Amiga Computing - Commodore Is Awesome

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full 18 bit colour image at the
maximum resolution of 200 dots per
inch. Displayed onscreen in HAM
mode, it looks fabulous. Perhaps with
a very expensive colour digitiser and
an even more expensive camera I
could obtain similar results, but I
doubt it.
It takes about five minutes to
complete the scan of the image and
save it to my hard disk. I can now reload
the DTP package and place the
scanned image. Looks good.
A FINAL check of the document,
and it's finished. Time for
output. To help me get the best from
my graphics. I have a copy of The Art
Department, also supplied by Silica.
With it, I can adjust the brightness,
contrast and colour balance of the
images, then separate them into their
four colour components for output,
using another little ASDG program
call ReSep to re-combine the ProPage
document with the illustrations. I
colour is not recommended, for the
software will reduce an 18 bit image
to whatever depth you like with
minimal loss of detail. The only
reason for not doing so is a chronic
lack of memory.
The highest resolution (200dpi) is
by no means state of the art, but when
combined with the 18 bit colour
depth, it's pretty darn nifty.
The use of 18 bit planes means an
awfully large number of colours can
be produced: Many times more that
the Amiga can generate using
standard bitplane methods. Instead,
you can make use of several "cheats"
to look at all the colours.
Viewing the image in normal
HAM mode will give you lots of
coloursbut poor edge detail. Viewing
the image in A-HAM mode will
6 bit grey, 200 dpi, 4021,
would have done this from the DTP
package. but ProPage only separates
12 bit plane images, and my image
uses 18 bit planes.
Rather cleverly, I have —
theoretically at least — sitting beside
me a very high resolution PostScript
compatible laser printer. I send the
four separations to this expensive
piece of kit, and once they are finished
I can rush them down to the local
printers and have them re-combined
into a full colour image.
HI didn't have the printer. I could
take the PostScript file to a bureau.
where they would do more or less the
same thing. For more details on
bureaux by the way, check out the
DTP section in the almanac.
All I need do is repeat the above
process over a hundred times, and I
have a magazine.
S be done,too. In fact, it has been
done 0 in the past by a well-known
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3 B i t Color*
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18 B i t Color.
e
improve . things somewhat.
Using I A-RES format, and variants
ARZO t and ARZI, will produce the best
possible w display. This mode is
downwards i compatible with the
Dynamic l Hires mode developed by
Newtek l for use with their Digi View
Gold video digitiser. The pictures take
IA bit colour, 50 dpi, 63A
•
R
E
(although sadly Vnow
defunct)
American Amiga magazine. The latest
I
hardware and software will make the
entire process a Elot
easier and the
finished product W of higher quality.
Because of the • large investment
ma& in Mac technology at Interactive,
it is unlikely that this magazine will
be produced on an Amiga. But you
can rest assured we do as much as we
can before handing our text and
images over to Eddie.
N
detailed look at the products
used. O The exception will be
Professional W Page. ProPage, as we like
to i call it, differs from Page Setter II
only t in that it can handle colour
images ' and output to a PostScript
device. s
t Page Setter II was reviewed in the
April i 1990 issue of the magazine and a
working m demo was on last months
cover
e
disk, so there is little to be
gained f by looking at it again.
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About
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Resolution
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so much processor time to produce,
that unfortunately all you can do is
look at them. But they look very nice
indeed.
If you need to produce the best
quality images you can and have a
budget which will cover it, then go
for it. Buy it,
18 bit colour, 200 dpi. book