SCOUG-HELP Mailing List Archives

>> Next Message >>

Date:	Sun, 10 Nov 2002 00:34:21 PST7
From:	"Dr. Jeffrey Race" <jrace@attglobal.net >
Reply-To:	scoug-help@scoug.com
To:	< "scoug-help@scoug.com" > scoug-help@scoug.com > ,
Subject:	SCOUG-Help: Report on results of graphic/text file manipulation

Content Type: text/plain

=====================================================
If you are responding to someone asking for help who
may not be a member of this list, be sure to use the
REPLY TO ALL feature of your email program.
=====================================================

This is a bit lengthy but I hope it may be useful to some of you.
I have spent three days on this and want my time to benefit other
list members.

I had two writing projects to put on my website:

CRIPPLE: An article first published in the Bangkok Post about a
serious repetitive stress injury I have suffered from improper
computer-use posture over many years.

I have the ASCII source file and wanted to incorporate the
text into text frames that would flow around graphic frames
enclosing color graphics. I could not do this in my old
standby WordStar as its color import filters are inadequate.

METRIC: An article first published in the Royal Bangkok Sports
Club Magazine, on two simple life variables affecting vitality and
good health. The two pages of text were furnished to me by the
printer as a PDF file at V 1.3 level (created in InDesign (so can't
be read by Acrobat Reader V 3 or lower). The cover page was furnished
as both a 72 dpi and 300 dpi graphic. I needed to join the two parts
and optimize for web access. I also needed to add some text to the
graphic (copyright notice etc).

What I did that failed and worked:

EMBELLISH
To add the b/w text to the image for METRIC, I first tried Embellish
for OS/2. In fact you can create text but you are allowed only one
font at a time. As a result I could not embed both italic and roman
fonts in the same line and had to give this up as a way to create the
text.

In a message Brian said to resize text, but I could not find any resize
tool. Embellish help says this is enabled on the Edit menu but there was
no resizing function active for the text entry on the Edit menu. I
welcome comment.

Just for fun, I tried with roman. For some reason I could not save as
TIF format, got warning that I would lose the shapes, which in fact
happened, so I failed with Embellish (just as an exercise) to add boxed
text.

I still cannot understand why I could not save the file with the
shapes. Seems pointless to have the function if can't save the file.

PAINTBRUSH for Win3.1
Then tried to create boxed text in Paintbrush but it also allows only
one font. Gave up.

STAROFFICE
Created boxed text in SO which allows switching fonts on the fly.
Printed to file using Postscript driver, used GoScript (commercial
Postscript software interpreter) to create TIF file, then cropped
this file in Graphics Workship for DOS. PMView (my first choice to
resize) would NOT open the TIF file created by Goscript, giving an error.

Imported this image of the b/w text into the base graphics file opened
in Embellish, saved, works!

The base graphic (now page 1 of the METRIC article) came as a 702x936
pixel 72 dpi image, which was too coarse to use, so I requested the same
as 300 dpi. Using PMView I resized 330% and surprisingly this turns out
to print a very acceptable image on 8-1/2x11 paper, if using Epson High
Quality Inkjet Paper ($15 per hundred sheets at Staples), and the
presentation setting in my HP 1150C printer. Quality was unacceptable
using plain stock (Hammermill 10349-9).

I then created a PDF from this image using the image import function
in Acrobat Exchange V 3.01, and concatenated the two-page PDF file from
the printer containing the text. Saved the result (web-optimized) as
a PDF.

Unfortunately the file is quite large (3.4 mb). I then tried refrying
page one in Distiller V 3.01 to 72 dpi (i.e. print to disk as a Postscript
file, using the Apple Laserwriter II NT driver and setting the job option
to 72 dpi for color graphics). This produced a file only 89 kb (compared
to 2.5 mb)! But the quality on the printed page was unacceptable though
it looked OK on screen. I also tried collapsing the colors from 256
to 16 in PMView, which resulted in a 1.1 mb TIF file, but the result was
also mutilated beyond acceptable limits. So I am sticking with the
3.4 mb PDF. Eventually I may be able to shrink it by removing the
gratuitous image on page 3 but I have yet to find a tool to remove
images from a PDF file. Suggestions welcome.

Note that Exchange V 3 can successfully concatenate the above even
though it cannot read pages 2 and 3, reporting an encoding error. This
is because Exchange V 3 is at PDF level 1.2 only. I need a tool that
can handle V 1.3 and welcome suggestions for any platform, commercial
or shareware.

On to the CRIPPLE project!

I flailed around in StarOffice and finally made some sense of it only
with the help of Using Star Office (Special Edition) from Que which
I thought was expensive at $50 but turns out to be a treasure trove
of detail covered nowhere in SO's own documentation either online
or in the accompanying documentation. (I purchased a complete set
of the CDs and documentation for the 5.1a version, which I am running
on OS/2. My 10-year old is running SO on Win98 and bleating about
how she wants Word, but I will soon break her of this bad habit and
also get her school off Word and onto SO too. Otherwise next year
I expect all the students will have to write '666' on their foreheads.)

I succeeded to incorporate two small GIF and JPG graphics into the
SO text document, then added a bordered box with more text (call it
Text Box 1) and then pulled in plain ASCII text from the article
which I had composed in WordStar. I reformatted this without problem,
and inserted several image frames into which I placed some images
received courtesy of Cornell's Professor Hedge.

However I encountered a so far inexplicable situation with SO. After
working on the file a while, image frames successfully inserted, saved
and even printed, then showed up missing the image and with an error
stating 'Read error'. I had to delete the frame, reinsert it and
reload it with its image. Then another frame would likewise misbehave.

After struggling for a while this problem went away, but I'd welcome
an explanation of what is going on and how to prevent or recover from
it.

Then the final oddity. There were many text boxes but the first
one (containing the text 'published in the Bangkok Post....' and
appearing just below the greenish graphic at the very head of the
file) failed to appear when I printed the file to disk using the QMS
Colorscript 100 driver! The bordered text box and text show plainly
on screen but are not in the ps file: I viewed the ps file in a text
editor and the text is really not there.

I finally had to copy this box and its included text to the end of the
file (page 3) where it successfully printed. I am mystified by this
and would like to know why it occurs and how (in SO) to diagnose
problems like this.

I have lots of Qs about SO; on what list can one post SO questions,
and where is an FAQ?

I printed the finally acceptable SO file to disk as postscript, then
distilled using Distiller V 3.01 to PDF. File is 106 kb.

TRANSPARENCY
This is an important feature for me and I have not yet figured out how
to create text with transparent background, or how to impose text on
a graphic while retaining the graphic background. You can see on the
first page of METRIC that the graphic of the text I created in SO
obtrudes on the graphic image. I need something that will handle
layers, I guess. My options?

You may view the resulting files at

On a serious consequence of
bad computer posture (with an X-ray of my neck). Read it and
weep!

On two simple body metrics
everyone can easily use and monitor for vitality and good health.
Important for people like us who are chained to our keyboards.
It includes some non-intuitive points. This article might change
your life.

The file is large (3.4 mb) but I could not reduce the size without
mutilating the graphic beyond acceptable limits. I expect to
redo when I can find a tool to remove the color image on page 3.

I welcome comments on both the formatting and the content of both
articles, as well as potential outlets for hard-copy publication, as I
believe they could (in slightly revised form) help many people who
are ignorant (as was I) on these subjects.

I also welcome ideas on other ways I could have done these tasks
(for better or worse) using other OS/2 or Win3.1 tools (which I can
run in a DOS box on OS/2).

I also need a solution to read PDF level 1.3 files on OS/2. The
Acrobat Reader V 3 fails.

Jeffrey Race

=====================================================

To unsubscribe from this list, send an email message
to "steward@scoug.com". In the body of the message,
put the command "unsubscribe scoug-help".

For problems, contact the list owner at
"rollin@scoug.com".

=====================================================

Return to [ 10 | November | 2002 ]

SCOUG, Warp Expo West, and Warpfest are trademarks of the Southern California OS/2 User Group. OS/2, Workplace Shell, and IBM are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. All other trademarks remain the property of their respective owners.