Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!apple!netcom!hue
From: hue@netcom.UUCP (Jonathan Hue)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Professional output from Ray Tracing - Can it be done?
Keywords: ray trace output
Message-ID: <1244@netcom.UUCP>
Date: 17 May 89 02:32:49 GMT
References: <1312@raybed2.UUCP> <655@madnix.UUCP>
Organization: NetCom Services - Public Access Unix System (408) 997-9175 guest
Lines: 32

In article <655@madnix.UUCP>, perry@madnix.UUCP (Perry Kivolowitz) writes:
> The quality of our 24 bit color separations has been judged by others to be
> the best available on any small computer. This has been a point of pride for
> those in the Amiga market, since this fact gives the Amiga a slight advantage
> over the MacII in color publishing. Oh, did I mention that on an A2500, our
> color separations take place about 6 times faster than an inferior sep done
> on a MacII?

Perry,

Could you tell us what other hardware/software combinations you have compared
your product to?  The only examples I have seen of Professional Scanlab were
pretty atrocious (the fault of the operator, not the fault of Scanlab).  In
my opinion, the only color desktop publishing package that can produce usable
output is the Pre-Press Technologies/Quark Express combination with an Eikonix
1435 scanner.  Even then, a skilled operator is required for scanned images to
look anything like the original.

One good example of output from the PPT system is their ad with the dead
trees against the cloudy sky.  It is the best example I have seen from any
desktop system, though still not nearly as good as that from a conventional
pre-press system (Scitex, Crosfield, etc).  If the quality of output of your
system is as good or better than this, then you deserve the title of
"Best Desktop Color Separations".  In order to make this a valid comparision,
you have to output to a Linotronic 300, going out to a Hell scanner isn't fair.

I don't doubt Scanlab is a fine product, but I have a hard time believing that
a Sharp scanner could ever produce anything useful (other than line art).  I
have used the Sharp scanner and it is not in the same league as the Eikonix
scanner.

-Jonathan