** 0.5 page CD-ROM review / 285 words **

Initiale & Initiale & Monogramme

Roy Goring takes a look at these two CD-ROMs aimed at DTP enthusiasts...

This collection of monochrome letters is designed for use as the initial letters of paragraphs, the so called 'Drop cap'.
Initiale contains 40 fancy fonts ranging from sculptures, through animals, to pictures. Most designs are traditional although there are a few classic and art deco styles.
Initiale & Monogramme includes a further 28 fonts along with monograms and a selection of traditional images.
To cover every likely character pair would require well over 600 images and there are nowhere near this many on the CD - in fact I couldn't find any useful combinations for any of the members of my family so they are of no use to me.
The 120 images are divided into borders, pictures and flowers and are all high quality and reproduce well - as you can see from the ones reproduced here.
Both CDs are well organised containing the images in a selection of formats. Volume includes images in IMG, PCX and TIF formats. Volume 2 covers these and additionally covers the IFF, CDR (Corel Draw), CVG (Calamus Vector Graphics) and EPS (Encapsulated PostScript).
The inclusion of vector formats (CDR, CVG and EPS) means these images can be re-scaled and printed at maximum quality using Calamus , Kandinsky and other programs. It's interesting to see support for the popular PC/Mac based Corel Draw (CDR) program which also expands the potential audience for these CDs.
If you're into serious DTP these affordable CD-ROMs are well worth having around.

** Product boxout **
Initiale & Initiale & Monogramme
Publisher: Xware, Germany
Supplier: 16/32 Systems
Tel: +44 (0)1634 710788
Email: 16-32@premier.co.uk
Cost: £16.00 each + P&P (£1.50 for EU orders)
Pros: High quality images including some vector images
Cons: Many missing monogram combinations 
Rating: 75%
** end boxout **

** Images **
** Splatter images at will, listed in order of preference! **
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