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- <text id=91TT1296>
- <title>
- June 10, 1991: From The Publisher
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1991
- June 10, 1991 Evil
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- FROM THE PUBLISHER, Page 16
- </hdr><body>
- <p> We're do-it-yourselfers at TIME. To the greatest extent
- possible, we like to produce each issue with our own staff,
- because we believe that's the best guarantee of quality. Last
- month we became self-reliant in an important new area, a complex
- technological process called imaging. Through a network of
- computers and electronic equipment, imaging makes it possible
- to convert photographs, illustrations and other graphic aspects
- of the magazine into electronic data. These data can be stored,
- displayed on computer screens and eventually used to produce the
- pages you read. TIME is unique among major American news
- publications in being able to do the entire process without
- calling upon outside services. That has important benefits for
- the reader.
- </p>
- <p> "Having our own imaging capability makes the production
- process more responsive to the news," says Mark Stelzner, our
- manager of imaging operations. The old system involved an
- elaborate flow pattern--a little like a Super Bowl play--of
- pictures, paper layouts and computer data, tied to three
- separate computer systems. Whenever there was a news event or
- we wanted to use a better picture, those complexities made any
- change a chore.
- </p>
- <p> Under the new system, we have all our own imaging
- equipment, which sits in a user-friendly room adjacent to the
- art and picture departments, where most of the material
- originates. "Now changes can be made at almost any stage of the
- production process," Stelzner says, "right up until the magazine
- goes to the printing plants." That makes it easier to
- accommodate up-to-the-minute photographs like those of the Rajiv
- Gandhi funeral.
- </p>
- <p> Because the shortened lines of communication make the
- production process more efficient, the staff of 15 specialists
- that Stelzner assembled has more time to perfect its work. The
- staff can start earlier on the color correction of photographs,
- a technique performed on the computer imaging screens to ensure
- that pictures appear on the page with the same richness they
- have in the original photographs. "People still make the
- critical decisions," Stelzner insists. "There's no technology
- that can interpret color better than the human eye." A
- reassuring thought, because the object of all this effort is to
- turn out more pleasing pages for the eyes of our readers.
- </p>
- <p>-- Robert L. Miller
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-