Pagestream 3.0g Review

                             PRODUCT NAME

        PageSteam 3.0g


                          BRIEF DESCRIPTION

    The best Desk Top Publishing Program available for the Amiga.  Brings
 the Amiga up to industry standards.


                      AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION


        Name:           Soft-Logik Publishing Corporation
        Address:        P.O. Box 510589
                        St. Louis, MO  63151-0589

        Telephone:      1-800-829-8608 (sales only)
        FAX:            314-894-3280 (technical info)
        Suport BBS:     314-894-0057
        E-mail:         tech@slpc.com


                              LIST PRICE

    About $299, can be purchased in a store for around $225.  Upgrading
 from Page Stream 2.2 is only $125.


                SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS



                               HARDWARE

    Needs a Hard Drive minimal installation 2.5 megs, full installation
 takes 12+ megs.

    At least 3 megs of ram required, 5-8+ megs recommended.

    Runs on a 68000, but a 020+ is recommended.


                               SOFTWARE

    Requires Amiga Dos 2.04, Amiga Dos 2.1 or greater is recomended

    Operates well under 3.0.


                            COPY PROTECTION


    When first installing you must type in the name and registration # of
 the person whom has purchased it.  It is Hard Drive installable and has no
 other copy protection other than requiring the registration number.

    To patch the version of the Hard Drive the first disk is also need to
 be in the drive.

    I would rate the Copy Protection as Invisible.


                        MACHINE USED FOR TESTING


        Amiga 4000/040 40mhz, 30 megs of Fast Ram, 2 Meg Chip
        2.1 Gig Segate Hawk, 540 IDE & 125 IDE Hard Drives
        Syquest 44meg Internal EGS Spectum Graphics Board,
        17" Idek & 1084s Monitors, Work Bench 3.0.

                             INSTALLATION


    Very easy to install, uses the Commodore Installation program.


                                REVIEW

    Page Stream 3.0g has been greatly improved over previous versions.
 Many bugs have been fixed.  One of the most useful additions to PS3
 is the new ability to print EPS disk files.  This lets you have an
 industry standard disk to take to print shops.

    The long awaited AGA support is well done.  The ability to use select
 public screens is nice for those with Graphic Boards as well.

    Arexx support is probably PS3's nicest feature.  Built-in arexx
 recording makes it easy to make your own macros.  PS3 also comes with a
 variety of useful macros, including a nice one that creates a font
 list.

    A new feature of PS3 is the better color support, which includes many
 color adjustments to CMYK printing.  Gradient fills are also now
 supported.

    Something of great use is the export feature.  You can export or import
 a block text or graphic.  This feature, which supports many different text
 and graphic formats, makes for a well rounded program.

    Postcript is much better supported than in Page Stream 2.2.  Now, 
 Postscript printing quality is tailored to your printer.  A driver for
 Fargo's Primera color printer is available.  This only works with the
 the dye-sublimation option, however.  You can use the preferences driver
 for wax-transfer.

    BME is short for Bit Map Editor, a useful tool which comes with
 PS3.  It loads in most graphic formats and allows you to edit them using
 different brushes and so on.  It is capable of a few effects, as well as
 cropping and cloning.  This is version 2.0a of BME, and it's also equipped
 with arexx, making it versitile and useful in conjunction with PS3. 

    Page Liner, a text editor also comes with PS3.  This is no ordinary
 editor, however.  It has all the text formatting PS3 does, and you can
 enter text into it very quickly, and then load in the already formatted
 text into PS3.  The current version in PS3 is 2.0c.

                             DOCUMENTATION

    Page Stream 3 comes with a well-written, easy-to-read, large-printed
 manual that covers everything the program does in detail.

    On-Line documentation is also available on Page Stream 3 as a bonus.

                                LIKES


    The most likable part about Page Stream 3 is that it brings the Amiga
 up to industry standards.  It has more and better features then similar
 programs found on PCs and Macs.


                         DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS

    Page Stream 3 was released prematurely due to public pressure.  Many
 bugs were present, and some features not working, but most have been
 fixed.  My biggest complaint is that you have to figure out and set the
 screen DPI when using a graphics board.


                   COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS

    Users of Page Stream 2.2 should seriously consider updating as Page
 Stream 3 has over 1000 new features over 2.2.  With the additional AGA
 and Graphic Board support, this program is the definite winner!


                                  BUGS

    I personally have not found any Bugs in release 3.0g.  Soft Logik is
 very good about releasing patches on their BBS and Aminet to fix bugs and
 update the program, so they have conquered most of them.  However, the
 file from the latest patch has a few known bugs listed.  Some of the 
 bigger ones are:
 
       - You cannot apply colors to text using the Color Palette.
       - The Line/Fill button in the toolbar cannot be used for text
       - You can't copy and paste (or duplicate/transform) text frames.
       - Color separations don't work.

                             VENDOR SUPPORT

    I myself have not used their support number, but I have heard good
 things from people whom have.


                               WARRANTY

    Soft Logik makes no warranties regarding Page Stream 3.0.


                             CONCLUSIONS

    Page Stream 3.0g is an excellent program.  If you need or want a Desk
 Top Publishing program, you should definitely get it, and you now have no
 excuse not to do it on the Amiga!

    On a scale from 1-10, 10 being the Highest, I give it a 10


                                        Roy Milican
                                      Technical Editor