Investing in an imagesetter pays off with lower costs and higher quality
Article Abstract:
Increasing numbers of companies are bringing imagesetters in-house, bypassing their old service bureaus and typesetting shops. A prime reason to buy an imagesetter is the money that is saved on not using a service bureau. Other reasons include the control that is gained over output quality and scheduling. When determining which imagesetter to purchase, the price of the system - they can run anywhere from $30,000 to $100,000 - must be measured against the features that are desired for the particular application. For example, some companies will pay a high price for an imagesetter that will print color separations, while other firms will be more concerned with throughput or processing speed. Deciding when to buy the system is critical in determining the success of the transition, and will require changes in both operations and job descriptions. Guidelines on using an imagesetter are also discussed, and real-life examples of imagesetter implementations are provided.
Publication Name: Publish
Subject: Publishing industry
ISSN: 0897-6007
Year: 1992
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Chromatica
Article Abstract:
Chroma Graphics' $149.95 Chromatica color management software for Macintosh presents a wide variety of functions and features, but is difficult to use and counter-intuitive. Chromatica is made up of two Photoshop plug-ins, including ChromaColor, which lets users fine-tune a color-based mask. Users drag a rectangle over any part of an image to select a color range. Although Photoshop's Color Range feature is similar, Chromatica gives users independent control of hue, saturation and value. Unfortunately, the selection suffers from a ragged edge. It is also difficult to change a selected item's color to match a custom color. The other plug-in, ChromaPalette, lets users create palettes from images, or swap palettes between images. Swapping can yield unpredictable results, and the final product may be overly pixelated.
Publication Name: Publish
Subject: Publishing industry
ISSN: 0897-6007
Year: 1997
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DrawTools 1.0
Article Abstract:
Extensis Corp's $149 DrawTools 1.0, offering color and distortion plug-ins for use with drawing programs, provides outstanding color and object-distortion filters. Minimum requirements include a Macintosh with 1MB of hard-disk space, System 7.1, and Adobe Illustrator 5.0 or Macromedia FreeHand 5.0. With Illustrator, DrawTools comprises three modules, which are DrawTools Color, Move and Shape. Just under 20 filters are included. With FreeHand, there are only two modules because Move is excluded. DrawTools' Color tools are especially recommended, and the Color set is more useful in Illustrator than in FreeHand. This is so because the Gradient Settings option, which makes color filters available for gradients as well as solid colors, is not included in the FreeHand version.
Publication Name: Publish
Subject: Publishing industry
ISSN: 0897-6007
Year: 1996
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