Quark, Macintosh, Illustrator, Freehand, Internet, Color Separations, Trapping. You'll find tips, tricks, and hot information to help you shorten production time, make better buying decisions, and keep you current in the world of graphics. Creative Times highlights the information you ask for in the hundreds of phone calls we receive every month.

Our new Scitex StarLite workstation is a combination RIP and editing station, with features that increase efficiency and ultimately may save you time and money. Some of these features include text and color editing, photo touchup, mask editing, photo reassignments, and manual trapping color-by-color. All this without going back to the Mac workstation.

Why make changes at the RIP stage? By fixing files on the RIP, significant time is saved by not having to reprint and re-RIP Postscript files. This means fewer reruns and shorter turnaround times for you!

System 7.5.3 problems...Jazz or Zip? Before you run out to the store for larger storage disks, consider reliability. Generally the 100mb Iomega Zip ($149 from MacWarehouse at press time) is much more stable than the 1gb Jazz drive ($499.95). Our unscientific evaluation shows about 10x as many failures ("unable to read") on Jazz disks. Zip performance has been outstanding and so far surpasses that of Syquests.

Internet Cookies: Who's keeping track of you? Look under preferences in your System Folder for sites that have set cookies on your hard disk. For Netscape Navigator its called "MagicCookies" in the Netscape folder; for Explorer its in the "cache" folder called "cookies.txt." Netscape 3.0 allows you to be alerted and deny cookies. Under the Options Menu select "Network Preferences," open the "Protocols" section and check the "show alert before accepting a cookie" option.

Hidden Quark Trick. Tired of aligning your hanging indents with spaces? Try this easy trick...after typing a bullet and a space, hit the command (Apple Key) and backslash (\) and all your text will align until you hit a hard return! Want to hold the indent and keep the return...hold the shift key down while returning!

Hidden Quark Trick #2. If math is not your best subject, then let Quark do the work for you! If you have to increase or decrease your graphic or text box by a fixed amount, all you have to do is click in the measurement box (width or height) and use the plus key or minus key and the fixed amount. Quark automatically calculates the correct amount. (Try using the slash for division!)

Mezzotints anyone? We've just added new software that produces excellent mezzotints from Tiff files. Bill Owens (Photoshop operator extraordinaire) has developed some effective techniques and settings to produce optimal results. Try it out on your next black and white ad! The conversion cost is minimal and is based on quantity.

Free Web Site! Yes you read that right. Power Images will give you a free web site if we are producing your four color catalog or magazine prepress work (scans and film). Call Christine Speedy or email cspeedy@pwr.com for details.

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