Color Manuals - Doing Any?

[Vince Putman <PUTMV -at- MAIL -dot- SYNTRON -dot- COM>]

     Hey Fellow Technobabble Phraseologists,

     Judging from the TECHWR-L posts some of you have had the occasion to
     do some manuals in color.  My boss, and our customers want color.  Our
     hardware and software products are color-coded to aid in their use.  I
     like it too, it adds to the aesthetics of every page.

     In your manuals, what level of color (16, 256 bit, etc.) was used and
     where was it applied?  Any file size problems?  Having any fun with
     color yet?


     Adding color to vector and bitmapped line graphics was fun but a very
     slow process to me.  Using color in headers, footers, and headlinings
     was simple enough.  And I found a magnetic interface to a Cannon
     CLC550 which made color copies without the loss you get when copying
     from the glass.  We are paying about 0.75 per copy from an outside
     company.  Inside color printers cost about 0.25 to 0.50 in consumables
     to print out each page.  At 5-100 copies of our manuals, the price is
     about $100.00 each currently.

     Screen captures are still a time eating PIA.  I have to grab them from
     a PepperPro 1280 board's VRAM.  Anyone out there running dual video
     adapters or doing color who would care to offer some advice?  I know I
     am not the only one doing color books, but it feels like it sometimes.
     Any experiences you could share?  What S/W did you use?

     Full of questions, I yam, I am,

        Vince Putman             | Avoid polishing the fire truck
        putmv -at- mail -dot- syntron -dot- com   | while the building burns down!
        713-647-7139 Houston, TX | Aka, Eschew Gratuitous Obfuscation