PageStream in Color/DTP/Commercial
From: Marc A. Lombardo (aa400@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)
Date: 05/03/91-11:14:44 PM Z
From: aa400@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Marc A. Lombardo)
Subject: PageStream in Color/DTP/Commercial
Date: Fri May 3 23:14:44 1991
PageStream in Color
AIM Magazine - December, 1990
Written by Bill Rayl
Recently, we've taken a good overall look at Soft-Logik's
PageStream (see June/July and November '90 issues of AIM). This
article focuses in on one of PageStream's finest qualities - its
four color process capabilities.
PageStream is the first package to bring full color desktop
publishing to the Atari ST. and it, does so with a flexibility
and ease of use that outshines most other desktop publishing (DTP)
packages on any computer.
COLOR DEFINITION
The PageStream manual gives a pretty good overview of color
and the various color definition systems the program uses. You
use these systems to define your own colors and add them to
PageStream's list. PageStream can recognize over 282 trillion
colors.
Although you can define more colors than you'd ever possibly
need, PageStream can only display four colors in medium
resolution. Of course, on a monochrome monitor, you only get
black or white. This is due to the ST's own limitations. Because
of this, PageStream allows you to tag a screen color to the actual
color you've defined.
For example, the predefined color Dark SL Blue appears black
on a monochrome monitor. That's because Dark SL Blue is tagged as
black, so all objects in this color are displayed in black.
Using a color monitor, you can tag Dark SL Blue with, for
instance, blue. This doesn't give you exact color representation,
but it does allow you to get an idea of the balance of color on
the page.
Because Soft-Logik thoughtfully predeined several colors, you
may never need to add your own at all.
ADDING COLOR TO YOUR DOCUMENT
The actual process of adding color to your PageStream
document is quite easy. First, PageStream will mantain the color
palette of any artwork you import, such as DEGAS or Amiga IFF
pictures. The picture appears on your screen as only black and
white, even on a color monitor. Don't worry, though. The colors
are still there.
Adding color text is nearly as simple. Once you've entered
your text, select it by dragging the mouse over the text while
holding down the left button. This highlighting allows you to
perform most of PageStream's attribute setting options on the
text. This includes setting text color. From the Object menu,
choose Color. If you're into using keyboard equivalents, use the
Alt-K sequence instead.
Once at the Color menu, click on the color you want from the
presented list. Use the scroll bar/arrows to move up or down the
list as needed. Clicking OK sets the highlighted text to the
selected color.
Don't worry if text no longer apprears on your screen.
Remember the above discussion of tagging actual colors to screen
colors? Well, some actual colors are tagged with a screen color
of white. If your text was originally on a white backround, it
will look as if it disappeared. In fact, it's just displayed in
white on a white background.
As with text, you can add color to columns, lines and graphic
objects like circles, arcs and boxes.
COLOR PRINTING
Once you've created your color document, it's time to get it
printed. If you're using a color printer, printing is very
simple...in fact, it's the same as printing to any other printer.
You just load in the proper printer driver and print.
Some print and copy centers have a color printer and they
charge a per page fee. If you plan to use one of these, you can
rint your file to disk, using the proper printer driver. Then,
you can take in the disk or possibly even upload the file to the
copy center.
If you're planning on having your work printed on an offset
press, there's a little more to printing your master pages.
First, you need to determine if you're doing spot color or if a
four color separation is necessary.
If you have no full color pictures on your pages, and you're
only using one or two colors for text, spot-color separations are
probably all you'll need. They're also usually more cost
effective than full color separations for one or two colors.
In PageStream, you can print spot-color separations by
selecting "Mechanical" on the Print Document dialog box. This
will print a separate page for each color used in your document.
FOUR COLOR SEPARATION
When using full color pictures or color backgrounds beneath
color text, four color separation is the only way to go, both from
a cost and quality of print standpoint.
In a four color separation, each page is split into four
pages - one each for cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Printers
call this process color separation and often abbreviate the
process as CMYK. When printing a four color separation,
PageStream prints the cyan page first, followed by magenta, yellow
and black. The black page gives contrast to the full-color page
when printed on an offset press.
When doing full color work, you should realize that 300DPI
just isn't good enough for your master pages. The dots on the
page are too large to blend adequately on the final printed page.
That means you'll need to output to a Linotron or other high-end
pagesetter. These are Postscript devices that can output from
1,270 to 3,000 DPI or even higher. You should load the Lino
printer driver supplied with PageStream to take full advantage of
these devices.
ANGLES AND FREQUENCIES
When doing full color separations to Linotrons, you should
also use PageStream's ability to set screen angles and screen
frequencies. Screen angles help to smooth out the color blending
to avoid moire patterns. Screen frequencies determine the number
of lines per inch (LPI) output.
You can, and should, set screen angles and frequencies for
your document. Although the PageStream manual mentions how to set
screen angles and frequencies, it doesn't tell you what to set
them to and why.
The traditional angle settings, along with the newer settings
recommended by Adobe, are presented in the following table:
Cyan Magenta Yellow Black
Traditional 15 75 0 45
New 105 75 90 45
You can use either set of angles. Both are fairly effective,
with the newer angles possibly gaining a slight edge on 1,270 DPI
output.
As for screen frequencies, quality improves as the number of
lines per inch increases. Newspapers ten to use 85 LPI for their
color work. Magazines, which require higher quality, use 133 LPI
or higher.
If you plan to output at 1,270 DPI, you should be aware that
you will not get true 133 LPI output. You'll get 127 LPI, which
is generally acceptable.
If you're a purist, though, you;ll need to output at a higher
DPI.
You set the screen frequency and angles in PageStream via the
Pritner Configuration dialog. Just below the area for setting
page dimensions, there's an unobtrusive thin line. Clicking above
this line will give you a text cursor.
You enter the screen commands here in the following format,
assuming you wanted a full color separation at 133 LPI.
f[133,133,133,133], a[105,75,90,45]
The PageStream manual states that you can enter these
commands in any order. Some pagesetting hardware, however, seems
to work only if you enter the frequency command first, as shown
above.
SERVICE BUREAUS
Now you're ready to print your master pages! Chances are you
don't happen to have a $40,000 Linotron in your basement. That's
where a service bureau comes in. And, choosing one may be the
most important decision you make in the whole printing process.
Most problems you're going to meet in this whole color
printing process are now about to begin! First, printing
Postscript color separations to disk can easily eat up 500-900K of
disk space. That means they won't fit on a floppy disk. Since
most service bureaus use Machintosh computers, the only
compression they allow is Stuffit. There is no compatible
compression utility on the ST. Unless you own a Mac emulator like
Spectre, you could be in serious trouble.
Most service bureaus have bulletin boards to receive files
via mdoem. Unfortunately, most of these systems have only one
upload protocol - straight Xmodem Checksum. A lot of errors creep
into ploads to service bureaus. Having to reupload your large
file two, or even three, times is not unlikely.
Luckily, there's a way for PageStream users to avoid this
headache. There is at least one service bureau that accepts
PageStream files... and they speak Atari! Sonata Typographers of
Fairfield, Connecticut is a truly great service bureau. With a
toll-free BBS, very reasonable rates and excellent techinal help,
Sontat lives up to the name service bureau. [Ed.: Sonata
Typographers, 2490 Black Rock Turnpike, Fairfield, CT 06430m
Voice: (203) 368-4559, BBS: (800) 365-5745, FAX: (203) 374-2917]
NOTE: You cannot use PageStream's Registration Marks feature
without turning on the Tiling feature. You should not use the
Registration Marks feature of PageStream unless you're aware of
what Tiling will do to your document. After countless tries, and
many calls to Soft-Logik's Customer Service, I gave up and created
my own process.
COMMERCIAL PRINTING
There are many printers who can do full color work, some at
very reasonable prices. You should decide which printer you're
going to deal with before printing your master pages. Your
printer will have specific recommendations and requirements for
what you submit. For example, some printers prefer "positive"
pages, while others charge less if you supply the negatives.
(Linotrons can output to photographic file or paper.) Also, your
printer may require "right read, emulsion side down" or "emulsion
side up" if using negatives. You'll need to give this information
to your service bureau so they print your master pages correctly.
Always remember to have your printer explain an terminology they
use you don't understand.
Conquering the world of color desktop publishing is well
worth the effort and pitfalls. Like an artist moving from
charcoal sketches to oil painting, a desktop publisher opens a
whole new world of possibilities by adding color to the DTP
palette.
--
Marc A. Lombardo User Address:aa400@cleveland.freenet.edu ~ ~ ~
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