Apc Interleaf Review

Interleaf Publisher is a powerhouse among desktop-publishing programs, but it needs a powerhouse desk (and its unorthodox interface takes some getting used to). Gregory Wasson reports. In many respects Interleaf Publisher 3.0 is the ultimate desktop-publishing pro- Fig 1 The main desktop gram currently available. It does have of Interleaf. It replaces some negative aspects too, though. the more familiar Mac First, its hefty price tag (which will come desktop and has rules in at just under $6000) and system all its own. The various requirements (a souped-up Mac II with program icons are visi- hard disk) eliminate it from consideration ble, including the dictio- by all but the highest-end users. Also, its nary icon that repre- rather unusual user interface may make sents the supplemen- you want to think twice. And finally, its tary dictionary created cavalier attitude toward Adobe fonts may by the user. Each lead to excessive hair pulling and pre- user's desktop can mature greying of whatever's left. include one such dictio- But, if you want features you can only nary with up to 4000 dream about in other page-layout pro- words grams and if you want multi-user capa- bilities, Interleaf is unique among the flora and fauna of the desktop-publishing world. Roots Interleaf was the first 'workstation' DTP package to be ported to the Mac II. It's the first salvo in what could turn out to be a barrage of products (such as the forth- coming FrameMaker from Frame Fig 2 Menus popping up Technology) originally developed for all over! Interleaf is one Apollo, Sun, and DEC workstations. of the first Mac products Interleaf Publisher is based on an earli- …