CompuServe Messages

I have the NEC CD ROM unit for evaluation for Macintosh Buyer's Guide, as well as quite a few of the CD's. The 'drive' unit works very well, and the CD's all seem to run as advertised. While Streamline is making much of the EPS clip art available on CD ROM seem overpriced and superflous, the fonts look good. The review was put on hold from the winter issue, however, because Image Studio had promised us a CD ROM for review (I reviewed their first product a few years ago for the same magazine), but, as of this date, has failed to deliver. I don't know if this is because the product is vaporware or because they've had so much demand they've decided they can ignore for the moment the magazines offering to review their products. My experience of them has been that they are not the most "user friendly" of companies, although they do produce a good, solid line of products. Another important caveat on a CD product is that the photo libraries are _not_ for publication use. You can import the photos for comps, but if you want to print them, you must pay the fees to the companies, which can run hundreds of dollars per shot.