CompuServe Messages

Imagesetters don't use toner. They use a laser to expose resin coated paper, which is developed much like the film in a camera. The graphics program keeps the color info, and allows you to output separate "plates" to an imagesetter. The printer then uses these different pieces of film to produce his "plates" which are placed in the appropriate place in the printing process so that only a certain color is printed for certain areas of the page. A stat camera is used for making a one piece shot of a mechanical made of many pieces, or to make a negative of a positive mechanical. Comps are, indeed, proofs, often showing all the color pieces of a page. You show them to customers to give them a better idea of what they'll be getting once the page is printed, but they cost a heck of a lot less than setting up a press just to produce one copy of something. Overprinting is, basically, printing one color on top of another. Sometimes it's desirable, sometimes not. Color is not my specialty, I'm afraid. Standards are coming into existence on desktop machines foe separating colors, but we're not out of the woods, yet. Aldus has proposed OPI; Quark has proposed DCS. I don't know a thing about either. The safest colors to ask for in a graphic program are Pantone colors. Use a swatch book of PMS (Pantone Matching Systems) colors, assign the PMS color in your file, output the colors separately for each page, and tell the printer which plate gets which Pantone color. <BW>