Working in N.Z.

Press, 30 September 1986, Page 18

Working in N.Z.

A Christchurch firm is using a laser printer for commercial work. Harry Rankin and Peter Allison, whose company is being renamed Macprint, Ltd, have a small shop in Colombo Street and an office in Cathedral Square. Using Macintoshes and a Laserwriter they began with restaurant and hotel menus. They hold the menus on hard disk, and when a change is needed make the amendments

quickly and print out the new menu. Other work includes invoices, business cards, dockets, posters, newsletters and interesting applications such as floor plans for exhibitions. Mr Rankin and Mr Allison say the great advantage they offer is speed. The job can be quickly made up on screen and be ready either as camera-ready copy for printing or for

photo-copying. Changes are made easily. Laser printer work is especially suitable for small-run printing.

No “lay person” customer (that is, without specialist knowledge of printing) has noticed any difference from typesetting.

The James Printing Service in Greymouth, which has had a Macintosh and Laserwriter for • two months, has had a similar reaction. No customer has mentioned the different setting.

James Printing relied on Christchurch photo-set-ting and Greymouth hotmetal setting (for printing of items with changing numbers, such as raffle tickets or invoices). It still uses metal for the specialised purposes, but laser composition has cut heavily into the photocomposition.

The experience is that what used to take a day in preparation, cutting and pasting, and revision, now takes two hours at the Macintosh keyboard. At the University of Canterbury, the mathematics department uses a laser printer to produce maths examination papers and other documents.

These were a problem for typesetting, requiring special symbols.

Now the mathematicians use the computer system, Tex, written by a physicist. This allows the computer user to create his or her own typefaces and symbols. The product is impressive in its quality.