A Cost and Quality Analysis of the Three Electronic Communication Systems Currently in Use in the Printing and Publishing Industries

Three current electronic graphic communication systems, page facsimile, character-encoding, and pixel density map systems, can be analyzed and compared. All three electronic communication systems offer the user a means of transmitting editorial, and in some cases advertising pages, to remote printing facilities for manufacturing and distribution. The decision for the potential user is how to best match the communication system, i.e., how the system operates, the cost and quality levels of that system, with the user's requirement for transmitting graphic information. Page Facsimile systems are primarily used by newspaper publishers. The Character Encoding and Pixel Density-Map systems are alternate methods used by newsweekly magazine publishers. At present, Page Facsimile system are the only systems that can operate using a full communication design. The Pixel Density-Map system is still in a development stage.