Magniprint II, Weak! / utilities / commercial










From: Michael Current (aa700@cleveland.Freenet.Edu)

Date: 06/05/92-10:26:03 PM Z









From: aa700@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Michael Current)
Subject: Magniprint II, Weak! / utilities / commercial
Date: Fri Jun  5 22:26:03 1992




Reprinted from Usenet.


  GETTING IT DOWN ON PAPER
  ------------------------
  By Jon Cooper.
  -------------


  In past issues of New Atari User a lot of readers have wrote in asking about
  dumping graphics created with commercial software to there printers. So I
  decided to review two currently available programs Magniprint II and Weak!
  from the Page 6 P.D catalog. Can a P.D program possibly be as good at its job
  as a full price release..Read on!


  MAGNIPRINT II
  -------------

  When Magniprint II is first booted up the first thing on the screen is the
  file conversion menu. Before any going any further you have to load in your
  chosen picture file and save it in Magniprint II format.

  Files can be converted from all the following programs:- Micro Painter,
  Micro Illustrator, Paint, Fun With Art,  B/Graph, Graphic Master, Super
  Sketch,  Strip Poker, Movie Maker, Graphics Magician, Atarigraphics Lightpen,
  The Print Shop and Syngraph. As you can see not much has been missed out!

  When you have converted your files to Magniprint format you then load from
  disk the main printer program. You then are confronted by a screen asking for
  the file name of the picture you want to load or you can list the disk
  directory. When the file is loaded it is shown on the screen. At the press of
  the space bar another menu is put up with various options on to enhance your
  picture. Touch up screen allows you to alter your picture using a joystick
  like the draw facility on Atari Artist. Add text lets you put writing any
  where on the screen, five character sets are on side two of the disk. Poster
  print lets you blow up your picture to wall poster size. When you have made
  any changes you want at a press of a button your picture is printed.
  Epson and Gemini printers are supported.

  I printed of pictures in Print Shop,  Paint, Micro Illutrator and
  Micropainter formats using my Citizen 120D printer the results were fine but
  the program seemed to have a few bugs in it. Ever so often it would refuse to
  load a file or the whole program would crash. Even so Magniprint II is fairly
  easy to use and one of the best things about it is the amout of different
  software format files it can convert some of them I've never heard of. All in
  all Magniprint II is a good utility that does its job well.




  WEAK!
  -----

  When Weak! is first loaded a menu is put up asking you to chose between the
  main program and the documentation.
  After Magniprint II I thought "Huh..Who needs docs on a printer program?"
  So I chose to run Weak! big mistake!
  The first thing that comes up after a few seconds of loading is a screen full
  of German. I managed to work out that you had to press space to carry on.
  After a bit more loading a main looking menu is put up. I say main looking
  because the whole things in German.
  "'Fiddle sticks' Ill have to load the docs after all!"
  After reading the docs all is clear Im ready to tackle the menu again.
  When you get the hang of it Weak! is really easy to use. Pictures can be
  loaded from:- Micropainter, Koala, Fun With Art and Stripoker. Unlike
  Magniprint files don't need to be converted they can be read stright of the
  disk.
  Pictures can be printed in three sizes: Small Medium and Large. They can be
  printed across and verticaly down the page. Weak! can not edit pictures but
  the colours on the screen can be changed to give the best effect on your
  printer (I found strong contrasting colours worked best like red and green).
  Pictures can also be displayed in graphics modes 8, 9 and 15.

  Epson, Star LC2410 and Seikosha printers are supported but your own
  parameters can be keyed in but as the menu is in German this is a bit tricky!

  I printed pictures in a number of ways and got exellent results. Weak! is
  first rate at its job and very easy to use. Dont be put of by th German it
  makes the program more interesting!

  THE FINAL VERDICT
  -----------------

  Both utilitys are good at there job but the main thing to think about is
  price. Magniprint II costs about twenty five pounds where as Weak! is only
  three quid!
  My advise is to buy Weak! first if your happy with it fine, but if you need
  that bit more flexibility then upgrade to Magniprint.


  MAGNIPRINT II is availible from GRALIN INTERNATIONAL price is about twenty
  five pounds.

  WEAK! is availible from PAGE SIX public domain libary price is two ninety
  five. WEAK!s libary number is DS#60.
-- 
 Michael Current, Cleveland Free-Net 8-bit Atari SIGOp   -->>  go atari8  <<--
   The Cleveland Free-Net Atari SIG is the Central Atari Information Network
      Internet: currentm@carleton.edu / UUCP: ...!umn-cs!ccnfld!currentm
     BITNET: currentm%carleton.edu@{interbit} / Cleveland Free-Net: aa700









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