ISSUE 26 + What goes into making an issue of Total Amiga? ;-)

In this box we show you the key steps in cronological order. The first step happens soon after an issue has been published, as you are reading one issue we are discussing what should be in the next one! Once a basic contents list is agreed we assign articles to writers and they start work.

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In most cases writing is a case of research and then hours at the keyboard. In the image above you can see the writer making notes in GoldEd for a tutorial on using ImageFX

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Once some articles are written (usually in a word processor or text editor) they can be laid out in PageStream. In this image you can see the current system used for Total Amiga production. It is an AMD Athlon 2000+ powered PC running Amithlon with AmigaOS 3.9. In this picture you can see PageStream running

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Here is an issue of Total Amiga loaded into PageStream 4

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...and here is a cover in ImageFX, take a look at the layer manager palette to see how it is constucted. As the layout of the magazine is completed, PDF files are produced to be checked by the contributors and our proofreaders.

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Once we're happy with PDF file a full size proof copy is printed on this A3 capable HP Deskjet 1120C. Any final corrections are made, then the final print-quality PDFs are generated, burnt to a CD and passed to the printers. About two weeks later we are able to collect the printed magazines. 

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While the magazines are being printed we prepare by printing address labels, buying stamps etc. When the magzines are ready we get them ready to post as quickly as we can. In the photo above, Robert and Sharon (Mick Sutton's wife) are busy stuffing envelopes (and actually look as if they're quite enjoying it). 

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Here is the end result, hundreds of magazines ready for posting. The boxes are the batches to be sent to our resellers and the right hand pile are the copies for subscribers outside the UK. All that remains is a visit to the post office. There we have to buy the appropriate postage for the overseas copies before they can be posted along with the UK copies. So that is how a copy of Total Amiga ends up on your doormat!