Hacking Steiner Pages

So, if anyone is using Steiner pages and wants to spruce them up a bit, it's possible to "hack" them and make some changes. Two things you will need are:

1. The font Helvetica or something similar
2. A copy of LibreOffice (http://www.libreoffice.org)

LibreOffice Draw (one of the programs in the suite), will open and let you edit PDF files.

I can post some more detailed instructions, if people are interested, but I took the 1967 Ireland page, just to show an example, and took the word "IRELAND" on top and bolded and underlined it. I then bolded all the stamp titles. but left the years in standard Roman Type.

Here's the before shot:




And here's the after shot:





Like I said, if anyone wants a more detailed explanation of what to do, respond to this thread and I'll get something up next week.

Interesting...
I don't think the underline or bold print improved the original pages but it's nice to know it can be done.

The use of bold print in the title can be attractive and appropriate.
Making an entire page with bold print is not.
Bold print should only be used as an accent.


The real value is being able to make similar pages for varieties.

Example: Early Poland stamps have many perforation varieties such as Scott numbers 93 through 108.
The catalogue show they are available in 10, 11, 11-1/2, 10x11-1/2 and 11-1/2x10.

The Steiner pages do not show these varieties. Now you can make new or change existing pages to show all of the varieties.

Good job Mr. A.

I use Photoshop to remove boxes for stamps that are so expensive I will never own them and re-align the layout. Should I ever come into possession of the out of reach item I can live with having to re-do the whole page.

Terry

Photoshop is a bitmap editor. It does a great job of editing the pages, but you should use a vector editor to preserve the best possible final output. Vector editors such as Adobe Illustrator, Libreoffice Draw, or Inkspot ensure that the final output is as smooth as possible. You can also use Adobe Acrobat Pro to edit the files.

Apastuszak, you are right. If I was using extensive printed text I would use Photoshop Illustrator or InDesign as I have the whole suite. As I handwrite page notes with Rotring artpens I make up the general layout of stamp boxes in Photoshop (I find It quicker for this and the boxes will be hidden when stamps are mounted) and just export to Illustrator for setting the page country title, usually to print in a deep red or crimson script typeface.

Terry

PS: I remove the page borders.

Edit for addition. TC.

Thanks for sharing, very useful.

It is especially useful for non-US users, as you can fit the page to A4 instead of the US-standard used by Steiner. Centering the PDF's on a A4 is not trivial..

Interesting subject and ability ,what I would like to see expanded on the Steiner pages is the blank page format ,were I can put a paragraph explaination under a row of stamps or a few lines in the body of the page and not just in the top three or four lines .

I can convert the Steiner blank pages to a good number of formats for you to edit. Which would you like?

"Interesting subject and ability ,what I would like to see expanded on the Steiner pages is the blank page format ,were I can put a paragraph explaination under a row of stamps or a few lines in the body of the page and not just in the top three or four lines ."

Hear, hear! The ability to add text is a major disappointment to his Blank Page. I find his subsidiary pages lacking.
The rest is marvelous.

I completely concur with Terry.
I have a fair amount of experience with Adobe InDesign and have thought about adding 'data source' blocks under every stamp. If this were done, it would be easy to then supply something like an Excel file which would read into the PDF whatever catalog numbers the user wanted. They would not have to edit the PDF, they would only have to supply the Excel (or whatever data source was defined) that the PDF would use to fetch the data.

This would 'work-around' the licensing issue with the various publishers. Of course a template would have to be supplied so the the format and order of the numbers would stay matched to the PDF.

But I have not pushed forward; it is a large enough job that I would only want to do it if others would be able to use and enjoy this feature (I'd do it for free). But I don't want to step on anyone's toes; either the fellow who has developed the pages to begin with or any publishers that might take exception.

But the truth is that it would not be very hard to do this and it is only a matter of time before someone does it.
don

The problem in Bill Steiner's end is he's using Adobe Pagemaker, which has weak, if any, PDF support. The product has been discontinued for quite a number of years.

Can you make blocks for image sources also?

I have downloaded a few of Bill's free pages and had no problems bringing the PDF into Adobe InDesign and editing them. Each entity can be edited/deleted if desired. Adding new elements is quite easy and this includes 'data connected' fields. Once edited and saved as a PDF from InDesign, the only requirement is that the data source file (Excel spreadsheet) is in a location on the PC where the PDF can find it.
The data fields in the PDF are looked for, and updated, every time the PDF is opened. This means the users can put whatever catalog numbers, including their own, they desire in the Excel spreadsheet without ever needing to touch the PDF itself.
don
don

The problem there is the need for Adobe InDesign, a $700 piece of software.

Here is a screen shot from Adobe LiveCycle Designer of one of Bill's pages.


Yes, Adobe gets good money for their products. Of course if I were to do this no one else would need to have the expensive application.

I would supply the data source file (ie. the Excel, Access or SQL database, or XML file) as a template. They would simply add whatever catalog numbers they wished and the PDF would use them when it was opened.

The beauty here is that this would only have to be done once at the PDF level. If the data source file was not available the PDF would still open and work, the catalog field under each stamp would simply be blank.

Not sure why Bill has not built his pages this way, adding catalog numbers is pretty basic thing that many folks would like to have.
don

The Adobe Suite software package is expensive, as is the Indesign single package on its own, though I believe Adobe do give generous student and/or teacher discounts. Don's proposed method is an excellent one for any user to add cat numbers and stamp information to the regular Steiner layouts. As my typesetting needs are individual and minimal I just alter the layouts as I need, add the heading in a script typeface, and save a page file in a separate 'Album' folder. I then add the cat numbers and info below the stamp boxes with a Rotring Script Artpen and black waterproof ink on the page printout.

This approach was not without difficulty, however, as I had to spend serious time improving my handwriting. I was after a classic 'journal' look to my albums and did not want an elaborately disciplined calligraphic look. I might just as well have set the text in a script typeface but would have done away with any individuality in the appearance of the album pages. Neither did I seek the elaborate and finely embellished copperplate script handwriting popular in the 1800s. What I was after was the nice everyday handwritten style commonly used late 1800s to early 1900s. Something that would sit well with my interest in the classic period, but not be so over embellished as to overpower the stamps. So for a small price I obtained the pens and some decent crimson and black inks and went back to 'handwriting school'.

Terry

Here is what I like to clean up and have the ability to do it a lot neater. Please understand I don't understand half the stuff you guys talk about with the designing stuff .Its not 5 pages or 100 pages its thousands of pages for my collection . Some one needs to write it and then load it on a CD and then I can work with it .Forget about me download a program from the internet .A CD format I understand.