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  • A blast from the past: digging through my old files

    From Scott Alfter@21:1/5 to All on Mon Jun 23 00:21:37 2025
    I imaged the hard drive from my IIGS, booted it with MAME, loaded a
    32-year-old Apple user group newsletter produced in an 8-bit DTP package,
    and (through a few steps with modern hardware) converted it to a PDF for
    your perusal:

    https://alfter.us/2025/06/22/a-blast-from-the-past/

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    / v \ Scott Alfter (remove the obvious to send mail)
    (IIGS( https://alfter.us/ Top-posting!
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  • From Hugh Hood@21:1/5 to Scott Alfter on Mon Jun 23 10:56:02 2025
    Scott,

    Thanks for posting that Las Vegas Apple user group newsletter from 1993. Those were the days, my friend ...

    I'm glad you got the stock PublishIt! 4 furnished LaserPrep to work with GhostScript. I remember having to make some modifications to it when I used to run those PublishIt! PTD files through Adobe Acrobat Distiller to make .pdf files. {IIRC, I think it
    choked on the LaserWriter-specific functions}.

    I even read the reviews in the newsletter. I guess Gary Hayman (who wrote the Ultra 4 review) never thought enough about it to upgrade his 'Magic File Cabinet' to work with it, or perhaps the market was just too small by then.

    Again, thanks. Will there be more?




    Hugh Hood



    On 6/22/25 7:21 PM, Scott Alfter wrote:
    I imaged the hard drive from my IIGS, booted it with MAME, loaded a 32-year-old Apple user group newsletter produced in an 8-bit DTP
    package, and (through a few steps with modern hardware) converted it
    to a PDF for your perusal:

    https://alfter.us/2025/06/22/a-blast-from-the-past/


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  • From Scott Alfter@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Mon Jun 23 21:43:01 2025
    In article <103btei$1bd47$[email protected]>,
    Hugh Hood <[email protected]> wrote:
    I'm glad you got the stock PublishIt! 4 furnished LaserPrep to work with >GhostScript. I remember having to make some modifications to it when I
    used to run those PublishIt! PTD files through Adobe Acrobat Distiller to >make .pdf files.

    As I recall, I never had to do anything special to print the files back
    then either. I think Ghostscript also worked well back then as a previewer,
    so you didn't waste your quota on something that didn't look right.

    Again, thanks. Will there be more?

    There could be...think I have maybe a year's worth of newsletters, or maybe more.

    I also have a bunch of AppleWorks word-processor files that I might try bringing into the present. Many (most?) of them used TimeOut SuperFonts (?) for NLQ printing on the Imagewriter I had at the time (and still have,
    though it's been years since I last used it); converting that to a modern format while preserving the formatting might be an interesting exercise.

    --
    _/_
    / v \ Scott Alfter (remove the obvious to send mail)
    (IIGS( https://alfter.us/ Top-posting!
    \_^_/ >What's the most annoying thing on Usenet?

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  • From Hugh Hood@21:1/5 to Scott Alfter on Tue Jun 24 10:37:14 2025
    On 6/23/25 4:43 PM, Scott Alfter wrote:

    I also have a bunch of AppleWorks word-processor files that I might
    try bringing into the present. Many (most?) of them used TimeOut
    SuperFonts (?) for NLQ printing on the Imagewriter I had at the time
    (and still have, though it's been years since I last used it);
    converting that to a modern format while preserving the formatting
    might be an interesting exercise.



    If you can get the SuperFonts-using AWP files printed to disk, you can just prepend the IWEM file with a few mods to it and run it through GhostScript (or Acrobat Distiller). An example is here:

    <http://www.apple2works.com/iw2pdf/>


    For the non-SuperFonts AppleWorks files, you can use the DeskJet/LaserJet PCL printer driver, print the files to disk, and run them through the GhostScript product, GhostPCL.






    Hugh Hood

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  • From Kelvin Sherlock@21:1/5 to Scott Alfter on Wed Jun 25 18:10:58 2025
    Aside from the clip art, that doesn't look 8 bit. Very impressive.

    In <l616Q.1607015$[email protected]>
    [email protected] (Scott Alfter) writes:

    I imaged the hard drive from my IIGS, booted it with MAME, loaded a >32-year-old Apple user group newsletter produced in an 8-bit DTP package,
    and (through a few steps with modern hardware) converted it to a PDF for
    your perusal:

    https://alfter.us/2025/06/22/a-blast-from-the-past/

    --
    _/_
    / v \ Scott Alfter (remove the obvious to send mail)
    (IIGS( https://alfter.us/ Top-posting!
    \_^_/ >What's the most annoying thing on Usenet?

    -------
    ProLine: kelvin@pro-kegs

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  • From Christopher G. Mason@21:1/5 to Scott Alfter on Wed Jun 25 20:31:04 2025
    On 6/22/2025 8:21 PM, Scott Alfter wrote:
    I imaged the hard drive from my IIGS, booted it with MAME, loaded a 32-year-old Apple user group newsletter produced in an 8-bit DTP package,
    and (through a few steps with modern hardware) converted it to a PDF for
    your perusal:

    https://alfter.us/2025/06/22/a-blast-from-the-past/


    For those using Netatalk's PAP server with a "Print to PDF" solution, Publish-IT! and Springboard Publisher both have AppleTalk LaserWriter
    support, but do not correctly support printer spoolers. If I recall,
    both didn't insert the required comments (actually spooler commands)
    into their Postscript output. Otherwise, it would make "printing" these
    files really easy from real hardware or from GSport/GSplus.

    In other news, the GS/OS LaserWriter driver is now fully supported, even
    in its stock un-patched state. Getting that to work was a headache!
    GhostPCL now also properly supports color output from DeskJet 550C
    drivers as well.

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  • From Scott Alfter@21:1/5 to Kelvin Sherlock on Mon Jul 7 15:25:23 2025
    In article <103hekq$2uatg$[email protected]>,
    Kelvin Sherlock <[email protected]> wrote:
    In <l616Q.1607015$[email protected]>
    [email protected] (Scott Alfter) writes:
    I imaged the hard drive from my IIGS, booted it with MAME, loaded a >>32-year-old Apple user group newsletter produced in an 8-bit DTP package, >>and (through a few steps with modern hardware) converted it to a PDF for >>your perusal:

    https://alfter.us/2025/06/22/a-blast-from-the-past/

    Aside from the clip art, that doesn't look 8 bit. Very impressive.

    PublishIt! was a neat bit of software. I think I might've run off the first issue or two on my Imagewriter, but once I had PostScript output figured
    out, there was no going back. :)

    --
    _/_
    / v \ Scott Alfter (remove the obvious to send mail)
    (IIGS( https://alfter.us/ Top-posting!
    \_^_/ >What's the most annoying thing on Usenet?

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