| PageStream desktop publisher for Linux goes gold |
Mar. 15, 2006
Grasshopper LLC Tuesday announced the first release of its PageStream desktop publishing application specifically designed for the LinuxPPC distribution. PageStream is also available for Mac OS, Windows, and Amiga variants with a large assortment of features and a 20-year history, Grasshopper said.
PageStream can be used to set type, draw objects, and place graphics, and it features precise typography and professional printing. The app differs from other commercial releases in that it has most of the drawing features of an illustration program, unique features, a lower price, and most importantly, an outstanding interface, according to the program's website.
"PageStream is a high-end publishing package that, like an onion, has many layers," Dan Kilroy, a spokesman for Wisconsin-based Grasshopper, told DesktopLinux.com via email. "Basic functions like pages, text, and drawing can be 'opened' into more customizable, user-controlled functions.
"Take the text attribute shadow as an example: You can choose it from [either] the menu or the edit palette. But if you want a different color of shadow, or a different offset or even skewed, you can customize that. We show you some of the text configurability here," Kilroy added.
"That is what still amazes me: how much is contained in an easy-to-use interface. Like chess, [it takes] a moment to learn, [and] a lifetime to master," Kilroy said.
Highlighted features include:- advanced path editing
- object transparency
- stable document format that allows PageStream documents to be exchanged across platforms and versions, groups and layers
- fully customizable text styles
- fully recordable actions playable internally and scriptable with Python
- support for widely used authoring and graphic file formats, including EPS, Illustrator, JPEG, PNG, BMP, TIFF, IFF, RTF, HTML, Word, and PDF
The professional version of 5.0 includes loading of PDF files as editable documents, text-on-path and text-in-path distortions, numerous bitmap filters, borders, advanced blending and typographic functions, and complex path operations.
PageStream resembles Adobe Illustrator and QuarkXpress in its look and feel, Kilroy said.
"The look and feel is more like a cross [between them]," Kilroy told DesktopLinux.com. "[Since] PageStream has been around longer than Illustrator and Photoshop, it would be more like they resemble us."
PageStream can build multiple-page documents, like QuarkXpress, PageMaker, and others.
"Yes, (there is) no limit on the number of pages (or page sizes), plus each document can have chapters; chapters can have sub-chapters; and so on," Kilroy said.
Kilroy added that the LinuxPPC version has been in development for only a few months. The Linux/GTK version as a whole is now almost three years in development, he said.
PageStream developers currently are working on the next update to 5.0, Kilroy said, which merges Macintosh OSX and Amiga branches to the main branch.
You can download demonstration versions of PageStream 5.0 for Linux and Windows here. PageStream Linux uses Gnome TK+2 libraries, which can be found here.
PageStream 5.0 MSRP is priced at $99, and PageStream5.0 Pro MSRP is $149. Upgrades start at $20. These complete versions can be purchased here.
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