Postman is your basic drag-and-drop Postscript™ downloader utility but with a few important bells and whistles. It batch downloads any combination of Postscript™ text and EPS files to your Chooser-selected Postscript™ printer. In addition, you can call it to selectively download or remove fonts, apply standard "Page Setup…" transformations like flipping and inverting the page, centre the imageable area and print multiple copies or particular pages within the Postscript™ file. Postman also summarises important details such as image size, number of pages and font usage for you.
Advantages
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• Postman is small. It doesn't consume oodles of disk or memory space.
• Postman is cheap. Unlike commercial downloaders which have other features and a different focus, e.g. PrePrint™.
• Postman is fast. You don't have to download files individually, just select the whole batch and off you go, unlike e.g. the Laserwriter Utility™. Postman is fastest when you leave all the options at their defaults.
• Postman is smart. Unlike freeware downloaders, you can actually include fonts, image transform, select number of copies and range of pages. Postman analyses the Postscript™ files for you. And you thought Postscript™ files were just for dumb dumping!
Installation
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Postman is a small application file without any other support files, thus it can simply be placed anywhere on your hard disk. It comes preset to open in a 128K memory partition, which you should increase before you attempt opening many Postscript™ files with many fonts. Postman is known to work perfectly with the Laserwriter 8 drivers; with other drivers straight dumping (additional options at default values) will probably work even if some of the options don't work.
Using Postman
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1. From the Finder, simply drag your combination of Postscript™ text and EPS files to the Postman icon. Or, open the application and use "Print…" from the "File" menu to select a series of Postscript text and EPS files using the standard "Open…" type box. Click on "Done" when you're done selecting or "Cancel" to abort.
2. Postman will put up a modified "Page Setup…" type dialog box. A short summary appears below the standard options:
• Files. Summarises the number of files selected. Postman will tell you the number of files that conform to the Adobe Document Structuring Conventions; only conforming files are guaranteed to respond to the additional options in this dialog box and the next. Postman also tells you if the files are EPS or portrait/landscape. If there are any files Postman has difficulty opening, these are reported too.
• Bytes. Summarises the total file size in bytes.
• Size. Summarises the total imageable area in inches and cm i.e. the minimum area required to image all of the files.
• Pages. Summarises the total number of pages in all the files.
• Fonts. Summarises the font usage. Postman reports how many fonts were used, how many may need downloading (i.e. they are used in the files but not already downloaded there) and how many are included in the file (i.e. used and already downloaded). If there are any fonts that may need downloading but can't be found on your system, Postman reports which.
3. From the "Page Setup…" type dialog box, you can choose the following additional options:
• Don't change downloaded fonts. The default. Postman will print the file as-is, without downloading or removing any of the fonts in the files. If any of the fonts used in the file wasn't downloaded in the file and isn't available on the printer, the file will print incorrectly.
• Remove all downloaded fonts. Postman will attempt to remove all the fonts downloaded in the files. This will speed up printing, but the printer must have the fonts available.
• Download all fonts used. Postman will download all the fonts used in the files, except for those fonts it can't locate in your Font folder (so noted in the summary, if any). This ensures that the file will print with the fonts as used, but may slow down printer and is not necessary if the printer already has the fonts to be downloaded.
• Apply your transformations. Normally, selecting the vertical flip, horizontal flip, image invert and reduce/enlarge options from the dialog box doesn't affect the printed result. To have these transformations work, select this option. This is useful for changing positives to negatives, or emulsion down to emulsion up, for example.
• Centre artwork on paper. To centre the artwork on the paper, select this option. This is useful for recentring the artwork after applying transformations, or printing a piece on larger paper.
Click on "OK" when you're done or "Cancel" to abort.
Note: this version does not support the "Layout:" options i.e. 2-up, 4-up etc.
4. Postman will put up a modified "Print…" type dialog box. The same summary as before appears below the standard options. You can choose the following additional options:
• Use your copies. Normally, Postman prints the original number of copies printed in the file. To have Postman print a different number of copies, type it in the "Copies:" field and select this option.
• Use your page range. Normally, Postman prints all the pages printed in the file. To have Postman print a certain range of pages, type it in the "Pages:" fields and select this option.
• Match original page numbering. Normally, Postman will figure page ranges based on the order of printing within the files e.g. a file has 10 pages, so printing page 8 to 9 will print the 8th and 9th page printed in the file. Selecting this option causes Postman to attempt to figure page ranges based on the original document order e.g. if that file was actually page 5 to 14 of the original document, printing page 8 to 9 will print the actual page 8 and 9 of the document (which would be the 4th and 5th pages printed in the file, actually!).
• Send but don't print other pages. Normally, Postman will not send pages to the printer that aren't in the page range. But a few programs that produce Postscript™ (e.g. Aldus Pagemaker™ with "Page Independence" set to off) may include important information in these pages (e.g. previously downloaded fonts) without which your selected pages print incorrectly. Selecting this option causes Postman to send these pages anyway, but inhibit their printing. This will slow down printing, but may be the only option that will print correctly such Postscript files.
Click on "OK" when you're done or "Cancel" to abort.
5. Postman will spool (if you have "Background Printing" on in the Chooser) or print the files as you've requested, putting up a progress indicator, which indicates file name, page and approximate amount of the file actually spooled or printed. You can cancel printing by pressing cmd-. If you've left all the additional options at their default values (straight dumping), the files will print much faster.
Postman as Shareware
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Postman is a shareware program. The programmer spent valuable time writing and debugging Postman so that it would be a viable Postscript utility for the community at large. Therefore, please pay the shareware fee if you use the program. The shareware fee entitles you to a lifetime of money-free and guilt-free upgrades — only registered users are automatically notified of updates. Otherwise, kindly delete it from your hard disk (but not before passing it to your friend, company or fellow modemmer!).
If you are in Singapore, you should send your cheque for S$10 to:
Eyeball Soup Designs
26 Farrer Road
#01-03 Sutton Place
Singapore 1026
Republic of Singapore
Phone: 65-4678614
Fax: 65-4678612
E-Mail: eyeball@singnet.com.sg
If you are an international user, you should send your cheque for US$10 or VISA/MC credit card no. & expiry date to:
ElectroDynamics, Inc.
9557 Crosley
Redford MI 48239
United States of America
Phone: 1-313-5346514
Fax: 1-313-5341390
E-Mail: 70451.54@compuserve.com
You will need to send your name & phone no. for verification. If you want to be automatically notified of updates, please include also your e-mail, fax no. or address. There’s a registration form in SimpleText format included in this package that you can use to e-mail, fax or mail these details to us.
You can reach me through the Singapore numbers, if you have any bug reports, wish lists for the next version, requests for projects (I do DTP and design work, Macintosh systems consultancy, customisation and programming, write, watch movies, bum around etc.) or just want to chat.
