🚀 go-pugleaf

Folks,

The Mac is in use as a front end/design workstation in many publications of all
shapes and sizes; I personally work for a weekly college newspaper (broadsheet,
color) that is done in toto on the Mac.

Atex, the former Kodak subsidiary, produces integrated systems for magazine and
newspaper publishing.  Their next-generation system uses Macs as design work-
stations (PCs and PS/2s are the text and page processing platforms).  The
software in question is called Atex Designer and it is developed by a company
called Media Solutions, located in Andover, Mass.

The Atex software handles design, 24-bit images, text tricks, and other neat
stuff.  It retails for (hold your breath) $10,000.

(personal opinion: it's really not worth that much money - I've used it.)

Other big publications equipment companies use the Mac as a front end to their
typesetters or image proc. systems (Hell, Scitex, Crosfield).  Crosfield's
solution is a special version of ReadySetGo! that outputs compatible files,
which are then RIPped in a Sun workstation.  PostScript graphics and page
geometry are passed on to the high-end system.
(personal opinion: It works, but it's still beta.)

The Nikon scanner is a real piece of work, producing 24-bit images with amazing
resolution in jig time.  One caveat: your hard drive has to be very large to
accomodate the 70-megabyte max rez images.  It works with the Mac II (x) (cx)
and it's cool.

BTW: Pagemaker does handle "newspaper-sized" pages.  Where did you get the
idea that it didn't?

-mike rose
mr2t+@andrew.cmu.edu