‘‘Soft-proofing’ is a service offered in conjunction with our typesetter that will allow authors to access the proof pages of their articles through the Internet.’ ‘The Open Source world, however, has an excellent music typesetter in GNU Lilypond, which now runs natively on Linux, Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows.’. Jan 29, 2018  Can You (Should You) Typeset Your Own Book? Posted on January 29, 2018 January 29, 2018 by Arielle Contreras. Not all books require a professional typesetter. Traditional novels generally have straightforward interior designs which can sometimes be handled by the author with one of the many softwares available. Vellum’s one downside is.

When you think about computer power, typesetting has been akey point of extensive technology. Since the time of Gutenbergwe have been exploring the techniques of formatting, changingtype faces, word processing, editing, proofing and printing.

Today's personal computer is the beginning of a revolutionin word processing and printing. An individual can enter dataat a terminal, edit and proof, and pick any number of optionsfor print out. As you know, word processing computers excel inthese matters but possess limitations in typographic output. Thatis to say, documents can have variable indents, space betweenparagraphs, and centered headings but there is no control overdifferent letter sizes, leading (space between the lines), ordifferent type styles on the same page. In fact, the phrase 'wordprocessing' has become a generic term in the graphic artsfor uniform and boring looking copy. Be that as it may, a dotmatrix printer coupled with a fancy font can produce a draft qualityoutput with a small amount of type face variance. Whereas a letterquality printer coupled with a library of daisy wheels can produceeven better looking copy. Until recently, personal computers havemade a slow and mechanistic attempt at acquiring graphic controlover their output .

Enter the Macintosh! Marvels abound here. For the first time,a personal computer has brought together some of the text andgraphic abilities that typesetting has utilized for decades. Infact, a manufacturer of typesetting equipment has recently namedits latest machine the GTO (Graphic Text Organizer). Action recorder for mac. The graphicprogram is even mouse driven. Nevertheless, the Macintosh canproduce text in variable point size and style. It possesses awonderful package of graphic modifications that approach the state-of-the-artin electronic layout and design. But it has some limitations:The output is still dot matrix. Even a letter quality printeris not up to par where the resolution of letters is a factor.Photo typesetting has a resolution presently of 3000x3000 dotsper square inch as opposed to between 72 to 120 dots from an ImageWriter.Some people do their work with a letter quality printer and haveit reduced in camera before it is printed to paper thereby raisingthe resolution.

Keep in mind that each and every project has different objective.Some material is obviously best suited to a fast and inexpensivemethod of output. Letters and memos look fine by letter quality.Macintosh user group newsletters are best presented with the ImageWriterlook. But when quality is the objective, when the image of yourbusiness in an advertisement is on the line, typesetting is theonly way to go. Notice that MacWorld uses phototypesetting insteadof the LaserWriter.

This brings us to the next step in the evolution graphic controlover printed material. Enter the LaserWriter! At last we now havea computer output device that will make use of real world typestyles. Lets face it: the type style CHICAGO is only found theMacintosh. The LaserWriter Helvetica looks marvelous. Soon moreand more fonts from the patented libraries will make their wayto the public, and we will have access to the finely designedITYPE faces that every worthy type shop now has . The LaserWriteroffers more speed than most printers, considering its graphicabilities (about the same number of copies as a medium pricedcopy machine), and an almost typeset quality look.

Because the resolution is only about 300 dots per square inch,not all fonts will be rendered as well as Helvetica. Times Romanon the LaserWriter looks not unlike Mac's New York but sufferstoo much from obvious pixellation on the curves and angles ofletters. This is going to be a sore point for many wonderful typefaces due to their inherent shape serifs (the points on the topsand bottoms of letter. Also the LaserWriter does not produce thetypeset look at larger point sizes--or what the industry callsdisplay type.

A quote from MacWorld (Feb. 1985)is useful thispoint: 'Some people think that the need for phototypesettingservices will diminish as high-resolution, PostScript- equippedprinters are introduced. Others believe that typesetters willbecome more specialized than they are today. Even the laser printersof tomorrow won't have the high-quality, 2500 to 5000 dots-per-square-inchresolution that phototypesetting machines already (p. 4) have.Likewise, although printers can spew out as many copies as needed,they will never be able to produce as fast as typesetting equipmentcan.'

PostScript is a driver language written by Adobe Systems thateffectively interprets a Mac document and produces the equivalentdata on the LaserWriter. Besides having the ASCII information,a Mac document contains all the style and formatting descriptions.PostScript makes it possible to download it to a phototypesettingmachine. Later this year Mergenthaler will release the softwaredriver program and all the work you put into your Macintosh documentcan be sent directly to a phototypesetting machine. It remainsto be seen if type shops will pay the price to offer this service.Will there be enough market support to warrant it and will othertypesetting companies also purchase PostScript from Adobe Systems?How much will it cost? The savings for having entered and designedyour own book, newsletter, or manual on your Macintosh is debatable.How much is your time worth?

I admit looking at the various kinds of printer output devicesfrom a professional point of view, I am in the business of phototypesetting.But I do remember when this computer revolution started and everyonewas able to afford the products that would let them create theirown books, manuals, ad copy and whatever, and simultaneously wordprocessing companies started up by the thousands. The do-it-yourselfperson did not eliminate this niche in the market. However thedo-it-yourself person has the best technology available at thistime. The other day I bumped into a man from EBMUG walking outof Krishna Copy. He had just printed his MacWrite document ontheir LaserWriter for $1.50 and Xeroxed 100 copies for $6.00.This is a fantastic way of reproducing the typeset look inexpensively.

Blocking against dangerous websitesAn industry leader for nearly 30 years, Trend Micro blocks over 250 million online threats each day. A guard against phishing and identity theft. Advanced anti-ransomware technology so your files won't be held hostage.

In the final analysis, laser printers are the best thing yetas an alternative to phototypesetting, and I don't mean to belittlethem because of resolution capabilities. They have, in fact, broughtquality output to the PC as never before and provided for an advancedlevel of graphic control. My guess is that typesetting businesseswill be busier than ever before. The bottom line is that it'sa new service to offer, and thought it provides an inexpensivemethod of achieving a typeset look, it is distinctly the LaserWriterlook and will be recognized as such. A talented person on a Macmight be worth twice as much as another person on the most expensivetypesetting machine. And if your specialty is sales or productdevelopment, or whatever, will you want to spend your time wordprocessing and typesetting? Chances are you will hire a professionalthat meets your requirements. Feedback from the field is stillcoming in and the message is not clear.

A business in Berkeley that has a LaserWriter has had to reassesstheir pricing recently. Some computer stores want too much moneyto run out copies. And now I see that Krishna Copy has enteredthe market at the lowest price possible, perhaps to drive thecompetition crazy. Consider this: a medium-priced phototypesettingmachine with a small library of fonts costs about the same asa fully loaded Mac, a library of fonts, and a LaserWriter. Wouldthe people owning the Mac charge less per hour than the peoplewith the phototypesetter?

Now for the good stuff. Since, at this time PostScript is notavailable for downloading to a phototypesetter, there is anotherway. It is the way Generic Typography has been doing it for afew years. By creating a text file instead of a document fileand using simple typesetting codes found in the desk top calledMac Tracks, you can style copy for output on my phototypesettingmachine. If you want to design yourself then create two files-onetext and one document. The ASCII file is the one I need becausethat's all it is, it contains none of the style commands suchas point size and type face or how long the line length is. TheMacintosh menu-style choices can not be interpreted without PostScript,therefore you must put the equivalent typesetting codes in theproper places to define paragraph beginnings and endings, to defineline length and point size and italic, etc. Use ragged right withno hyphenation except for hard hyphens ( hyphens that are grammaticalas opposed to the ones used to justify copy). Let my machine makethose hyphenation decisions because the Macintosh line breakswill be different when phototypeset. See me at the next meetingif you want a copy of the MacTracks file.