Ventura encoded text files + some extra rubbish

[Jay Maechtlen]

Ah, another Venturian! (well, I was, but haven't done any work with it 
for some years now)

Re VMs: I like VirtualBox, because the VM can have access to USB 
devices, like scanners and such.
Microsoft's offering, AFIK, doesn't do that.

Regards
Jay


On 4/26/2012 2:28 PM, Jacob Schäffer (Grafikhuset) wrote:
> Over the years I've had quite a few conversations with Gabor Jahn, Allan
> Shearer, Abe Hendin and Paul McGee, to which Jay Maechtlen's FAQ link refer
> in many of the FAQ answers. These folks have done a great job and I can
> still see their wisdom engulfed in passionate Ventura flames. Consult the
> Ventura News Groups if they still are alive. These guys have all provided
> plenty of useful information to the Ventura communities.
>
> If one has the option of installing Ventura 10 and is able to apply the
> official and *very* important VP10 patch the only reasonable thing to do
> with pre-Venrura 5 documents (i.e. 4.2 and older) is to open them in VP10,
> modify the para-styles as required (typically only font references and
> perhaps tracking/kerning fail), and then, page by page, check that
> hyphenation is OK (which it most likely isn't - especially if you work with
> a non-English (ie. non-en-US or non-en-GB) languages.
>
> If you are on Windows 7 don't fight the VP10 Installer. It IS possible to
> make it run and install VP10, but it's waste of time. Use a VM-Ware (or
> similar virtualization method - perhaps the MS Virtual PC, which is free) to
> run a Windows XP session with Ventura 10. THAT will work for you.
>
> In my view we today have MANY products that can do ALMOST the same as
> Ventura Publisher in regard to automated publishing books. We have NONE that
> CAN do the same with regard to automating such bests, and not even InDesign
> can deal with for example text frames with different column widths in a text
> frame nor with automatically created vertical column lines, that match the
> height of balanced text, automatically feathering space above headings etc.
> Ventura did that from version 2.0 run under the GEM platform in 1988-89, and
> still do in VP10, of course. I think Ventura died because document
> portability was extremely poor and the leaning curve was too steep. Sad!
>
> Anyway, from time to time I still use Ventura (10.0 with patch applied) on
> some occations, and have just made a 416 pages book ready to print in 3,5
> hours with Ventura. The ability to just load "tagged" TXT files marked for
> "Export on Save" on the fly simply outmatch other technologies because of
> ease of use, simplicty etc. - if you know the "how to". If you still have VP
> 4.X books alive, then keep them in VP format. NOTHING else makes sense unles
> you are willing to undertake a huge amount of superfluous work.
>
> I loved Ventura, but I also love newer technologies for their fantastic
> integration with PDF, non-EPS artwork and image handling etc.. But these
> "packages" still have a bit to learn from Ventura in many regards, even
> though for example the latest FrameMaker, at long last, beats Ventura on
> some fronts.
>
> It took almost a human generation for FrameMaker to provide usefull
> CMYK/Spot color support. It's here now, and most critical, it also works OK
> now - at last. The first CMYK attempts with Adobe trying to get off lightly
> by implementing an outdated Linux kernel (Level 1 based PostScript) was a
> total disaster, and exporting the FM development to India didn't exactly
> make it easy to find common development ground with internal Adobe colour
> experts. Anyway, the FM10 (latest edition and patch level) does a great job
> with commercial CMYK/Spot colors owing to third party input (Arnis Gubins
> and friends - thanks Arnis for unifying the strength of third party
> collaboration !!!).
>
> VP10, FM10, FM10 ten years after VP10 ten years after Xerox VP. There's a
> lot of 10's to keep tally of here, isn't there :-)
>
> Well, I'm actually writing all this rubbish just to anounce, that my colour
> conversion products "Colour Chameleon", "CMYK PDF Creator" and "Publi PDF"
> is becoming freeware licensed under some sort of GPL as a single product
> named "Grafikhuset Publi PDF". All of these variants have helped FrameMaker
> users all over the world for years in preparing coloured FM documents for
> commercial printing via PDF since January 1996, where the first
> International English "Colour Chameleon" was released.
>
> We have now closed the on-line activation service (hosted by InstallShield -
> Flexera), and licensed products can NOT be activated anymore. However, we
> have a FREE client edition of "Grafikhuset Publi PDF 2.0" prepared that run
> on XP, Vista and Windows 7 (32- and 64-bit editions of Windows 7), and is
> currently preparing the MSI installer. We expect to provide this new version
> for FREE via http://go.grafikhuset.dk approx 5. May 2012.
>
> All the best / Med venlig hilsen
> Jacob Schäffer  |  Chief Developer
> Grafikhuset (House of Graphics)
> Paradis Allé 22, Ramløse
> DK-3200 Helsinge, Denmark
> Mobile: +45 2021 1958
> Email: js at grafikhuset.dk
> Web: go.grafikhuset.dk
>
>
>

-- 
Jay Maechtlen
626 444-5112 office
626 840-8875 cell
www.laserpubs.com