A Paint Program for the Graphic Arts in Printing

There is considerable scope for the application of computer techniques to help the graphic designer working with printed products, provided that pictures of high technical quality result. Described here is the product of the first stage of a research programme aimed at providing computer assisted drawing aids for high quality colour pictures. The product is an interactive paint program. The paper first explains the nature of the application and the hardware available to the author. It then claims that transcription is central to the task of high quality painting. Next there is a description of the facilities available to the interactive user. Finally, a case study of the implementation of one particular command is used to illustrate the general design of the program and to illustrate why this results in a less rigid interaction than in conventional paint programs.