🚀 go-pugleaf

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In article <41d801$iqc@sundog.tiac.net>,
Robert Krawitz <rlk@sunspot.tiac.net> wrote:

>The newsletter I edited last year, for example, could not have been
>done (in any practical sense) in TeX or its variants.  This was
>typically 36 pages (half sheet), with about 20 imported photos, a
>number of stock graphic elements, and sometimes a large and complex
>graphic on the cover (on one cover, we took a piece of clipart,
>superimposed "12" in a fancy typeface on an angle and slanted and
>filled with a circular fountain fill).  To make all the columns (top
>and bottom) line up correctly, I frequently had to manipulate
>tracking over short pieces of text.  I sometimes had to continue
>stories over pages.  This kind of work is not practicable in TeX.

i say, are you in the habit of driving nails with a screwdriver?

actually, to be honest, i suspect that i could most of this work in
TeX.  you'd need a custom output routine, but Don documents how to do
this in the manual.  it may take several trial runs to get everything
to look good, but so what?  nobody in their right mind expects to get
layout perfect on the first try....

the only thing i'd have serious trouble doing in TeX is text flow
around figures.  you'd have to fuss with /parshape a lot.  lots of
trial and error.  but just doing multiple columns is (relatively)
easy.

>   I find that producing quality documents with great graphics using UNIX
>   freeware is a straightforward affair.  Incidentally, I used to do some
>   occasional graphics work on Mac computers; it's a pain in the rear by
>   comparison.
>
>I would be very interested in a set of tools (even commercial, if the
>prices were reasonable) that could accomplish this kind of work, and
>let me utilize the libraries of fonts & clipart that I have.  

there are postscript to metafont converters (actually, they just
generate metric files for the postscript font; it's up to dvips to
actually yank in the font), so any postscript font you might want can
be used with TeX.  psdvi can use a /special to read in postscript art;
you just have to leave an empty box of the appropriate size in the TeX
source.

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