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From: boris@world.std.com (Boris Levitin)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: Mac LC and SI and DTP
Message-ID: <1991Mar9.015325.8055@world.std.com>
Date: 9 Mar 91 01:53:25 GMT
References: <7853@crash.cts.com>
Organization: The World @ Software Tool & Die
Lines: 36

jefft@gnh-applesauce.cts.com (Jeff Tarr Jr.) writes:
>At school I work for the Yearbook staff. This year we are finally going to get
>a Mac and start production of the yearbook on it.  With the money we have
>available I thought that we should purchase an LC, and an 8-bit color card and
>connect a 19" monitor to it.  Is that a decent idea?  Are their any problems
>with this newly released LC?  How about an SI?  We could afford an SI with the
>normal Hires-RGB monitor, but not a full page display.  
>Any suggestions or comments will be greatly appreciated.

RasterOps, as far as I know, is the only source for 19" 8-bit color cards,
which it prices at $995 list (since RasterOps sells through dealers,
actual prices are 30%+ lower).  The company also sells a complete 19" color
system for $3,795 list.

You might find a 19" 8-bit display a tad slow when driven by the LC, which is
slightly less powerful than the original Mac II (same 16MHz 020 CPU, but only
a 16-bit data path, instead of the original 32-bit one), and a lot slower
when doing floating-point-math-intensive operations such as scaling fonts
using ATM or TrueType, because it doesn't have a floating-point coprocessor.
(I have used both the new, faster version of ATM, 2.0, and Apple's new
TrueType technology, and redraws are noticeably slow even on my FPU-equipped
IIsi driving a 13" 8-bit display.)  A couple of vendors are already making
floating-point coprocessors for the LC (I believe Dynamac and Mobius).  Drawing
software (MacDraw, FreeHand, Illustrator) also makes heavy use of the FPU.
My advice would be to try out the configuration you decide on before you buy
it.

Good luck...

Boris Levitin
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WGBH Public Broadcasting, Boston                         boris@world.std.com
Audience & Marketing Research                         boris_levitin@wgbh.org
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(The opinions expressed herein are my own and do not necessarily coincide 
with those of my employer or anyone else.  The WGBH tag is for ID only.)