORMAL>
You will also find some encoding files. These should go in the PSFonts drawer with the PostScript Type 1 fonts. In the S directory are some scripts I used a while ago. You might like to adapt them You will also find a LaserJet printer Driver for the LaserJet IIIP and the Source Code for Post and its libraries.
\dS<NORMAL subhead>Tutorial\dS<NORMAL>
In this tutorial we are going to do the following:
\dS<NORMAL INDENTED>
· View some PostScript files that were created by ProPage
· Interact with Post
· Print a PostScript file to a non-PostScript printer.
\dS<NORMAL>
\dS<NORMAL bold>Tutorial One\dS<NORMAL>
This is an easy one:
\dS<NORMAL INDENTED>· Go to the Post drawer and double click on Post's icon.
· You should now be faced by the Post Start-up screen.
· Click on the button next to 4 colour (CMYK)
· Click on `OK'
· Post will change to another screen.
· It will show a `running start-up file' message in the title bar. Wait until this has finished
· Now use the right mouse button to find the File menu and go down to the Run file menu item. Select it.
· A file requester will pop up and should show the `PS' files you have in the Post drawer. (Make sure you have extracted them to RAM and copied them to the Post drawer)
· Select the file called Black.ps and click on Run.
· A message called `running ' will be displayed in the title bar.
· Be patient, because although nothing seems to be happening, Post is interpreting the PostScript file.
· Bit by bit, the elements on the page, as well as crop marks, will start to appear. On the Left hand side is a scroll bar you can move up and down to view the parts of the page out of view
· This sample file is quite big and will take a while to process. When Post is finished, it will display a `Paused' message in the title bar. The page is now ready to be viewed.\dS<NORMAL>
Okay, the page doesn't look much on-screen, but this is only the start. If for example the PostScript equivelents (In the PSFonts drawer) for the fonts used on-screen (Usually bitmap or CG fonts), are not in the PSFonts drawer, a series of dots or the default font (in this case FunkyFont) would be displayed. Post will also show up other errors like a wrong page size and so on.
This should not apply to PageStream if you use PostScript fonts on-screen as these will be downloaded in the file. If you can get PageStream to work with Post that is.
\dS<NORMAL INDENTED>· Once the page has finished, go to the Control Menu and select `Continue after Pause'. The page will disappear as Post dumps it from memory. Run another file or select Quit (Project menu).\dS<NORMAL>
\dS<NORMAL bold>Tutorial Two\dS<NORMAL>
In the Post drawer should be other PostScript files you might like to view. The SepsBlack.ps, SepsBlue.ps and SepsRed.ps files are individual separations from the file we just looked at. They can be viewed the same way as the one we just looked at in the first tutorial.
The Rosette.ps file is a special case, so let's move onto tutorial three.
\dS<NORMAL bold>Tutorial Three\dS<NORMAL>
The procedure is the same as in tutorial one except we are going to play around with some of the settings in Post's start-up panel.
\dS<NORMAL INDENTED>
· Make sure you are back at the Start-Up panel. There is a Project menu item called Restart for this.
· Change the settings in the Start-Up panel to reflect the ones in the screen shot below. The halftone gadget should have five zeros behind the five. Use the Tab key to go from box to box.
· If the following message (see screenshot) comes up, reboot, because if your machine hasn't crashed, it probably will do.
· Go the Run File menu item like before and choose the file Rosette.ps.
· You should see after a while a page appear on screen. This is a colour PostScript file (not a separated colour Postscript file).
· After Post has finished rendering the page, you can start to see the different coloured dots that go to make up this rather muddy looking brown and bright green image. Let's take a closer look, shall we?
· Select Continue after Pause and select the Restart menu item. (Post can take a little while to dump this page from memory, especially on an old A500, so be patient.)
What we now want to do, is take a closer look at the dots that make up the colour brown. This method isn't perfect, but it is a similar effect to getting a powerful magnifying glass (Lupe) and looking at a colour picture in a magazine.
· Enter the figures from the screen shot above into the gadgets in the Post Start-Up panel. These settings require a bit of memory, and some of you with limited memory, may have to lower the DPI and Halftone figures. Experimenting is the key. I did this example with 7Mb of memory with only Post running.
. Please note that the Halftone gadget is 12,000,000 (without the commas of course). Simply delete the 5 and replace it with 120. (Some of the zeros are hidden in the screen shot). If this isn't set right, the `limitcheck error' will come up in the command line in Post's other screen, so take your time or it may mean rebooting.
· After the figures have all been entered, select OK.
· Once Post has run its start-up file, (init.ps), you should be ready to run the Rosette.ps file again. This time though it will take a bit longer (A lot, lot longer on Amigas with the 68000 CPU) as Post is creating the equivalent of a 1000 dpi section of the page in memory.
· The result is seen left. Now you know what a colour Rosette looks like --- in black and white!!.\dS<NORMAL>
You should now be confident enough to play with the figures in the Start-Up panel to view your own files. Don't be put off by errors and crashes, just make a note of the numbers that caused the crash or errors and learn from them.
\dS<NORMAL bold>Tutorial Four\dS<NORMAL>
We now want to look at how you can print a file to your non-PostScript printer. This too is very easy as long as you are aware of some important settings. We are going to print this file using the Shell as I don't see any point running Post just to print a file.
Before we run Post, there are few preferences we need to take care of. The first one is to change the Page Size in PrinterGFX to Absolute. Use the screen shot below as a guide.
You are now ready to print the file.
\dS<NORMAL INDENTED>· Run a Shell from Workbench.
· CD to the Post drawer.
· Type in the syntax for running Post seen in the screen shot below.\O \o
· Press return and Post will start to create the page in your Amiga's' memory. If you get an error message like, `Can't get page buffer' then you don't have enough memory. Try a lower resolution (lower density perhaps). I have a 4Mb 500Plus which went through these tests okay. \dS<NORMAL>
On a standard Amiga, the print process can take a long while, so be prepared for a wait. This is one reason why a PostScript printer is better than a software based one like Post. A printer like the HP 4MP or 4MPlus will create the page in seconds rather hours!
\dS<NORMAL bold>Tutorial Five:\dS<NORMAL>
This is the last of the tutorials and is where we go interactive to give you a taste for the PostScript language and how it works. This is optional as it won't help you unless you want know how a PostScript file works once it gets in to the printer.
\dS<NORMAL INDENTED>
· Run Post from its icon and don't worry about changing any of the settings in the start-up screen.
· Once Post has finished its start-up routine, select the menu item Interactive from the File menu.
· Type into the command line at the top of the screen the following;
A circle should appear on-screen like this:
· To get rid of this you need to type into the command line the following:
Next step is to check our fonts in the PSFonts draw. A little hint here if you add any. They have to be renamed without the PFB extension. Let's see why.
\dS<NORMAL INDENTED>
· Rename the Times-Roman
font in the PSFonts drawer to Times-Roman.pfb.
· Go back to Post's screen and type into the command line the following:
· Press Return. Notice how the cursor came back quickly.
· Now type this
· After a while, you get the message you typed out on-screen, but it's not Times-Roman is it? In fact, it's the default font called FunkyFont (this should be in the PSFonts drawer) and if the font required isn't found, this is what you'll get. If the Font FunkyFont isn't found, you'll get black dots.
· To test this theory further, go back to Times-Roman in the PSFonts drawer and remove the pfb.extension using the Rename command.
· Go back to Post and use the Erasepage command to clear the screen.
· Now go back and perform the same commands as before. The command line in Post has a history function so that you can use the up and down cursor keys to bring back the commands you have used before (just like the Shell).
\dS<NORMAL>
Now when you perform the `findfont' command there is delay and when you use the `show' command, the text is now shown in Times.
Now that you have the hang of working with Post in an interactive manner, you might like to experiment a bit. Hopefully you are now a fully qualified PostScript expert and won't get the shakes when you hear the word Post or PostScript.
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Many more books are planned and many will have tutorials like this. One that already does is Fonts and Clip Art where we go through the process of copying files using a directory utility and extracting files from an archive. Fonts & Clip Art is \1639.95 and comes with two disks and manual. As all my customers keep telling me. It's great value. Byeeee
