Issue #3, 2003
Welcome to more sporadic news. We just hope to provide you with more news, tutorials, and help on a regular basis. If you have a suggestion for future issues or criticism of this one let us know!
Table of Contents
Linux Update
PageStream Sale
Web Site Survey
PageStream Tip - CD Labels
Welcome to May eDTP World news! We had a little fun at the local Mexican fast food restaurant on May 5th. Deron even felt compelled to educate us with a little history on this often misunderstood significant date for not only Mexico, but the USA as well. For a short and interesting lesson on Cinco de Mayo, take a look at http://www.vivacincodemayo.org/history.htm. Tray mat and pen in hand, I took some notes that should interest PageStream users no mater what nation you call home!
Linux Development Status
Deron was forced to take two weeks off from work and take care
of some difficult personal matters. While Linux development continued
without him, he is still the central clearing house for new code
and bug fixes, and is integral in the development of the display
library which is the remaining piece to be completed. He is back
to work now and everyone is expecting something great in the
next week. Nothing like a little pressure to help burn the midnight
oil! The good news that has been reported so far is that the
new display library is shaping up to be a replacement for all
4 platforms. It includes some very exciting new features that
will be incorporated into future versions of PageStream including
the ability to support anti-aliased text and graphics, alpha
blending and creation of bitmaps from PageStream objects on any
platform! What teases developers can be!
PageStream Sale Ends May 16th
We have been inundated with requests to continue to offer our
discounted price for PageStream full copies and upgrades. Of
course who can blame them! Paying less than 1/3 retail for a
powerful desktop publishing program like PageStream, not to mention
discounts across the board on upgrades sure does help the pocket
book. For those new customers who have joined the PageStream
crowd, welcome aboard! However, all good things must come to
an end! After May 16th, PageStream's pricing returns to our normal
great price!
New Web Site In Development
We have decided to take it upon ourselves to make a radical redesign
of the GrasshopperLLC web site. Our basic design goals are to
make it easy for new customers to learn about PageStream's features,
samples, how it compares to others, and of course how to buy
it. We hope to provide near instant download access to new purchases.
For existing PageStream users, it should be easy to find answers
to common questions, new scripts and templates, and more. We
have set up a survey on our web site asking for input on what
you would like to see on our website, and to tell us about your
favorite sites. The survey can be found at www.grasshopperllc.com.
Suggestions and any other help you can offer can also be directed
at sales@grasshopperllc.com.
Tip of the Month – Creating CD Label
Templates
by Deron Kazmaier
The folks at Grasshopper have been pleading with me to write
up some tips for PageStream. The problem has been I just don't
see PageStream as being all that difficult! Yes, I am just a
_little_ biased. You really can't blame me! Luckily a user was
asking on the PageStreamSupport@yahoogroups.com mailing list
about creating CD Labels. Unfortunately for him, he was asking
how to distort a picture into a donut shape. PageStream can't
do that, and even if it could the results would be a bit to psychedelic
for most folks! However, his request did plant a seed of inspiration.
Having used PageStream to create the actual PageStream CD labels,
let me tell you how I solved this problem. You will find the
final template for the generic CD Labels that I use at www.grasshopperllc.com
under Scripts & Templates in the PageStream4 section.
The basic design is to create a master page that shows the location of the labels on the paper with non-printing guide lines on the page. Further, since the basic shape of the CD label is round but the average picture is square, a need exists to crop out the extra data to save ink used to print color labels. Really pretty simple.
Start with a new document with the same page dimensions as the label paper. On the master page draw circles who's size and location match the location of the CD labels on the paper. If your label paper includes any extra labels, draw boxes to match the location of those extra labels as well. The fill of these objects should be turned off, and the outline should be a solid black hairline stroke or the color of your choice Before disabling the printing of these guide lines, print the master page out on regular paper and compare it to the labels to verify placement.
Once
the guide marks match the label paper, select those objects on
the master page and suppress the printing of those items by clicking
on the printer icon in the edit palette to turn off printing
of those marks. They will still guide you in the placement of
objects on the pages of the document, but will not actually mark
the page. The reason you can't print them is that the sheet feed
mechanism of most printers is imprecise. It will actually print
in slightly different locations each time based on the alignment
of the paper. Usually this misalignment is less than 1/16 of
an inch, but that is enough to show your guides on at least one
side of the actual label if you were to allow them to be printed.
The next step is to create a mask that will cover anything that extends outside of the labels to prevent excessive waste of ink. Begin by drawing a box that starts in the upper left hand corner of the page, and ends in the lower right corner of the page. Then draw a circle around the outside of each of the CD labels. The circles should be just a little bigger than the CD label guides. About .1” should be enough, but more may be needed if your printer is more imprecise than most. Do the same for any additional label guides that exist, drawing over sized boxes around those label guides. With the object tool, select all those over sized boxes and circles and the full page box. By selected Merge Paths from the Object menu you will create a single mask path who's shape is the inverse of the labels. Finally, set the fill of the mask to white, and turn off the stroke. Last by not least, create circles inside the inner CD label guide, but in this case a little smaller than the inner CD label guide. Set these circles to white fill with no stroke and the masks are done!
Now if you turn back to the first page of the document, you will see the label marks, and the rest of the page should be masked to white. Select Edit Page from the Layout menu, and set the master page to display in front. This will cause the white path mask to print over any objects you place on the page. Now is a good time to make a template from this document. Just choose Save As Template from the File menu. When you go to reload this document at a later time, PageStream will forget where the template was loaded from so as to reduce the chance that you will save a modified version of the template over the original template.
Now design your CD labels, and remember to leave important parts of your design well enough inside the labels that any misalignment will not cause those elements to be printed off the label.
If you don't need to print edge to edge of the label, the mask is really not needed, but the ability to print edge to edge is well worth the effort. The basic concepts are useful in any label design, and while the task is not difficult with PageStream, a little effort up front can produce very professional labels. If you create a label template for a different label set that the one I created, share it by mailing it to me at support@grasshopperllc.com. I'll try and post these works with proper credit so that all might enjoy!
As always, if you have questions
about this or any other aspect of PageStream, just ask! Our PageStreamSupport
list is a great place to learn all sorts of neat tricks.