Timeworks Publisher was a desktop publishing (DTP) program produced by GST Software in the United Kingdom. It is notable as the first affordable DTP program for the

IBM PC The IBM Personal Computer (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) is the first microcomputer released in the IBM PC model line and the basis for the IBM PC compatible de facto standard. Released on August 12, 1981, it was created by a team ...

. In appearance and operation, it was a Ventura Publisher clone, but it was possible to run it on a computer without a hard disk.

Versions

Timeworks Desktop Publisher

Timeworks Publisher 1 for

Atari TOS TOS (The Operating System) is the operating system of the Atari ST range of computers. This range includes the 520ST and 1040ST, their STF/M/FM and STE variants and the Mega ST/STE. Later, 32-bit machines ( TT, Falcon030) were developed using a ...

relied on the GDOS software components, which were available from Atari but were often distributed with applications that required them. GDOS provided TOS/

GEM A gemstone (also called a fine gem, jewel, precious stone, or semiprecious stone) is a piece of mineral crystal which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments. However, certain rocks (such as lapis lazuli, opal, a ...

with a standardized method for installing printer drivers and additional fonts, although these were limited to bitmapped fonts in all but the later releases. GDOS had a reputation for being difficult to configure, used a lot of system resources and was fairly buggy, meaning that Timeworks could struggle to run on systems without a hard disk and less than 2 MB of memory - but it was possible, and for many users Timeworks was an inexpensive introduction to desktop publishing. For the

, Timeworks ran on Digital Research's

Desktop (supplied with the program) as a runtime system. Later versions ran on

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

. Timeworks Publisher 2 included full WYSIWYG, paragraph tagging, manual control of kerning, text and graphics imports and more fonts. Timeworks Publisher 2.1 with GEM/5 is known to have supported

Bézier curve A Bézier curve ( ) is a parametric curve used in computer graphics and related fields. A set of discrete "control points" defines a smooth, continuous curve by means of a formula. Usually the curve is intended to approximate a real-world shape t ...

s already.

Acorn Desktop Publisher

In mid-1988, following on from the release of

GST GST may refer to: Taxes * General sales tax * Goods and Services Tax, the name for the value-added tax in several jurisdictions: ** Goods and services tax (Australia) ** Goods and Services Tax (Canada) ** Goods and Services Tax (Hong Kong) ** ...

's word processor, '' First Word Plus'', Acorn Computers announced that it had commissioned GST to port and enhance the Timeworks product for the

Archimedes Archimedes of Syracuse (;; ) was a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, astronomer, and inventor from the ancient city of Syracuse in Sicily. Although few details of his life are known, he is regarded as one of the leading scientists ...

series. Being designed for use with RISC OS, using the

anti-aliased Anti-aliasing may refer to any of a number of techniques to combat the problems of aliasing in a sampled signal such as a digital image or digital audio recording. Specific topics in anti-aliasing include: * Anti-aliasing filter, a filter used be ...

font technology already demonstrated on the Archimedes, utilising the multi-tasking capabilities of the RISC OS desktop environment, and offering printed output support for laser and dot-matrix printers, availability was deferred until the release of RISC OS in April 1989. The delivered product, Acorn Desktop Publisher, introduced Acorn's outline font manager and bundled 14 scalable fonts plus upgraded printer drivers (for Postscript-compatible and

Hewlett-Packard The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...

Laserjet-compatible printers, plus Integrex colour inkjet printers) to provide consistent, high-quality output on screen and paper. Despite being described as "streets ahead" of Timeworks on the Atari ST, offering "real desktop publishing, not the pale imitation possible with a Master 128 or model B", being comparable to "mid-priced DTP packages on the Mac or IBM PC", the software was regarded as barely usable on a machine with 1 MB of RAM and no hard disk (Acorn recommended 2 MB to use the software alongside other applications), and the limitations in editing and layout facilities led one reviewer to note that at the £150 price level and with other desktop publishing packages (notably

Computer Concepts Xara is an international software company founded in 1981, with an HQ in Berlin and development office in Hemel Hempstead, UK. It has developed software for a variety of computer platforms, in chronological order: the Acorn Atom, BBC Micro, Z ...

Impression An impression is the overall effect of something. Impression or impressions may also refer to: Biology * Colic impression, a feature of the gall bladder * Duodenal impression, medial to the renal impression * Gastric impression, a feature of th ...

Beebug ''BEEBUG'' was a magazine published for users of the BBC Microcomputer between 1982 and 1994. It was the first subscription magazine for computers made by Acorn Computers. History BBC Micro User Group The group was formed in 1982 by Sheridan ...

's Ovation, and Clares' Tempest) announced if not yet available, purchasers would be advised to "wait and see" before making any decision. Nevertheless, with competitors still unavailable in early 1990, Acorn User deemed to name it as the platform's best desktop publishing package, noting that there was "little available yet for Archimedes DTP, although much is on the way soon". Ultimately, Acorn would promote Impression as part of its Publishing System package. Of the other anticipated competitors, Ovation was released later in 1990, and succeeded by Ovation Pro in 1996, having been previewed in 1995, whereas Tempest was apparently never released, being absent from Clares' software catalogue. Curiously, Tempest was itself described as being "based on the Acorn DTP package" but aiming to remedy deficiencies and provide enhancements such as multi-column frames, "text flow around regular shapes", and improved text editing support, along with memory management facilities. Developed by a freelance programmer for Clares, a pre-release version was demonstrated in late 1989, apparently requiring only 128 KB of RAM, with work underway to optimise the display routines. A price of £129.95 including VAT was announced. Initially destined for an autumn 1989 release, it was postponed to an unspecified point in time in September 1989 with the specification having changed, but hints of a 1990 release were subsequently made in early 1990. Although a demo disk was apparently available, the product was widely advertised, and a preview of the software appeared in a late 1990 magazine issue, the product was evidently not completed. Clares later took over development of another Acorn product, the spreadsheet ''Schema'', in 1990.

Publish-It!

In the US, Timeworks Inc. marketed the program as Publish-It!. Released in 1987, there were versions available for IBM PC (running over the GEM environment), Apple Macintosh, and

Apple II The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...

(Enhanced IIe or better) computers. Further versions were named KeyPublisher 1.0 (versions 1.19 and 1.21) and produced by Softkey Software Products Inc. in 1991 for PCs with GEM. Another version, aimed at the business market, was named DESKpress. A later CD-based multilingual version for Windows was named Press International.

Other names

The product was also sold under other names including NEBS PageMagic (changed after objections from

Adobe Adobe ( ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for ''mudbrick''. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is used to refer to any kind of e ...

), Macmillan Publisher, Canon Publisher, and many other brands, distinguished by use of the .DTP file extension. The latest version was sold as Greenstreet Publisher 4 and is downwards file compatible with earlier versions.

Releases

* 1987 - Timeworks Publisher (IBM PC, Atari ST) * 1987 - Timeworks Publish-It! 1.12 (IBM PC GEM-based) * 19?? - Publish-It! 1.19 by GST * 1987 - Publish-It! ( Apple IIe) * 1988 - Acorn Desktop Publisher * 1990 - Publish-It! 1.20 (IBM PC) * 1990 - Publish-It! Easy 2.0 (Macintosh) * 1991 - KeyPublisher 1 by softkey (IBM PC) * 1991 - Timeworks Publisher 2 (IBM PC, Atari ST) GEM-based * 1991 - Timeworks Publish-It! PC 2.00 (IBM PC) * 1991 - Publish-It! Easy 2.1 (Macintosh) * 1992 - Publish-It! Easy 2.1.9 (Macintosh) * 199? - Timeworks Publisher 2.1 (IBM PC - GEM/5-based) * 1992 - Timeworks Publisher 3 (IBM PC for Windows) * 1994 - Timeworks Publish-It! 4 (Windows 3.1) * 2009 - Publisher 4.6 Home & Business (Windows XP, Vista)

References

{{Desktop publishing software 1987 software Atari ST software Desktop publishing software Discontinued software GEM software