CompuServe Messages

Dennis, Actually, providing higher resolution output is a very important service in and of itself. These imagesetters cost around $65,000, and that doesn't include the cost of a developer, chemicals, film, etc. Since the imagesetter directly exposes the RC paper (repro) or film directly to laser light, the resolution can be very fine. Laser Printers are limited by the size of the toner particles that can legally be used, and firmly attached, to a piece of plain paper. Some service bureaus also have other expensive equipment, such as color laser printers, stat cameras, scanners and workstations where you can rent time on their machines so that you can work on your own stuff. I suspect that some will even act as printer brokers and help you take a project all way through to completion. And imagesetters don't do anything in color; it's all black and white. If you're working in color, you need to either output to a laser printer (usually just for comps–and don't ask me what comp means) or output separate "plates" of black and white repro or film that will then be used by the printer to produce color pages. You should probably check out the thread in Section 13 (Printing & Prepress) called "Print 1 color ovr anothr" for an interesting discussion about color trapping. <BW> P.S. Since I live in an apartment in NYC, I don't have a basketball hoop, or a garage, or a car for that matter! I left Indiana about 8 years ago.