** 2 page review / 1344 words **
NVDI 5
NVDI has established itself as a firm favourite with Atarians.
NVDI 5 is the first new release since 1996 so what's new? Mark
Wherry reports...
Background
NVDI (New Virtual Device Interface) is a replacement for the Atari
GDOS (Graphic Device Operating System) system extension which
added extra graphical abilities to TOS. NVDI replaces part of TOS
known as the VDI, hence the name, which handles visual output to
devices including the screen and printer.
NVDI was hand-coded in assembler so it ran much faster than the
code it replaced making any system running NVDI feel faster and
more responsive - screen redraws in particular were vastly
accelerated.
Atari continued to develop GDOS and temporarily stole the
limelight with the release of SpeedoGDOS which offered built-in
vector font support but it wasn't long before Sven and Wilfried
Behne, the NVDI developers, rose to the challenge and released
NVDI 3 which not only supported Speedo fonts but added TrueType
support for good measure.
NVDI 4 consolidated with improved font handling, much better
colour output support, a fast parallel port driver for MagiC and
the FontName utility. FontName enables fonts to be previewed and
install/removed on-the-fly without rebooting. Support for the
UNICODE font format, which enables up to 65,000 characters to be
stored within one font file, was also added.
NVDI 4 was sold as NVDI for Atari, NVDI-MagiC PC, NVDI-MagiCMac
along with an optional PostScript font module and optional extra
drivers to support graphic cards such as the ET-4000.
NVDI 5 for the price of 1?
NVDI 5 has done away with the separate versions leaving the
installation utility to determine which components to install -
hurrah!
Features
Restructuring aside, NVDI has lots of new tricks up its sleeve.
Background printing has been available to Mac and Windows users
for years and thanks to NVDI 5 we've on even terms again. There's
also a new Printer Monitor utility which supports spooling and
requires MagiC 5 or later.
** VDI_BUG.GIF here **
** Caption **
Due to a VDI bug since TOS 1.0 lines in graphic programs could
become disjointed after scrolling. NVDI 5 now features precise
line drawing routines Screengrab courtesy of ATOS magazine.
** /caption **
** TT_TEXT.GIF here **
** Caption **
The display of many TrueType fonts has been optimised. Take a
close look at this Arial font and you should be able to see the
text on the right looks cleaner Screengrab courtesy of ATOS
magazine.
** /caption **
As we've already mentioned support for PostScript type 1 fonts has
been integrated which is of particular benefit to MagiCMac and
MagiC PC users who already use this format "on the other side" and
these fonts are now available within the MagiC environment too.
MagiCMac users will be especially pleased NVDI 5 supports the
MacOS QuickDraw acceleration routines, giving a major speed
increase, particularly for systems running graphics accelerators.
This is especially significant as QuickDraw itself has been
accelerated in the latest 8.5 release of the MacOS.
Programmers get over 50 new VDI calls which offer better solutions
for colour management and dithering. German documentation and
programmer's examples are provided. Programs such as Papillion and
Papyrus already take advantage of this in the latest releases.
NVDI 5 supports most modern printers, refer to the boxout for more
details. I was delighted to find the 1440 dpi output and
micro-weaving abilities of my Epson printer were supported.
** boxout **
Supported Printers
** titchy font **
Apple Laserwriter Select 360, QuickDraw output.
Atari Laser (no background printing)
Canon BJ 10, 300
Canon BJC 50, 70, 80, 200, 210, 240, 250, 600, 610, 620, 800, 820,
4000, 4100, 4200, 4300, 4550, 4650, 5500, 7000.
Epson FX, LQ, Stylus 820, Stylus Color, Stylus Color 200, 400,
500, 600, 800, II, IIs, Pro, Pro XL, 1500, 1520.
GCC Elite 1212
HP Deskjet 500, 510, 520, 540, 550 - Color - 560, 600, 660, 670,
680, 690, 820, 850, 870, 1100, 1200.
HP Laserjet I, II, IID/P/Si, III/D/P/Si, 4/4M, 4L/4ML, 4P/4MP,
4Si, 4V/4MV, 5L, 5P/5MP, 5Si/5SiMx, 6L, 6P/MP.
Lexmark Optra RT+, Optra S 1250
Nec P6, P7
** /boxout **
Conclusion
Many of the changes in this release are "behind the scenes" and
whether you need NVDI 5 is a tough question. If you don't already
own a copy of NVDI and you want to use and output vector fonts,
especially to a colour printer, NVDI is a must have purchase which
offers excellent value for money.
The integrated release means crossgrades and optional modules are
a thing of the past which should appeal to anyone who has recently
switched platforms.
For other existing users the upgrade price makes the decision less
clear cut but if you're using an application which can take
advantage of the new features or you want to take full advantage
of your colour printer there's reason enough.
At this point I usually moan about the manual but the NVDI manual
is fine from a users point of view. However, as usual, there is no
English programming documentation covering the new calls which
makes it hard to support them!
NVDI is a comprehensive package but, licensing permitting,
integral support for Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF), which
is widely used on the net and other systems, would be top of my
wishlist.
The bottom line is NVDI 5 is a great product which keeps our
platform in the game and as more products take advantage of NVDI 5
features it will become increasingly indispensable.
** product boxout **
NVDI 5
Publisher: 2B
UK Distribution: System Solutions
Tel: +44 (0)181 693 3355
Fax: +44 (0)181 693 6936
Email: info-software@system_solutions.co.uk
URL: www.system.solutions.co.uk/cafe/
Cost: œ59.95 new, œ29.95 upgrade, plus œ3.95 UK P&P
Requires: 4Mb hard disk space, 400Kb free memory (plus font
cache), 5Kb to 300Mb for colour printing, depending on printer,
resolution, colour depth, etc.
Pros:
All-in-one release, excellent printer support
Cons:
Not a cheap upgrade
95%
** /boxout **
---
** NVDI 5 2nd Opinion **
Why should you buy NVDI 5?
It seems NVDI is about as fast as it could possibly get, it
already supports GEM bitmap, Windows and Mac TrueType, Speedo
Bitstream, and (optionally), PostScript fonts so what more could
you want? Noah Silva reports...
For starters, many more printers have appeared, and with NVDI 5,
you get the drivers to use them.
If you use MagiC on a Mac or PC, NVDI 5 is much faster than NVDI 4
because the Mac version can use QuickDraw Drivers, and the PC
version has native 80x86 code. Best of all one version takes care
of Mac, Atari, PC, and graphics cards - the relevant drivers are
installed by the setup program if you are on a Mac or PC. If
you're using an Atari, you are presented with a dialog to choose
which graphic card, if any, you have.
** NVDIPRNT.GIF here **
** caption **
NVDI 5 has a new Print dialog with lots of new options which can
be displayed as a Control Panel, or directly from applications
supporting NVDI 5. Under MagiCMac, if you have elected to use the
Mac OS printer drivers, the Mac OS Print dialog appears instead
** /caption **
NVDI 5 has added 50, yes, FIFTY new VDI functions for developers
to use along with some pre-compiled and Pure C source code
examples - it's about time.
There are also a number of other minor improvements, NVDI 5
includes several new utilities including SHOWME, which is a small
but efficient IMG viewer. NVDI 5 no longer lists every single font
as it goes through them all at boot time - which for people like
me with several hundred fonts installed is a little nicer.
** PRNT_MON.GIF here **
** caption **
NVDI 5 can now print in the background and there's a new Print
Monitor utility, it's not what I'd call fancy, but it is
functional
** /caption **
** boxout **
Pros:
Better print setup dialog, many new printer drivers, one version
for everything, background printing, 50 new VDI functions, new
utilities, plus...
MagiCMac: Much faster display (x10!) and ability to use Mac
printer drivers.
MagiC PC: Faster, native 80x86 code.
Cons:
Expensive
** /boxout **