#typeset purch
12 messages in this thread
Well, Linotype's machines have a resettable film counter, but it's default
units are either centimeters or inches. It's hardly practical for doing a
"quick glance to see how much film's left" and I've never used it, and when
you change supply cassettes between different media, it's value becomes
moot. I've been told that the newer L300's ("R" or "Q" model, depending on
who you're trying to upset at the moment) have multiple counters to
accommodate multiple media, but Steve W. will have to answer that one.
Compugraphic has a similar electronic counter which is a bit more flexible
on the increment, but it takes a keyboard sequence to read it, so it's
equally unusable for that "quick glance".
As Steve mentioned, RIPMaster may be your answer here, but I can't speak
first hand (yet) because it's been sitting on my desk – unopened – since
early December because I've been putting out too many fires to break away
for a test!
…mm
Seems to me there's got to be a better way. I see dozens of pages lost at
my local SB because their out of paper or film. The real disasters are
when downloaded IBM PS files run out of paper. Even if most of the pages
have gone through, they have to reload the whole job! I'd like to avoid
that if I could.
BL
In all honesty, Bill, any SB supposedly proficient in doing "direct"
PostScript output should be capable of restarting jobs in the middle. We
avoid direct PS like the plague, but, regardless, we _still_ know how to
re-run without buying the farm.
…mm
OK, I'll bite. How _do_ you start a PS download to a Lino part way through
the job (after running out of film, or whatever)?
<BW>
Brad,
Jumping in here re: start a PS download partway
I might be doing it the slow tedious way, but I manually go in and edit the
PS file (which is just ASCII code). Each page will start with the PS
command 'Begin page', and ends (oddly enough) with 'End page'. I count down
the number of 'Begin Pages' equal to the number of pages I have already
run, find that last 'End page' (there will be a couple of lines after that
including the 'Show page' line which tells the printer to do actually image
the page), and delete everything up from the next 'Begin page' to that
very first 'Begin page'. If I am unsure, which I usually am, I test my
abbreviated file to a LaserWriter. I only do this if I am going to waste _a
lot_ of paper by re-running the whole thing.
Bruce
Thanks for the tip, Bruce. I only have a LW on-site, but there have been
times when I've gotten documentation for a program that (believe it or not)
came as a PS file that wouldn't DL properly. That trick might have saved me
_lots_ of cursing!
Of course, it would also be neat if I could teach my service bureau a new
trick, what with all I've learned from them in the past!
<BW>
No problem. Good thing my boss can't figure out how to get up here and see
me giving away all the company secrets! <g>
Bruce/AGS
Bruce–
<<"Good thing my boss can't figure out how to get up here and see me giving
away the company secrets!">>
Hey, it's a good thing *my* boss can't get up here and see where all the
brilliant stuff we feed him comes from! It would DEFINITELY ruin my
reputation as a genius!
–Bill
(Sorry about the lapse, Brad – office has been a major zoo this week!)
I see that Bruce knows the trick, too. The secret basically revolves around
the fact that most DTP applications are relatively "well-behaved" about not
carrying-over variable conditions from page to page. Variables (setgrays,
findfonts, setfonts, et al) are either globally set for the document or
completely initialized to a predictable value for each page. This, and the
"recommended" use of the "&&Page" markers make it relatively easy to find
the beginnings and endings of pages in direct PostScript code.
My favorite way to do this is to run Lasertalk and operate in trace mode,
setting the start points and the stop sign on the fly. This makes it
unnecessary to modify any PostScript ASCII directly. It really should be
easy enough to write a "quick and dirty" BASIC program to do this, as well.
(Sounds like something I can do in my spare time – which puts completion
sometime around 2014.<g>)
…mm
Even a Ventura file? I do design on Ventura for a customer and then take
his files to lino. I wouldn't even begin to figure out which ones of the
umteen files Ventura makes for each document to take with me. And then
there are all the graphic and font files. I have to print to disk and do a
direct download. What do you do with your Ventura customers?
BL
Bill,
Sounds like you might be interested in this file in our libraries:
[76703,662]
ZIPVP.ZIP/binary 27-Dec-89 9175 Accesses: 25
Title : Ventura Publisher front-end to PKZIP compresser
Keywords: VENTURA PUBLISHER CHAPTERS ARCHIVE STORAGE ZIP UNZIP
Desktop publishers who use Ventura Publisher must make sure to include
all
files used in a chapter when archiving it.
ARCVPCHP is a "front end" to PKWare's PKZIP and PKUNZIP that turns them
into a Ventura Publisher archiver and makes sure to include all files
in
the archive used in each chapter. As an option, it can even include the
required width table.
For PKZIP and PKUNZIP, download PKZ102.EXE from LIB 4 of the Zenith
Forum
("Go Zenith").
Bill –
At this moment, we're downloading the .C00 files like everyone else, though
I can count our current VP clients on one finger, and they send us
no-brainers. It's been years since I've seriously dealt directly with VP,
so maybe I'm in for a shocker or two.
…mm