<><><> PAGE Editor: A Review¢ ---------------------¢ by JOHN SEBASTIAN MCGOWAN for¢ OL' HACKERS newsletter.¢¢Page Editor is a page layout¢programme by Alan Kirk and was¢written recently (Version 3.3,¢October 1992) which is similar to¢NewsStation.¢¢Like NewsStation it permits the¢creation of pages of 80 column text¢including larger text and graphics¢(converted from PrintShop icons).¢Unlike NewsStation, it displays the¢page as four panels, each of which¢extends fully from the left to the¢right of the page.¢It has utilities to convert icons¢from PrintShop graphic disks to¢PageEdit format, allow the¢importation of text from text files¢(at one, two or three columns) and to¢create 80 column print fonts from¢Atari fonts.¢The programme requires an Epson¢compatible printer (top pin = 128)¢with dot addressable graphics.¢ -----¢¢The programme claims to be WYSIWYG¢("What you see is what you get") and¢IS WYSIWYG for graphics (and large¢text), however 80 column text is ONLY¢displayed in a standard font (though¢it can be printed with other fonts).¢The programme claims to work with¢Epson compatibles and though it does¢NOT work with most Epson compatibles¢as written, it can be modified to¢work with such.¢ -----¢ Setting up a page:¢ ------------------¢¢To set up a page, PageEdit allows one¢to type in text (80 col) which is¢displayed in a fixed font (but can¢later be printed with other fonts) or¢to use large text, add clip art¢graphics (PrintShop icons converted¢to PageEdit format) or draw¢graphics.¢Large fonts (for which one can use¢any Atari type font) are bit-mapped¢onto a Graphics 8 screen (and so are¢treated as graphics instead of¢text).¢The drawing capabilities of PageEdit¢are fairly standard (circles, fill...¢but the fill is a rectangular fill,¢NOT a fill based on the edges of a¢graphic!): but Graphics (clip art,¢large text) can only be started at¢byte oriented positions of the GR. 8¢screen (every eighth position of the¢320 pixel wide screen... as 80 col¢text uses four pixels to display text¢in an 80 col font, this is at every¢other column of 80 columns of text).¢To PageEditor each byte is either an¢80 column text byte OR a WYSIWYG¢(graphics) byte (large text is¢bit-mapped from Atari type fonts and¢is treated as graphics). Because of¢this you canNOT overlay 80 column¢text on graphics and any attempt to¢do so will simply erase the¢underlying graphic. Thus you have to¢pay attention and set up your panels¢making sure that graphics do NOT¢conflict with 80 col text.¢¢NOTE: That while one can use several¢fonts for large text (as all such¢text becomes bit mapped graphics),¢80 col text will be printed with but¢ONE font throughout the entire page.¢Thus one can mix fonts for large¢text, but not for 80 col text.¢ ------¢ PANELS¢ -------------¢¢The creation of panels is straight¢forward, and it is easy to add clip¢art (expanded, flipped, inversed) or¢graphics to your text above, below,¢to the left or to the right (but¢don't try to overlay them!). Clip art¢(and large text... which is just¢graphics) can be expanded, moved...¢all the normal graphics type actions,¢and blocks of text can also be moved¢around. One can even import text from¢other text processors. In short, it¢is quite easy to create the panels¢for a page... well done!¢ -----¢ Printing a page:¢ ----------------¢¢PageEdit sets the line spacing to¢25/216th of an inch in order to¢provide a bit more spacing between¢80 col text lines.¢PageEdit prints 640 dots per line and¢uses single density.¢These two items occasion some¢difficulty.¢First, as the graphics are 8 pin¢graphics (each pin taking 1 point or¢1/72 inch), each printed line is 8/72¢or 24/216 inch high (each line is¢printed using a graphics dump on an¢Epson type printer). Using 25/216th¢(or even 26/216th inch) provides a¢bit more spacing between text lines¢(so the text does not look so¢compressed on the printed page) BUT¢provides small white horizontal lines¢in the middle of graphics!¢I STRONGLY suggest ( for use of¢graphics) that one change this to¢1/9 inch.¢To make the change-consider line 800¢in the PEPRINT.BAS programme. It has¢the command to erase top and bottom¢margins (in case your printer has¢them set as printer defaults)¢(<ESC>,O) and then the command¢<ESC>,3,CHR$(25) (to use 25/216th¢inch line feeds). I suggest you¢change this to <ESC>,3,CHR$(24) in¢line 800.¢If your printer does NOT support¢216th inch line feed commands, you¢can use <ESC>,A,CHR$(8) or¢<ESC>,A,CHR$(8),<ESC>,2 (depending on¢whether your printer is non <ESC>-2¢Epson compatible or <ESC>-2¢compatible) to set 8/72 inch (the¢same as 24/216th) or use a command to¢use 1/9 inch if your printer supports¢it.¢While this will cause 80 column text¢to be very slightly compressed in a¢vertical direction (less space¢between lines), it will make graphics¢print out better.¢The horizontal spacing is done in¢line 880 of the PEPRINT.BAS programme¢and is less easily treated. In¢line 880 one finds the commands¢<ESC>,K,CHR$(128),CHR$(2) to choose¢single density (<ESC>,K) with¢128+2*256=640 dots. While there are¢SOME Epson compatibles for which¢single density is 80 dots per inch,¢on MOST Epson compatibles single¢density is 60 dots per inch! At¢60 dots per inch, 640 dots is¢10 2/3 inches!¢To get PageEdit to work on most Epson¢compatibles you will have to modify¢line 880. If you have a printer that¢supports 80 dots per inch, simply use¢that code (for example, on a StarNX10¢one can change <ESC>,K to¢<ESC>,*,CHR$(4) to get 80 dots per¢inch). If your printer does NOT¢support 80 dots per inch but DOES¢support 240 dots per inch, you can¢replace the <ESC>,K,CHR$(128),CHR$(2)¢with <ESC>,Z,CHR$(128),CHR$(7) (for¢quadruple density, 240 dots per inch¢with 128+7*256=1920 dots) and replace¢? #N3;PRNT$(1,640) with:¢¢FOR IX=1 TO 640:PUT #N3,0:¢PUT #N3,ASC(PRNT$(IX)):PUT #N3,0:¢NEXT IX:PUT #N3,155¢¢(this may require adding a line 881¢to fit everything)¢(This prints blank dots surrounding a¢printed dot and triples the number of¢dots, blanks and printed, that are¢dumped to the printer, hence the¢change to 1920 dots)¢(I have made the modifications and¢alternate PEPRINT.BAS programmes are¢around)¢Either of the above changes will get¢the printout of PEPRINT.BAS to fit in¢8 inches (NOTE: IF your printer has¢80 dots per inch as the default¢single density OR you have a wide¢carriage printer, you need make no¢changes... though you MAY want to¢change the vertical spacing as¢mentioned above).¢With the needed changes, PageEdit¢prints out fairly nice pages. The¢modification to 240 dots per inch¢(and 1920 bytes for each line) will¢slow up the printing... if your¢printer supports 80 dots per inch, it¢is best to make the change for that¢density (as mentioned for the¢StarNX10).¢In printing one can choose whatever¢font one desires for printing the¢80 col text (these must be converted¢fonts... converted from Atari type to¢the bit pattern of Atari fonts is¢horizontal and the bit pattern used¢on the printhead is vertical). The¢resulting fonts are single pass¢8 point fonts (that is, similar to¢DRAFT density fonts on the printer,¢NOT NLQ fonts!). If you choose to use¢a new font for printing the 80 col¢text it will NOT be shown on the¢screen version of the page panels¢(the screen font must have only¢4 pixels width for 80 characters in¢320 pixels while the printed font is¢8 dots wide... because of this the¢printing of graphics from the screen¢and 80 column text is different...¢thus the difference between text and¢graphics regions and the¢impossibility of overlaying 80 col¢text and graphics).¢The resulting print out can take¢awhile (depending on whether one uses¢TurboBasicXL or AtariBasic and¢whether one must use the 240 dots per¢inch modification and print thrice as¢many bytes or can set the printer to¢80 dots per inch) and produces¢results that are quite nice (for¢draft density printouts including¢graphics/clip art).¢ --------¢ WARNING!¢ --------¢¢There is one caveat here... if you¢convert most Atari fonts, the¢printout will NOT look too good! The¢reason is that, while an Atari font¢supports a width of 8 pixels, most¢are designed for screen display and¢to avoid colour artifacting the fonts¢are intentionally made "chunky" (that¢is, one never has one pixel on and¢the surrounding ones off, or¢vice versa... this leads to¢chunkiness: for example, the "i" in a¢screen Atari font is:¢¢ ** *¢¢ ** instead of *¢ ** *¢ ** *¢¢Because of this, one should either¢design one's own Atari fonts for the¢printer (using font editors) or¢modify Atari fonts (for the screen)¢to remove the chunkiness before¢converting to *.TYP fonts.¢This is a problem in converting Atari¢fonts ("chunky" to avoid artifacting¢on the screen) to good printer fonts¢for any programme. Converting Atari¢fonts to DaisyDot fonts or draft¢printer fonts a la PaperClip has the¢same problem. If you want a good¢printout you must convert Atari fonts¢that are NOT "chunkified," so most¢Atari fonts will not convert too well¢without prior improvement. This holds¢for any printing of Atari fonts,¢including the Atari fonts that you¢may use in PageEdit for large text.)¢ -----¢ Comparisons:¢ ------------¢¢In order to permit the overlay of¢80 col text and graphics, or to have¢true WYSIWYG (including the 80 column¢text) one would need to represent¢screen fonts by 8 pixels on screen,¢limiting the screen to 40 characters¢of width (on a GR. 8 screen of¢320 pixels). To do so would require¢two panels of width for each part of¢the page, the panel format used by¢programmes like NewsRoom and¢NewsStation. Thus the latter two¢programmes can permit greater¢flexibility in creating page¢layouts.¢¢So, NewsRoom has greater flexibility¢in creating pages... but PageEdit has¢the capability of importing text¢files (at one, two or three columns),¢will run on 48K machines, supports a¢ramdisk (if your computer supports¢one) and is written in Basic¢(allowing needed modifications to the¢print module and allowing it to run¢under faster basics, such as¢TurboBasicXL).¢¢PageEdit is easy to use and the use¢of one panel across the page makes¢for easier page layout (with a loss¢of flexibility).¢The documentation of PageEdit is¢fine, except for the needed changes¢for most Epson compatible printers¢and a note that most Atari fonts are¢designed for the screen (instead of¢the printer) and to avoid artifacting¢are intentionally "chunky" and should¢be improved before conversion to¢It is an easy programme to use and¢CAN provide nice pagelayouts (with¢modified fonts and the printer¢patches) on 48K systems (with¢graphics/large text, etc.).¢ -----¢ Public Domain Page Layout progs:¢ --------------------------------¢¢There are other page editing¢programmes (such as Antic Publisher¢from the December 1987 issue of Antic¢and the European¢Digital Editor (Redacteur)) which¢also use Graphic 8 screens and permit¢the use of 80 column text. These¢other programmes also allow the¢importation of¢MicroPainter/Illustrator files (or¢parts thereof) and produce saved¢files that are simple bit maps of¢Gr. 8 screens.¢There are advantages to this method,¢since simple bit maps (rather than¢separate text/graphics regions)¢permit overlaying text and graphics.¢However, to have a bit map of¢80 columns of text on a Gr. 8 screen,¢the font must be only 4 dots wide¢(lower resolution).¢One can use these other programmes¢and only use 40 column text and¢create Gr. 8 screens to print out on,¢say, the left side of the page, and¢another on the right side (using¢BILBOARD to print the panels next to¢each other rather than printing the¢panels of such width as to take up¢the width of the page) in which case¢one can use Atari fonts of 8 pixels¢resolution horizontally and have two¢adjacent pictures with 40 col text¢(for a result of 80 columns).¢I do not know of a programme that¢will allow one to take eight Gr 8¢pictures and print them out as:¢¢ PIC1 PIC2¢ PIC3 PIC4¢ PIC5 PIC6¢ PIC7 PIC8¢¢other than using BILBOARD.¢Such a generic print programme (if¢one were to write one) would enable¢the use of ANY Gr. 8 editor to create¢8 panels for a page layout¢(permitting WYSIWYG) using¢Atari fonts for 80 col printing (two¢adjacent 40 column printings).¢Antic Publisher and the Digital¢Editor (Redacteur) create GR. 8¢screens with the option of printing¢out the full width (limiting 80 col¢fonts to four pixels in width)... but¢CAN be used with BilBoard (or write¢your own GR.8 screen dump) to print¢adjacent panels.¢Such a screen dump would allow any¢GR.8 editor to be considered a page¢layout programme.¢The advantage of PageEditor is that¢it supports (by having text sections¢and graphic sections) full width¢panels while still permitting 8 pixel¢wide 80 column text fonts, and it has¢the printer module written (perhaps I¢will write a dump for eight GR. 8¢panels which could then be used with¢any GR.8 editor to have a page layout¢programme!).¢¢I have to recommend it for ease of¢use and the ability to run on 48K¢systems and supporting ramdisks...¢but for more flexibility I usually¢use NewsRoom (and spend the extra¢time). For a good printout (taking¢less time to set up and allowing the¢importation of text) I rely on¢PageEdit.¢ =====¢ END¢ =====¢
