In these days of multiplatform democracy, when you can buy QuarkXPress for both Mac and Windows and Adobe Photoshop for the SGI Indy, there is still the occasional single-platform application that is so useful it justifies buying a new computer. Graphic artists and service bureaus might find this to be the case with Tailor, a PostScript editing system developed in Belgium by First Class NV.
Tailor is a one-of-a-kind program that takes a PostScript file from any application (even extremely twisted files created by keyboarding in data), finds all the lines, curves, shapes, fonts, and blocks of text, and then lets you edit it directly on the computer screen. For example, you can use Tailor to edit your company's Encapsulated PostScript logo, even if you've forgotten or lost the application program and the data file that you used to generate that logo. Or, use Tailor to pull figures or illustrations out of other PostScript documents, change them to suit your needs, and put them into your own. It does this by actually interpreting the PostScript file, just as your printer would. When you're done, just click "Save" and you've got a brand new PostScript file, with any modification that you wanted to make.
Tailor also works great in a prepress house, since it can read PostScript files generated from Macs, PCs, UNIX boxes, or any other platform, fixing numerous bugs that seem to creep into production. Tailor is so useful that, for some people, it's worth plunking down the US$795 you need to purchase NEXTSTEP so you can run Tailor on your 486 PC.
Tailor (for NEXTSTEP): US$495 (50 percent educational discount). Alembic Systems International Ltd.: (800) 452 7608, +1 (303) 799 6223, fax +1 (303) 799 1435, e-mail info@alembic.com.
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