Not only are we hearing more these days about multimedia and its potential, but, at long last, real multimedia products are starting to appear on the market. The long-awaited CD-I (Compact Disc-Interactive) systems are now available. Microsoft Corporation has specified a basic configuration for a Multimedia PC (MPC), and a number of vendors are now providing their own implementations of the MPC specification. Even IBM has produced a full line of "Ultimedia"' products. With the availability of multimedia hardware platforms, the challenges associated with multimedia application development, specifically imaging, need to be addressed.