** 1 page review / 850 words ** SpeedoGDOS 5.7 Mike Kerslake looks at the latest release of this font and printer manager... Remember GDOS - the part of the operating system bolted on to handle font management and printing? Being kind to GDOS, it did produce acceptable printed output, but it was a complete nightmare to set up, the supported printers were few in number, and only supported bitmapped fonts in a limited range of point sizes. Developers hated it, users hated it and thankfully it was consigned to the wastebasket of history years ago! Atari tried to salvage GDOS by releasing FontGDOS which was quickly superceded by the buggy and ill-fated FSMGDOS. It wasn't until SpeedoGDOS was released by Atari Corp, using Speedo technology licensed from Bitstream, that a satisfactory method of font management and printing was finally available. SpeedoGDOS made it possible to use high quality Bitstream Speedo format vector fonts in some existing applications, for example Timeworks, and it was incorporated by some new programs. Although Speedo fonts loaded fast and are of the high quality they were both expensive and hard to obtain. Because Bitstream jealously guarded the details of their format no PD/Shareware fonts have ever appeared - unlike the widespread TrueType and PostScript fonts. Things changed for the better when COMPO Software, who took over development of the program, released SpeedoGDOS 5 in late 1994. There was built-in support for both TrueType and PostScript Type 1 fonts, some bugs were ironed out and a wide range of popular printers were supported. Before SpeedoGDOS 5 was released many Atarians had switched to NVDI, which from NVDI 3 supported both TrueType and PostScript fonts (via an external module) and one could be forgiven for thinking SpeedoGDOS development had ceased. However COMPO GmbH have continued to improve and enhance the program culminating in this fully anglicised version of SpeedoGDOS 5.7 with detailed printed manual. Installation SpeedoGDOS 5.7 is supplied on five disks with a 24 page A5-sized manual which guides you through the installation process - it's really just a case of running the INSTALL.PRG and following the prompts. All the available printer drivers are installed, but you can delete any you don't need. The manual points out all printer and system drivers from older SpeedoGDOS versions are incompatible, so make you you delete any existing SpeedoGDOS installation if you decide to upgrade. An ancillary program, called SPIDER, which is not automatically installed, can act as a font viewer and installer if required. Customising your set-up ** OUTLINEF.GIF here ** Fonts are added by running OUTLINE.PRG, and if you've used an earlier version of SpeedoGDOS, you'll notice the similarity. Any TrueType, Speedo or PostScript Type 1 font can be added easily, and even GEM bitmapped fonts can be added if you are prepared to hand edit your ASSIGN.SYS file. One potential area for confusion is cache management. There are three different caches to maintain and, although full details of what each one does can be found in the manual, it remains a matter of trial and error to arrive at optimum settings. Up to a point the bigger the cache the quicker your screen display and printing will be, but you're on your own! ** PRINTERD.GIF here ** ** ADDPRINT.GIF here ** The DRIVERS.PRG allows you to install extra printers and configure the page size, print quality and so on. Drivers are supplied for most of the popular printers - including the elusive 600dpi HP Laserjet and HP Deskjet 550C colour inkjet drivers and there's a promise of more drivers in the pipeline. In use SpeedoGDOS aware programs should take advantage of the improved facilities automatically and I am pleased to report programs such as Papyrus and Kandinsky produce excellent printed output. ** SETFONTS.GIF here ** You may need to tweak various options in the OUTLINE.PRG so programs such as EasyText Pro Vector pick up on pre-set font sizes, but overall this upgrade slotted seamlessly into my system. Although SpeedoGDOS 5.7 doesn't include built-in screen acceleration it can take advantage of either NVDI or WARP to speed up screen redraws and supports both TrueType and PostScript type 1 fonts. Conclusions For anyone using NVDI there's no compelling reason to switch to SpeedoGDOS. NVDI is similarly priced and offers built-in screen acceleration and tight integration with the MagiC operating system. However NVDI 4 only supports PostScript fonts via an external module (which costs extra) and separate versions are required to output via GDOS from MagiCMac/PC. SpeedoGDOS 5.7 delivers what it offers and it's great news for existing users it's still being supported. If you already use SpeedoGDOS (especially v4.2 or earlier) this upgrade is definitely recommended. ** product boxout ** SpeedoGDOS 5.7 Publisher COMPO Software GmbH UK Distributor 16/32 Systems, 173 High Street, Strood, Kent, ME2 4TW Tel: 01634 710788 Email: 16-32@premier.co.uk Cost œ49 (or œ20 upgrade from previous versions) Requires Any Atari, 1 megabyte or more of memory recommended if installing lots of fonts, hard disk Pros Excellent output, compatible with most programs which require GDOS, PostScript Type 1 fonts supported as standard Cons No integral screen acceleration and no docs for SPIDER.PRG 80% ** /product boxout ** ** Screen shots ** ** ADDPRINT.GIF ** OUTLINEF.GIF ** PRINTERD.GIF ** SETFONTS.GIF