AUTHOR: T.A. David
TYPE: Educational/Entertainment
MACHINE: TS2068
PRICE: $19.95
AVAILABLE FROM: T.E.J. COMPUTER PRODUCTS
859 North Virgil Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90029
Continuing in our series of reviews of “fine arts” type of T/S programs, this month we will take a look at GRAFIST. GRAFIST is a graphics program for the TS2068 that is very enjoyable to use.
GRAFIST contains the basic necessities of any good graphics program: Color selection, PEN (narrow) and BRUSH (wide) applicators, ability to combine graphics and text, circles, etc.
You can use either a joystick or the keyboard to DRAW on the screen. GRAFIST allows you to store up to 3 seperate PAGES in memory, to recall later. If you are working on a picture, and want to experiment, you can send what is done so far into memory, and then proceed with your idea. If you don’t like it, you can recall the original from memory, and continue.
Another feature available by having 3 page memory is the ability to animate. By quickly going form pages 1 through 3, you can do simple animation.
A feature of GRAFIST that is not graphic that I like is the ability to do scrolling text messages. You can design flashing banners, and by combining them with text, a very effective advertising message can be produced. I used this feature in the front window of the Video Rental store I manage when we had the Grand Opening at our new location.
You can also use the TITLE mode to design letterheads, logos, etc. You specify the character size, and spacing, and GRAFIST automatically designs it for you.
GRAFIST will accommodate either a TS2040 Thermal Printer, or most Centronics Dot-Matrix printers.
The documentation again is a fold-out sheet in the cassette box, but it does explain the features in a general way. My best advice is…have fun and EXPERIMENT!
Summing it up, GRAFIST is a very interesting piece of software, and if you like to play around with graphics, I feel it is a worthwhile investment.