EPS Prepress For Large Format Graphics From MS Publisher -- Yikes!

[Lee Blevins]

From Microsoft: Publisher never had a built in PostScript Engine and instead
relied on the installed PS Driver to provide the PS Output. Building a
PostScript Engine was estimated as requiring all DEV resources for a given
version\release. Offering such a release or version of Publisher would
almost have no benefit to our end-users thus resulting in no reason for
our target end-users to purchase this version or upgrade.

Those words ring hollow to me. It's like listening to Ken Lay of enron
claim he didn't know about accounting irregularities.

Or like listening ot gun companines claim they thought anybody would
actually be harmed by their product.

It's spin.

Microsoft knows what a page layout program is and what it will be used
for. They know damm well that small business owners aren't going to run
their catalogs off on deskjet printers.

In my opinion, given the wealth of microsoft in money and human
resources it can only boil down to a decision that they don't need to do
a good job. That being mediocre is ok.

It's worse than being mediocre.

The first publisher I used was back in 1997. It is now 2004. By my math
that's 7 years.

For those 7 years the outcry from prepress departments about publisher's
performance in our departments can't be denied.

I have to question the honesty of someone that would claim there was no
resounding complaint.

My assertion that publisher is at the bottom of the heap of applications
that the majority of prepress operators would like to receive seems to
have been sidestepped by you.

I guess you response is that Microsoft never intended Publisher to end
up in prepress department.

I find that laughable.

The very name of Microsoft Publisher suggests that is it a publishing
tool. Nowhere on the box do I see any warnings that it can't be used for
professional work.

The entire package looks as if it's being targeted at consumers who want
to make publications and get them printed. There's instructions about
preparing work for professional pinters.

If they didn't intend for it to be used for that then why is that stuff
in the documentation? NOTE: There certainly is no warnings posted
anywhere the the program the consumer is using is the bane of the
industry that they will have to interface with.

I would ask any member of this group to take this little test:

List the following applications in order of your preference to receive
data in:

Quark
Indesign
PageMaker
Illustrator
Framemaker
Freehand
MS Publisher

So I guess the answer it Publisher sucks because Microsoft never
intended for it to be good.

 

[Brian Kvalheim - [MS MVP]]

So I guess the answer it Publisher sucks because Microsoft never
intended for it to be good.

So you don't have any samples or scenarios that show your issues that
you have found. Can you provide any? --
Brian Kvalheim
Microsoft Publisher MVP
http://www.mvps.org/publisher

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Brian Kvalheim - [MS MVP]]

Give it up, Lee. Brian is never going to admit that

Do you have some samples or scenarios to reproduce issues that you have
discovered? --
Brian Kvalheim
Microsoft Publisher MVP
http://www.mvps.org/publisher

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[°°°MS°Publisher°°°]

What these dummies like RSD and others fail to realise, I have been
outputting high quality offset printed work from Publisher starting version
2.0. If you know what you are doing, it has never been an issue. When
utilities like QABOT and Enfocus Pitstop arrived on the scene, it certainly
made life easier.

If the large majority of the rank amateur fools involved in the printing
industry went and got some proper education or did some research, they would
not dribble their puerile diarrhoea around here or anywhere else.

 

[Brian Kvalheim - [MS MVP]]

Did you know that 10 years ago Publisher didn't have color seps, fonts
manger, CMYK Composite, Pantone selection, Save As PS, Trapping options,
registration settings, job details, color ramps, crop marks, etc?

I have no current samples or scenarios. 10 years ago I decided never
again to accept a Publisher file and I have been happily MS Publisher
free ever since.

But if you're looking for a litany of them, may I suggest a search at
groups.google.com on keywords "MS Publisher" or "Microsoft Publisher"
and "sucks" will fill your requirement.

I find thousands of results when search for Adobe+Sucks and PageMaker+Sucks
and Quark+Sucks
But my concern is to find the problems from the more vocal ones such as
yourself. It is puzzling that there are prepress/commercial printers out
there that are successfully using Publisher in their environment and others
are not. So others might have a different flow, which is where Publisher
is stumbling, or better yet, the press operator is stumbling. In either
case, scenarios and samples are best.
The thing I think prepress individuals should look at this is:

1. There are Publisher home/small business users. They create items for
print. They bring in their *.pub file to you, the printer.
2. You the printer qualifies for a free copy of Publisher (that includes
EVERY release) for your shop so that you can take these native files direct
from the consumer. Once you have the file, you as the printer outputs the
file from your copy of Publisher that was given to you by Microsoft. The
Microsoft Publisher team has included the following features in Publisher
to help you publish these items from Publisher:
1. Save as PS
2. PS Level 3 Printer Driver on your free Publisher CD
3. CMYK Composite output
4. Color Seps
5. Limited trap settings (Publisher Team assumes that printers use their
own preferred third party trap tools) 6. PrePress Manual
7. Free online listing as a printer who accepts Publisher files (which
is 4000+ and growing) 8. Pantones

So these tools, which are free to you, should help you to assist consumers.
If there is a problem from the output of the *.ps after being distilled,
etc., we need to find what the problem is. If it is something else, we
need to know.
And most importantly, consumers should know to contact the printer prior
to creating a publication for print so they can educate themselves and
learn how their printer outputs.
I too in the past have output Publisher files without issues, but it took
some education on my part, as well as some of my customers. Our shop to
date still outputs them, and we make a great margin, and still have great
output.
Anyway, just my 2 cents.

--
Brian Kvalheim
Microsoft Publisher MVP
http://www.mvps.org/publisher

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[°°°MS°Publisher°°°]

Dave just so damn interesting how you poorly uneducated printing dummies
fall out of trees when the trees are given a shake.

 

[°°°MS°Publisher°°°]

Dave B well why bother even posting.

We do not need fifth rate uneducated fools from the printing industry like
you around here.

P I S S off and leave us alone.

 

[rhys]

Dave just so damn interesting how you poorly uneducated printing dummies
fall out of trees when the trees are given a shake.

JAX, is that you? (Extremely inside joke only understood by
designers/prepress folk who sail and read Usenet!)

R.

 

[RSD99]

"°°°MS°Publisher°°°" posted
"... like the spineless gutless runt RSD99...."

Careful ... Mr. David Allenberg ... your lack of intelligence and poor education is
showing. Additionally, you have made some ASSumptions that are not true.






news:#[email protected]...

 

[°°°MS°Publisher°°°]

Dave B is anything the PERFECT tool of course not.

Oh geezzz I see you are one of the those damn canacanackers always
subservient to your American masters.
We have great pity on you poor canacanackers. The Asians came in and took
all your economy away while you were sleeping. They slipped in through the
front door and out the back door with your economy. Now you are reduced to
spamming pornography and paedophilia for economy.

 

[RSD99]

Talk about "fuzzy thinking" ...

 

[°°°MS°Publisher°°°]

RSD99 what is it like to be such a sick demented runt of society.

 

[Lee Blevins]

So you don't have any samples or scenarios that show your issues that
you have found. Can you provide any? --
Brian Kvalheim
Microsoft Publisher MVP
http://www.mvps.org/publisher

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

NO.

I am not going to be your QA department.

You certainly need one.

I have already lost too much money as a result of this program. I am not
going to further my losses with no apparent gain by dearchiving the jobs
and providing you and your associate (MS) with the data for quality
assurance that you should already have after so many years.

If Microsoft is interested they can rent my time and come into my shop
and sit at a computer and run the Publisher work that comes in.

But then why aren't they setting up a QA department where they write the
software?

 

[Wendell]

Brian Kvalheim - [MS MVP] wrote:

2. You the printer qualifies for a free copy of Publisher (that includes
EVERY release) for your shop so that you can take these native files direct
from the consumer.
<snip again>
--
Brian Kvalheim
Microsoft Publisher MVP
http://www.mvps.org/publisher

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

We purchased our copy in order to accept .pub files and convert them. I
didn't realize that there was an offer to printers of free copies.
How do we qualify and get a copy?

Wendell

 

[Brian Kvalheim - [MS MVP]]

We purchased our copy in order to accept .pub files and convert them. I
didn't realize that there was an offer to printers of free copies.
How do we qualify and get a copy?

Hi Wendell, the program is free to all commercial printers. It's called
the PSPP program: http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/preview.aspx?AssetID=HA010772371033&CTT=98

In addition, you get free unlimited commercial printing support with a
dedicated support number for commercial printers.
Brian Kvalheim
Microsoft Publisher MVP
http://www.mvps.org/publisher

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[Brian Kvalheim - [MS MVP]]

<Brian> wrote:
If Microsoft is interested they can rent my time and come into my shop
and sit at a computer and run the Publisher work that comes in.

Lee, where are you located? Microsoft's Commercial Printing Team will
visit your commercial print shop if you are in the Washington/Seattle area.
Outside of that, I don't know. I would have to check.

Brian Kvalheim
Microsoft Publisher MVP
http://www.mvps.org/publisher

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[°°°MS°Publisher°°°]

Lee "I have already lost too much money as a result of this program" only
because you are just another failed poorly educated printer.
To damn lazy to do some basic research, probably to dumb to be able to learn
how to work with it properly, and to damn dumb to ask others who know the
right questions. Kiss your jobs goodbye by the day. The Indians and Asians
are more than happy to take all the work you yankees send them. I am sure
they do not care what format it is in because they will be well trained and
educated and if they do not have the knowledge they will go and obtain it
from somebody who knows. Don't worry America one day soon you will have a
Chinese head of state running yankee land. They just about own it now, so
wont take long to take over the board.

 

[Wendell]

Thanks Brian.

Wendell

Hi Wendell, the program is free to all commercial printers. It's called
the PSPP program: http://office.microsoft.com/assistance/preview.aspx?AssetID=HA010772371033&CTT=98

In addition, you get free unlimited commercial printing support with a
dedicated support number for commercial printers.
Brian Kvalheim
Microsoft Publisher MVP
http://www.mvps.org/publisher

This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

 

[rhys]

Dave B is anything the PERFECT tool of course not.

Oh geezzz I see you are one of the those damn canacanackers always
subservient to your American masters.
We have great pity on you poor canacanackers. The Asians came in and took
all your economy away while you were sleeping. They slipped in through the
front door and out the back door with your economy. Now you are reduced to
spamming pornography and paedophilia for economy.

OK, this is one of those "with friends like these" situations, isn't
it? Let's recap: the guy who is a VAR of Publisher has this
troll-off-his-meds as his staunchest advocate? Whose major points are
to slag entire nationalities and to deem anyone who has issues with
the quirkier than Quark Publisher as "ignorant" and "unprofessional"?

Nice PR, Microsoft. It's the end-user's fault, and was ever thus.

Steve Ballmer, I can see it's you! You kidder!

R.

 

[RSD99]

HeHeHeHeHe .....