Clare's Artroom must be one of the first products written specially for the Master Compact, though it is also available in ADFS format for the Master 128. Indeed, the program has been bought by Olivetti and is being bundled in as part of the software with the Prodest, Olivetti's repackaged version of the Compact now being sold in Italy. The Compact version comes on a 3.5" disc, and the Master version on the usual 5.25" floppy. Both versions are accompanied by a 44 page manual. The whole package is designed to be mouse-driven, as well as controlled from the keyboard, and Clares recommend the Nidd Valley mouse at £59.90.

Perhaps surprisingly, Artroom is in black and white. Clares claim that as the prime objective of the package is to produce high quality graphics for output to a printer, colour is unnecessary. The package also includes a 'Graphics Library' consisting of some sixteen screens produced by Artroom. The manual implies that this 'extensive' library provides a wealth of graphics for the design of news sheets, posters, etc., and suggests that Artroom has some of the capabilities of the likes of Pagemaker and Fleet Street Editor (written by Clares for Mirrorsoft). This is not really true. The collection of 'pictures' and images in the graphics library will, I imagine, provide only limited material for those designing their own graphics displays - as examples of what can be achieved with Artroom the library is excellent, as the accompanying illustrations show.

Having so far cut Artroom down to size, lets see just what it is capable of doing. When first booted, Artroom presents the user with two main choices, the creation and editing of graphics screens, or outputting screens to a printer. The choice is presented graphically, and I had some difficulty in working out which I had chosen - the manual is not too clear. Once into the main graphics option you are presented with a large icon menu in a matrix of five rows by eight columns. This occupies a central position on the screen and thus overlays any picture you are creating while selecting from this menu.

Within a short while, most of the icons become familiar, but two of them appear identical (!) and can only be distinguished by their position.

Probably the best way of getting started is by loading one of the pictures from the graphics library and experimenting with that. Clares have taken that to heart, providing a part finished picture and a complete 'guided tour' of the package based on this picture.

Basic drawing can be accomplished by a set of five 'pens' of different thicknesses. There is also an airbrush and a 'rubber band' form of drawing. With this, one point is fixed, and then moving a cursor about the screen causes a line to be moved as though a rubber band were being stretched between the fixed point and the cursor.

Four types of box can be drawn, outline or solid and black on white or white on black. In each case a standard rectangle is first positioned to fix the top left hand corner, and then enlarged to the required size and shape. Circles (but no other curves) can be similarly positioned and sized.

Nine different 'fill' patterns are provided, but although reasonably speedy, are somewhat erratic in execution. Many times I found quite simple areas only partly filled, and repeated application was needed to achieve what I had set out to do. The fill also has a tendency to 'leak' when least expected. The manual does warn of both of these situations, but the results should and surely could have been better.

One of the most useful and attractive features of the package is its ability to copy, and at the same time enlarge or reduce, selected areas of the screen. However, the area chosen can only be enlarged or reduced by a factor of two, though this can be done vertically, horizontally, or both. Again this is a limitation on the flexibility of the package. It is also possible to select reflection about either a vertical or horizontal axis at the time of enlargement giving further possibilities. As it is also possible to save and reload selected parts of a screen, it is feasible to build up a library of frequently used shapes and symbols, but it is up to the user to standardise on which part of the screen is to be used for this purpose. A symbol could then be loaded from your library, and copied to the required location.

A further excellent feature is the ability to zoom in on a part of the screen and deal with that section at pixel level. And it is easy to scroll, both vertically and horizontally when in this magnified mode, with a small normal-scale picture top left for reference.

Text can also be included in any display using one of seven fonts supplied (compatible with Clares' Fontwise), but only in one size. Once on the screen, text can be copied, enlarged or reduced as already described for pictures. However, reducing the size of text can lead to very poor - if not unreadable! - quality.

One final feature must be mentioned. Amongst the icons will be found a 'smiling face', a 'sad' face and a pair of eyes. The happy face allows the current display to be saved elsewhere in memory as a reserve screen, which can be restored with the sad face. The manual advises frequent back-ups of your work in this way so that any mistakes can be readily restored from a slightly earlier version. This is not totally under the control of the user as certain functions automatically up-date the reserve screen with the current picture before taking effect (particularly the fill function). The 'eyes' allow you to see what is in the reserve screen.

The printout facilities are quite straightforward, if you have an Epson compatible printer, providing control over both the screen area to be dumped and the position on the paper. You can also view a screen before it is dumped (as the dump works direct from disc).

Most beginners would find Artroom quite an enjoyable fun package, despite its limitations. However, there have been many better art and design packages for the BBC model B, many of which are compatible with or are being released for the Master and Compact. In my view, Olivetti have done the right thing in bundling this package in with the Prodest (Compact) for the first time user. Others, with more experience, will do better to look elsewhere.

Product: Artroom
Supplier: Clares Micro Supplies, 98 Middlewich Rd, Northwich, Cheshire CW7 4AX. Tel: (0606) 48511
Price: £25 (Master) £21 (Compact) Demo Disc £2