CompuServe Messages

[ continuation ] already manipulated images from another source and convert the imported file into an EPS file) and Quark express to put the images onto a page and output to an imagesetter. The marriage of Photoshop and Quark in this way is magnificent. Photoshop can generate a five-file set of CMYK color separated EPS files plus a 'master' EPS file that is used by Quark for placement on the page. This is called the 5 file DCS ('desktop color separation') format. It is truly wonderful. Each of the separate CMYK EPS files is about one fourth the size of the original composite CMYK image. The master EPS file is much smaller. Quark loads only the master file and displays the low resolution image contained in it. The process is very fast and transparent. Also, Quark can output a properly prepared DCS set very rapidly. It seems to me that Black Belt is in a position to create just such a file standard right now with very little effort. Pgs and ProPage could benefit from adopting the standard. I could see no reason for them objecting to it. As a matter of fact, if they accepted it, they could use files output from Photoshop in the 5 file DCS format. One more comment (plea). Could IM be made to load an 8 bit gray scale image without generating a 24 bit internal file? A great deal of graphic art industry image manipulation still is and always will be of monochrome gray scale (black and white) photos. The computer overhead that IM places on black and white images is unnecessary. I appreciate the fact that the program was conceived as a 24 bit image manipulator from the very beginning, but I hope that you can see the need for manipulation of high-resolution black and white images. BTW, I haven't downloaded the latest version of IP in several weeks now. That probably means that I am working with a hopelessly outdated version! 8) Rich