This page is for the technically minded, who may be interested in knowing about the hardware and software used for the production of St George's News.
The printed and internet editions of St George's News are originated on an Acorn Risc PC Computer, whilst the HTML code for the web is produced using a standard PC.
Acorn is a British Computer manufacturer which uses leading edge RISC technology design. Acorn computers run programs written for the RISC operating system (not DOS / Windows) which are very fast, particularly in their handling of graphics. The operating system is built into the computer on a ROM chip, unlike DOS / Windows which load from hard disc.
The Acorn RISC PC is unique in that it can run two processors at the same time. So in addition to the RISC operating system, the computer also has a conventional PC DOS processor running Windows via which data is transferred via the serial ports to the conventional PC which is used for maintaining the internet site.
Hardware specifications
Computers
The Acorn Risc PC has 3 hard discs, 26MB RAM, CD ROM drive, RISC Strongarm Processor, 586/133MH Pentium equivelent PC processor.
Dell Dimension XPS T600 Pentium III processor, 128MB RAM, 27GB hard disc, DVD /CD 40x drive, CDRW Drive for backup of both computers.
Printing
LaserDirect system providing 600 dpi quality. Canon Laser printer.
LaserDirect is unique to the Acorn RiscPC. It enables page formation to be computed on the computer instead of the printer, with the data uploaded to the printer via an optical cable, giving the speed necessary for the computer to drive the printer. The result is very fast printing, quicker than Postscript but without the complications that can arise in Postscript with matching fonts.
Additionally, we have a Canon BJC600-e bubblejet printer for colour work and an Epson Stylus Photo 870 for photographic work.
A second Canon laser printer is used for printing from the computer's PC processor, as LaserDirect works only on RISCOS.
Scanning
For image scanning we have the Scanlight Professional system, which is a flatbed A4 Canon colour scanner.
For photographs, we use a Canon S20 digital camera operating at 3.3 megapixels definition.
The printed version of St George's News uses master Artwork produced on the above equipment, which is then photocopied by the Church photocopier.
The Church Photocopier is by Panasonic, and uses the latest digital technology, producing high quality print and photographic reproduction. It is able to print a complete copy of the magazine, fully collated and printed on both sides, automatically inserting a colour sheet of paper for the cover, all in one continuous operation.
Software specifications
Acorn RISC OS programs
The desktop publishing program used to produce St George's News is Impression Publisher. A new and more powerful DTP program has been released for RISC OS, Ovation Pro and we are in the process of porting the magazine across to this new program which has many very advanced features.
For vector graphics we use Artworks and for bitmap graphics and image manipulation Photodesk 3. These programs are also used to produce the graphics on the Internet.
For the printed magazine, a lot of illustrations, especially line drawings, are scanned from artwork and converted from bitmap to vector graphic using Image Outliner. This then retains high quality when rescaling.
Windows programs
The On-Line Edition uses data taken off the printed version transferred directly from the DTP program into Adobe GoLive v.5 which is the program used for producing the HTML code.
The Web pages are proofed using Internet Explorer v.6 and Netscape Navigator v.4.7.
Our Broadband Internet connection is provided by BT Openworld. The web server service is provided by The Positive Internet Company Limited, who are a leading provider of fast, professional quality webspace. This has been made possible thanks to the kind assistance of Propan Homes Plc.
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page first written on 25 January 1997 and last updated 22 JULY 2002