Commodore Free 34/Commodore_Free_Issue_34_2009_Commodore_Computer_Club.d64/geos to pdf

Text File | 2023-02-26 | 14KB | 401 lines

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    Update on the PDF Project
     Lord Ronin from Q{$de}Link
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Few days back, a guy asked me why am
I spending so much time and
frustration on making these Geos
files into PDF files. OK I hadn't
slept well, no coffee yet, there was
some minor water in the shop, and of
course I am biased for the C=. So
perhaps that explains my head
turning, framed in the mess of hair
that looks like a cross between Karl
Mark and Charlie Manson, smoke
pouring out of my mouth, tendrils
curling through the beard. Ah I had
to change to a heavier pipe tobacco,
with the eyes red, hopefully from
lack of sleep. As I replied "Because
not every one in the world is smart
enough to use Geos!". Hmm I wonder if
that is why the guy looked so
shocked, or was it the Nam T shirt I
was wearing?

Truth is that it is a new thing to
learn for me, that is not just on the
Commodore. I need to present the work
to those less fortunates that do not
have C= and Geos. OK I know that
there are a lot of people that do not
like Geos. Having other Word
Processing and Desk Top Publishing
programmes that they prefer. While
others just plainly are not doing
writing things on the Commodore. Even
though the files that I make here, in
the way that I make them can be seen
by other systems. Still have to use a
non C= system to put them up at this
time, progressed since the previous
articles. Right of I want to thank
Nigel (www.commodorefree.com) and
Allan (www.commodorescene.org.uk )
for their assistance in ironing this
out and getting me to this point, and
thanks to Destined!/weirdwolf/No.8
for his assistance in finding
programmes and doing testing for me.
Right then what I am aiming and
missing is to present the update of
the experiments in making the PDF
files that are sent off from me to
the poor victims, called editors of
other C= publications. Part of this
is a review; part of this is an
update of how things have.

Next an apology for those that are
reading this from the wonderful .D64
file made by Al Jackson. BTW the new
menu is fantastic on the disk. This
is the way that I present the issues
of Commodore Free to members of my
users group. Meaning that I know the
images I am placing in this piece
will not be seen by you. Never fear
on this one. They are just some snaps
I took with a camera that puts the
image on a floppy. Transfer that into
the RAM on the 128 with GeoDos. They
are just some multi sided dice for
the Role Playing Games {SHIFT-+}ah you just
knew that I would have to toss RPG in
here some place{SHIFT--} Testing for clarity
and scale, as they are 1" <approx
25mm> or less. Shot on the 128Dcr
keyboard for reference. They look
good on the camera screen, and in the
eps files that I made. But really
don't need to be seen for this piece,
to follow what I am doing, or
attempting to do with this project.

OK now a fast review of the steps
that we have done in the past. Then
the new stuff and then the road
block. Right then the first part is
to have an idea of what I want to do,
since that is a rare event. I just
jump in and hope for the best.
Starting off by writing some text in
GeoWrite in 80 column. Here I must
explain that I usually write the text
in Times Roman at 14 point, as I am
doing for this article. But I use the
bold face style. Easier for me to see
on the screen, and I use in my
printing an imported font. Bold has
the right spacing, pretty much, for
the imported font. But it does make
the post script conversion almost
impossible to read. Super bold, like
big blobs of black. Took me some time
to figure that problem. Well that
means that after the bold is removed.
There is more space in the document.
EX: 20 pages in bold for the print
newsletter. Becomes 16 1/3 on average
for the non bold for the Cyberspace
issue.

OK next part of the review is how I
made the files. Lay out the GeoWrite
file in post print 3.8. Slight aside
here. If you have the PPv4, GeoPaint
is cut at the top. Do not expand it
in post print v4 to a full page. If
so you will lose the top 3/4" in
general. Just pull the image to the
bottom of the lay out page, and well
hope for the best. I've used 5
printers, of two different models and
had the same problem on each of them.
OK where was I?

Oh yeah, next is go into the print
options. There I tell it to be in
level 2, colour on and I am not sure
of all the other settings. You know a
manual would have been nice for this
tool. Anyway in print, I tell it to
make a disk file. There I select
Linux /Amiga and Unix are in the same
listing along with it being a plain
ASCII thing. Tell it where to go, I
am great at telling things and people
that one. Give it a name and hit
return. Having the SCPU makes things
go fast. I now have a post script
file. That is then copied to a floppy
on the FD with GeoDos. Taken to the
Linux system, copied to desk top and
we are ready.

Well that was what I was doing. Loads
of T&E to get that far. Any jpegs
where stuck on the back page with a
bit of text explaining what they
were. Used a tool to convert the
postscript file to PDF For some
reason the postscript file is just
one page when viewed, but becomes the
full document when converted. OK so
far, except that if you look at the
document pages in anything but 100%.
Bugger doesn't scale, I mean it looks
like, well to my eyes, it looks like
going into zoom in Koala, you see
rectangular gray scale blocks, rather
than text. Not great for people with
eyes as bad as mine. Though in a
test, can tell you that it prints out
fine.

Two things happened to improve this
work. Nigel helping me out with Allan
to replicate the method that Allan
used. Some differences in use, as one
I am using Linux and not windows.
Another is that I didn't have a
working copy of GeoPub. Mine
corrupted on me years ago. The major
one is the use of the EPS or
Encapsulated PostScript setting. Like
I said earlier, be nice if there was
a manual for post print. The help
from these guys had me making test
pages of EPS copies, and they scaled
wonderfully. In fact they are sharper
than the postscript files I had made.
Even at 100%, jpegs look better too,
better than on the camera screen.
Second thing that happened was I got
a copy of GeoPub again. So with the
manual, the book from Bruce Thomas
and help from Nigel & Allan, I
started to make my work and run it
through GeoPub. One other thing
happened as well. I was given a new
Linux system. Bigger, faster and
overall more powerful. OK don't know
how to operate it yet. But it is
better than that 9gb HD temporary
thing I was using.

Where does that place us now? Well in
the short. Writing is the same, just
as bad as always. Though I lay it out
in GeoPub. Making some colour
separators, colour some of the
chapter headers. Do some boxes, and
ovals in colour as well as some text.
Hmm, that might be worth a report
when I learn more. Sounds easy, and
with some practice in GeoPub with the
manual and Bruces's book, it is easy.
In fact this article is going to be
laid out as I illustrate here with
those couple of die snaps. Hope it
works for Commodore Free.

OK you can get the idea that with
GeoPub we have some improvements with
the ability to place images. Sure
that means making the box on the lay
out page, where you want it, and then
in post print, putting the jpeg in
the right spot. Or pretty close to
it. Measurements help, but well the
measurements in GeoPub and postprint
are not exactly the same. But with
practice it can be done, and with
text inserted under the photo. More
effects as I experiment. Ah now we
have some things to consider. Colour
happens to make the file larger. Not
the jpegs I mean all of the colour
bars, text, highlights. Make the
document larger. That must be kept in
mind when I am making a multipage
file that is to be converted to PDF
OK have to put in an example here.
One of my early newsletters was 21
pages long for the CyberSpace issue.
Lots of colour additives, 4 jpegs at
50kb or less. Fit easily on a heretic
formatted 3 1/2" floppy. Bugger when
converted from postscript to PDF,
became 6.4mb in size. That is almost
50% of my max ability at vcsweb to
attach a file.

So then in laying out things, we have
the text, and then into GeoPub, where
it can be done as a single page, or
done in columns. I have experimented
with three and two columns for my
newsletter. Readers feedback was that
they liked two columns better. Once
the text is laid out in GeoPub, and
the boxes for jpegs are created. Time
to take the document to post print.
Here it is easy to lay out the GeoPub
document. Tell it where to go, give
it a name, select the size of the
document. I mean for the states,
letter or legal, or tabloid  if the
printer accepts that size  and you
can make booklets in that size. Once
that is done, you look at the screen;
see an area that represents the size
of the page. Press C= and 5. Puts the
entire document you do have to select
if first in the postprint document.
Really would be nice if there was a
manual that explained that one. For
years I inserted the pages one by
one. Nice if there was a manual that
explained those icons on the right
hand side, as well. I found the one
to make a frame of different
thickness and distance from the
object; by accident. For jpegs there
appears to be a thing to adjust the
colour. Not played with it yet. Found
it by accident. Anyway at this point,
I go to the pages that I had made
boxes for the jpegs in GeoPub. Then
try to install them in post print.
Practice makes perfect, as well as
stress and frustration on this part.

Once that is done we go to the print
option area. Here thanks to Nigel &
Allan. The changes take place.
Turning on the EPS. Ah gotta remember
to turn it off, because my printer
will not print if it is left on. But
at this point the extra work takes
place. Rather than make one file. I
must make each page of the document a
file. I mean that in the 22 pages of
the most recent newsletter. I used to
make a file called "vg.ps" (Standing
for Village Green postscript.) Now I
must make the files as "vgl.eps" to
"vg22.eps". A little extra work. Does
make a better end result, I hope.
More on that hope part below. Well in
my most recent testing, the
individual pages averaged around 96kb
each. Larger ones in size had the
jpegs on them. Smaller ones had less
colour additives. GeoDos and I with
the heretic formatted FD disks had
some difficulties. Some how GeoDos is
seeing them at a different size. I
mean they show up as one size in
Wheels. When I check them and they
are about the same size on the Linux
system. GeoDos says they are larger,
and does not do a block count to 0
before the file is closed off. Though
in the Linux system, the full file is
seen with the entire colour.

Now to the good news and the bad
news. Good news is that in using the
EPS setting I can use the underline,
the italic and even the bold face
style. Looking clean and proper.
Outline tested out as nothing more
than plain text style. I couldn't do
that with any success, as a
postscript file. Bad news, well look
I don't want to load up 22 pages one
page at a time to read the
information. Want it to be one file
and scroll down the pages like I do
with my ebooks. So I must place all
the individual pages into one file.
Easy right? Maybe if I could find a
programme to do that for me, Open
Office didn't like the idea wouldn't
import the files. Well not true, they
are imported, too large, wrong fonts
and at times with all the adobe
postscript codes, rather than the
text. Scribus was suggested to me by
destined/weirdwolf my Linux tutor. OK
for me it did 9 pages out of 22. Then
failed, ah that is the word on the
D.B. that popped up on any of the
other pages in importing. By accident
I found some set of files in my home
folder. Look this is way past my
understanding. They are ".tiff files.
Got me what they are and they are the
pages that didn't import. They are
also all at 10.3kb.

Presented that problem to destined
!/weirdwolf. At his request I sent
him the 22 individual EPS files. He
gave it a go with a different Linux
flavour, but the same Scribus
programme. He made it to 5 imported
files then the same problem happened
to him. He currently is testing an
idea; making a 5 page document,
saving it, making another till all 22
pages are done, then importing those
documents into one. Finally saving
that as a PDF Here is where the "my
hope" part from above comes into play

Well gang, I have laid this out in
GeoPub. Made the boxes for the jpegs
to be inserted, in just a few
minutes, and at the moment am writing
a few more lines, in GeoPub. As this
is an experiment. Going to try to lay
this all out, make the EPS files and
then copy to the disk. After that,
well on the Linux system. Let us see
if I can make these 4 pages into one
document, saved as a PDF If this
happens. Then there is a breakthrough
for us. OTOH: a lot of work for me in
doing the 40 page chapters of my
stories for the next MossyCon CD. As
there are many chapters to lay out,
make into eps files and then into the
PDF I'm looking at about 400 pages in
just one story of 10 chapters at the
moment, if this works out. Well I
will be making things that will look
better than before. Not any better in
subject matter or readability. But it
will look better. And guys the whole
thing is that it is done mostly on
the Commodore. There is the big trip
for all of us. Our system is still
upgradable and backwards compatible.
The others, well they aren't.

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