🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <165@obie.UUCP>, wes@obie.UUCP (Barnacle Wes) writes:
> In article <1615@alliant.Alliant.COM>, rosenkra@Alliant.COM (Bill Rosenkranz) writes:
> 
> On the other hand, I do agree about Atari's strategies regarding Europe
> and the USA.  I don't mind them announcing everything at the Hannover
> Fair, as opposed to Comdex or the CES, but to sell everything in
> Europe for MONTHS before it comes out here is irritating.  

Atari doesn't announce everything in Europe.  Below is an article that appeared
in EE Times (printed without permission) that came out of a desk top publishing
show right here in good old Chicago, USA.

ATARI ADOPTS IMAGEN POSTSCRIPT SOFTWARE CLONE FOR LASER PRINTER

"Desktop publishing for Atari computer users got much easier last week, with
Atari's public showing of a PostScript laser printer software clone.

The software, dubbed UltraScript, enables Atari's laser printer to produce
documents that are formatted and structured in Adobe's PostScript page
description language.

Insiders say that Adobe normally demands a royalty of about $100 per printer
for PostScript licensees.  That was too steep for Atari, which markets an
under-$2000, 300-dpi laser printer.  But because Atari's printer receives its
pixel-page generation commands from the 68000-based ST or Mega host, a
PostScript-like interpreter can command the printer to act like a PostScript
hardware device.

That's where Imagen (San Jose, CA) comes in.  The QMS subsidiary has long had
its own proprietary text and graphical rotation routines.  Now, it has
developed a fast interpreter which Atari engineers say is actually faster
than Adobe's own in many instances.

The UltraScript package comes on a single Atari diskette, allowing the computer
to perform PostScript-like image on the fly.

Normally, PostScript is licensed in ROM form, as pioneered in Apple's Laser-
Writer printer three years ago.  A RAM-image UltraScript interpreter works
for Atari because its laser-printer commands stem from the host computer.
That allows Atari--and third-party desktop publishing companies--to exploit
PostScript's curve-generation prowess.

Third-party desktop publishing was the theme at Atari's Corporate Electronic
Publishing Systems booth last week.  Several publishers said they intend to
offer UltraScript support this summer.

Atari will show the UltraScript system at Comdex this spring, and hope
to ship the software "at low cost" in mid-summer."



					Kit Kimes  
					AT&T--Information Systems Labs
					...ihnp4!ihlpe!kimes