#PPage Postscript Woes
19 messages in this thread
Hi, I'm Andrew and I'm the Gold Disk rep on CIS now. I'm sorry you got
confused about the EPS button. Your service bureau should have looked at
the file and known right off. I myself made that mistake last year, but the
bureau opened the PScript file and told me it was EPS and not to use that
but print straight PostScript.
Tech support should have caught it though, they are very sharp on that type
of stuff usually. If you told them you clicked EPS they should have known
right off.
Anyway, I'm also sorry to hear of your defection. I think you will find
that
PPage 2.0a gives you a far more professional and stable platform to work
from,
but everyone does what they feel or need and that is the way it should be
n a free market economy.
So either way I'm glad your problem got solved by the very good people here
on CIS and hope that if you have any questions or ploblems in the future
that you will let me know.
Thanks
Andrew
Andrewcan you explain why ver 2.0 is asking for "VOLUME ENV" there is
nothing in the current startup file to explain it. I got around it by doing
an additional assign to the startup but why it's there
Mike,
I can't answer for Andrew…but can tell you this, ENV: is the
system default for where environmental variables are kept.
thus, I suspect the program is looking for an environmental
variable. Look for something about that in your manual(s).
Don
Don,
PPage2 does indeed use environment variables, but I can find no mention
of it anywhere in the manual. Actually, I was not even aware that it had
created/used any variables until I happened to be changing one of my WShell
variables, and noticed the four new ones that PPage had stored there. Each
of the four variables is only one byte in length, so they don't take up
much room. 😉
Mike
BerksAmiga BBS (Reading, PA) 215-372-4553
24 hrs – 12/2400 – 100 megs – latest 50 Fish disks
ENV, as others have stated here, is normally set up by the standard startup
sequence and programs then will store variables there that they can modify
and use at will. And because ENV is normally in the ram disk, it is a high
speed choice.
But as long as it exists or you assign it somewhere else, all is well.
Well I guess it was never used in my system's dos owing to the fact that I
use WB 1.3 and C-ltd's SCSI dos 3.0 as well. It formed a T dir in RAM but
that was all. Earlier versions of PPage never asked for it either so it was
new to me.
Andrew,
Thanks for your comments. I appreciate them. The service bureau I
was using was Mac-only and didn't know anything at all about the "Omega" as
they called it, and perhaps even less about printing to the Compugraphic.
It was a troubling decision to buy PageStream, but I should tell
you that I will still use ProPage for some things, as each program
definately has its strengths and weaknesses. I have seen PPage 2.0, and
agree that improvements were made. PageStream has a substantial number of
features, but it's not completely bug-free (even in 2.1), as I'm sure you
probably are aware of.
I hope that eventually ProPage will surpass PageStream in the area
of importing/exporting other formats and such features, because I would
gladly reconsider my decision.
But I should tell you also that I do also own Professional Draw,
your ProScan scanner, your Outline Fonts package, and ComicSetter, and use
them all quite often (especially ProDraw and ProScan). Although your
company lost me in regards to ProPage (for now), I am still a staunch fan
of your company and consider your products to be first-rate.
While I'm replying, I'd also like to address something that was
brought up by me in recent weeks to others regarding ProScan: I am dismayed
to hear that your company has no plans to upgrade what is the only sheetfed
scanner in the Amiga market.
I bought the setup when it first came out for $1000, and have used
it religiously since. I only recently discovered from Canon that this model
of scanner is capable of 32-shade gray scales as well as OCR, which is
SORELY lacking for the Amiga!
ProScan would be a likely candidate for these features, and I'd
just like to again put my vote in that direction. These features would be
worth quite a bit to me, and I'm sure to others who use the package. I'd
love to see Gold Disk at least reconsider their current plans and continue
to support ProScan.
J.R.
Thanks for the support. I wish I could give you better news about
the ProScan
but the installed base is so small that the cost of further development
would make for an upgrade cost that could exceed, well, more than anyone
would want to pay, especially considering the price of new scanners. I will
however mention it a second time (Iasked about this two days ago) and pass
your vote along in the hopes something might come of it.
Thanks. Also, I neglected to mention that I also own Transcript and
Desktop Budget in addition to the aforementioned (not that this matters,
but just for your info).
Andrew, I tried to output J.R. Bookwalter's PPage files on my Varityper
4300P, using an Amiga 2000 equipped with the GVP '030 and 4MB of 32 bit
memory, along with 4MB of 16-bit memory and 2MB of chip memory. I had
trouble using PPAGE and the PAR: port. Apparently there was a postscript
error and since the program can't receive the feedback messages from the
PostScript interpreter it merrily keeps trying to send its Postscript
program while the printer happily times-out and resets to idle. All the
Amiga PostScript programs need the ability to receive these error messages
and display them to the operator. This means using the Serial port or an
appletalk port if so equipped since the parallel port is only one way, to
the device not back to the computer. Plus for some reason I could not
output one of JR's files! I was successful during setup when I printed a
test page to paper. But from then on I kept getting the message. PostScript
error limitcheck eofill. Apparently the postscript file was written wrong
somewhere along the line. I know my typesetter has 12 MB of memory so it
isn't lacking in that dept. I examined the one file that printed against
the other three separations and noticed a few numbers being different in
the beginprocess
just a note: The Amiga's parallel port is bi-directional. (That's how the
parallel port samplers work.) I just offer this as 'information for the
interested', since in your case, the printer may not have a bi-directional
parallel port.
David, RE:the printer may not have a bi-directional parallel port… Yup,
you guessed it, it doesn't have that, but it will bi-direct using either
the serial or appletalk port. I'd like to see some support for PS font
downloader programs which also support PS file downloads. I can't even get
PPage to properly use the PAR: on my A2000. I have the DigiFex multi-port
card with the appletalk port on it. And what I'm forced to do with PPage is
save the document as a postscript file and then type it to the appletalk
port LSR: ( type > LSR: PostScript_file.PS in order to get any PPage files
printed. IF I use the PAR: port it just hangs and the printer indicates its
waiting for data up until I reboot the computer. It is weird! I'll have to
connect a different printer to the par: port just to make sure it is
working at all. If I type in the PPage print window the LSR: device it
works for a spell and then the machine crashes. It used to work. But since
the upgrade I can't get the LSR: to work properly with the program's send
postscript on the fly. I have to save to a file first. Plus I've found that
if I use MAC2DOS to transfer the file to a MAC disk for download by our
MACII cx any PostScript file I create with PPage after that gives
Postscript errors during download by our MAC. I have to save all Postscript
files first and then load MAC2DOS to do the transfers. But since I've
proven that the LSR: port works with the Amiga to our VT4300P imagesetter.
I don't bother with the MAC transfer. Of course I don't get to see any
error message if there is one during Amiga downloads. If the file hangs I
then have to transfer to the MAC to see the error message. Basically a real
pain, but I can handle the Amiga files, I've got it clocked out and I'm
ready to take more Amiga stuff from any and all who'd like to use my
services.
Later on and thanks for the info,
A real strange problem. Have you tried deleting the ^D's from the PS file
and then copying to PAR:?
Malcolm,
RE: A real strange problem. Have you tried deleting the ^D's from the PS
file and then copying to PAR:?
I take it that ^D's stands for control characters? If so, yeah, I have
stripped them out using TxEd. But it seems the only way I can output is
sending the file out the LSR: port of my multi-port card, and then only a
postscript file, not through the PPage application directly. But you know I
think ultimately its faster. As long as there are no errors in the file. Of
course since I have to stay compatible with my partner's work when we work
on different parts of the same job, I'm forced to AMAXII it with Pagemaker
4.0 or QuarkXpress 3.0. and either sneaker net the file over to her on a
floppy or Syquest cart, or save it as postscript, reboot as an Amiga and
download the PS file through the appletalk port in the Amiga! It sounds
confusing but whatever it takes to get the work done, I'll do it! If only I
could use my appletalk port while in AMAXII mode. I hope (but kinda doubt
it) DigiFex will make their card work with AmaxII.
chris
ACCU-TYPE & GRAPHICS
Chris– Your parallel troubles remind me of mine. My A1000 will talk to the
parallel port on my HP IIP directly but not through an auto switch box I
got. All of my other computers work just fine with the switcher. I left a
message on AMIGAT but got no help. Perhaps the Amiga's parallel driver is
using marginal timing for its handshaking of parallel signals. I currently
switch manually when I want to use the Amiga with the HP. I may bring a
scope or logic analyzer home one of these days to see if I can find out
what is different about the Amiga's timing.
Tom
Tom, I'm connected directly to the typesetter's centronics port. I don't
have a switch box connected between it and my Amiga 2000. I'm using a SCSI
laser printer for my plain paper drafts. If I need a dot-matrix printer,
I've got two of them connected to an A1000 which uses a switchbox with no
problems. I can't understand why I have these parallel problems. I have the
#14 pin yanked since it has +5 volts and the VT4300P's #14 is a ground. All
the other pinouts look correct.
Here are the pinouts for the Amiga 2000 and the Varityper 4300P imager.
Name Amiga Description Varityper Description
1 Strobe Strobe Data Strobe
2 D0 Data Bit 0 Data 1
3 D1 Data Bit 1 Data 2
4 D2 Data Bit 2 Data 3
5 D3 Data Bit 3 Data 4
6 D4 Data Bit 4 Data 5
7 D5 Data Bit 5 Data 6
8 D6 Data Bit 6 Data 7
9 D7 Data Bit 7 Data 8
10 ACK Acknowledge Acknowledge
11 Busy Busy Busy
12 Pout Paper Out Paper Error
13 SEL Select Select
14 +5V Pullup Ground (this pin disconnected)
15 NC No connection not listed on pin-out sheet
16 RESET RESET not listed on pin-out sheet
17 GND signal ground not listed on pin-out sheet
18 GND signal ground not listed on pin-out sheet
19-25 GND signal ground 19-29 Twisted Pair Ground
31 Iprime not on sheet Iprime* (Active low)
32 Fault not on sheet Fault* (Active low)
So basically they're same right? A standard centronics cable minus pin 14
should do the trick, am I right or am I wrong?
chris
ACCU-TYPE & GRAPHICS
(a service bureau)
Chris– I guess my message wasn't clear. The switch box I'm using is an
electronic switch. Thus, it receives Centronics signals and then passes
them on to the printer. Therefore, it needs to have circuitry similar to a
printer that receives and handshakes Centronics parallel. It works just
fine with 3 other computers (a pc and 2 680×0 family UNIX machines) but not
with the Amiga. Like you, I checked and rechecked cable connections but
everything is OK.
My theory is that the Amiga parallel driving software has marginal timing
and thus won't work with some parallel devices. In my case, the electronic
switch, in your case (apparently) the typesetter.
A long shot would be to hook a parallel printer buffer between the Amiga
and the typesetter. It might be that the buffer would be able to recognize
the Amiga's handshakes and then when it sent the data on to the typesetter,
would produce signals that the typesetter is happy with. I've thought of
doing that on my system but haven't run across a buffer that I could
borrow.
Tom
Tom, I might have to try the buffer tip, but I'm not ready to purchase
equipment that might not help, so if I can find one to 'borrow' for a day
I'll give it a whirl. However, it seems that saving the PS file first and
then downloading it works, it isn't that much trouble, although it isn't
what you'd expect to do every day with a program that should work on the
fly.
Oh well, things may improve, it might be my parallel port, motherboard,
etc, etc. Of course, it seems that I'm forced to run QuarkXpress 3.0 and
Pagemaker 4.0 on my AMAXII setup more than Ppage 2.0a. Like to see it
improve (the amiga dtp situation) but in the meantime I'll take the jobs
that come in for the <cough cough> mac.
B^)
chris
ACCU-TYPE & GRAPHICS
Someone mentioned a PostScript bug with PPage V2.0A. Is this true?