PageStream - Documents:Introduction

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Introduction

Three types of graphic files are used in PageStream: bitmapped pictures, drawings and EPS illustrations.

Bitmapped pictures are made up of a grid of dots of varying colors or grays. Each dot can include a transparency value, often refered to as an alpha channel, that will allow parts of the background to bleed through the picture or to mask out the white portions of a picture. If you scale a picture larger it will become jaggier. Pictures are generally created with scanners or paint and image processing software. While you can apply effects to pictures with PageStream, you must use another program to paint in a picture. BME, Adobe Photoshop and Cloanto Personal Paint can be used for this.

Drawings are made up of objects defined as series of points, lines and curves. You can scale a drawing without it becoming jaggy. Drawings are non-editable when imported into PageStream, but you can dissolve them into their sub-objects which can be edited. You can also create a drawing out of shapes and paths drawn in PageStream. Examples of other programs which can create structured drawings are Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw and Art Expression.

Encapsulated PostScript (EPS) illustrations are designed for use with PostScript printers. They are not editable in PageStream because they are composed of PostScript language commands which describe the illustration to the interpreter in a PostScript printer.

EPS illustrations

Non-PostScript printers lack the PostScript interpreter used to translate PostScript commands into printed graphics. PageStream can convert some EPS illustrations to drawings so that they can be edited in PageStream. Only EPS files saved in Art Expression or Adobe Illustrator EPS formats can be converted. Adobe Illustrator EPS format is the de facto EPS exchange standard and most drawing programs can load and save in this format.

Once an EPS illustration has been imported and converted to a drawing, it is no longer an EPS illustration so it can be printed to any type of printer and even modified with PageStream's drawing tools. If you import other types of EPS illustrations and print them to a non-PostScript printer, only the bitmap preview will be printed. If the EPS file does not have a preview, nothing can be printed.

EPS files often include a low-resolution bitmapped preview. If the EPS file does not contain a preview, it will be shown on screen as a simple box. To see EPS illustration previews, select ''Preferences'' from the ''File'' menu and click on the ''View'' panel. Select ''Show Pictures'' to display pictures and EPS previews.

PageStream for Amiga and Windows cannot display Macintosh format bitmapped EPS previews. Most MacOS illustration programs allow you to choose between PC format TIFF previews and Macintosh format PICT previews.

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