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Color isn't black and white issue While in Eugene, it is always a pleasure to open their morning newspaper and find the daily comics presented in full color. Any plans at the Mail Tribune to do the same? -- Sheldon R., Ashland Well, Sheldon, do you want the short answer or the long answer? The short answer is: no. The long answer is: It's not as simple as it seems. A newspaper press runs a web of paper that weaves in an out of various rollers and color plates. Producing a full-color photograph or graphic means the page must go across four separate plates with four separate colors (blue, red, yellow and black). Therefore, each full-color page takes up the space of four black-and-white pages. Because of those multiple plate requirements, not every page in the paper can be printed in full color -- our press just isn't big enough. In most situations, the front and back pages of each section can be in full color, unless the number of pages in the paper grows to more than 48. In smaller papers, inside pages are also sometimes available for full color, but not always. The lack of certainty prevents us from seriously considering a move to full-color comics. If we were to do it now, they might be in color on some days, but not on others. There would be no way of predicting until we knew how big the paper was going to be, and that changes daily. We could run color comics on the fronts or backs of sections, but those pages are often already occupied by news or advertising content that requires color -- things like sports photos, weather maps and grocery store ads. So now you know -- and you probably wish we'd stuck with the short answer. ("Since You Asked'' is a daily feature in the Mail Tribune that answers questions from readers on virtually any topic of general interest. To submit a question, e-mail us at [email protected] Please include your name, address and phone number for verification. If you have specific questions about our Web site or other questions about the Mail Tribune, please send them to [email protected] ) Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA