LPRINT    \|/    by Lawrence C. Falk
~~~~~~

                        PUBLISHER'S NOTES
        GRAPHICS ARE WHAT COMPUTERS ARE ALL ABOUT TODAY . . . 

   . . . Let's take a small, simple example. I've always written this 
column and several others on a regular basis, stored them on disk, and 
given them to people in the editorial department. Did I ever get the disk 
back? Of course not. So it was always me who had to go asking for extra 
disks. "Do you eat these things?" I was asked once.

   But no more. I scanned a photo of myself (did only minimal damage to 
the scanner), scanned my signature for effect, and produced a disk label 
with the photo and signature on it -- along with a message that the disk 
belongs to me and that its theft is punishable by law. Haven't had anyone 
fail to return a disk since.

   There are so many collections of clip art that it is difficult to go 
through everything looking for the right image to incorporate into a 
document. In doing a brochure the other day, I found some 200 different 
images in three collections to represent money. The hardest part was not 
in finding them but in choosing the best one to use.

   When I started THE RAINBOW [the now-retired magazine for Tandy Color 
Computer users], I recall one of the first things I did was to get a 
graphic designer to create a rainbow; then I worked the design into 
letterheads, envelopes, business cards and so on. The design cost me a 
couple of hundred dollars (which I have always considered well-spent), 
and we used it for several years. Today, however, you don't even have to 
print letterheads or envelopes -- just plain paper and envelopes, set up 
the graphics and type in your word processor, and you have . . . 
stationery.

   My graphics prediction is that within the next couple of years, high-
quality, inexpensive color printers will be on the market that begin to 
replace the black-and-white laser printers so many use nowadays. When 
that happens, you will see a second explosion in graphics (the first was 
the mere ability to produce them at all) that may well see a lot of 
quick-print shops simply go out of business. By contrast the market for 
graphics programs, clip art, even more fonts and the like will continue 
to increase.

   Fonts, you ask? Aren't there already so many of them that I can't keep 
track of them? That's right, but one day fonts will be colorful too, with 
designs incorporating the colors into the fonts. It will be interesting.

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