We are working on fast-moving technologies, whether in micro/nanolithography, MEMS, or MOEMS. These technologies make electronic, mechanical, and optical devices smaller, less expensive, more efficient, and faster. As a result of this progress, a milestone has now been reached to make publishing even more vivid and informative. The multimedia age of SPIE journals has arrived! What does this mean? Authors who enjoy free color publishing in the online journal can now also enjoy free multimedia publication imbedded in their static publications. Readers will be able to view multimedia online using standard media players such as QuickTime and Windows Media Player. The acceptable media formats are also standard ones, including .mov, .qt, and .mpg for video, and .pcm, .wav, .aif, and .mp3 for audio.

I recall seeing multimedia presentations on immersion lithography, showing the movement of the water meniscus between the lens and the substrate. It was so illuminating and stimulating. After the presentation was turned into a static paper, much information and excitement were lost. How often have we wished to show the way a MEMS device moves, how light affects MOEMS dynamically, the progression of the development process of the resist image, or the writing sequence of a direct-write image demonstrating different types of writing strategies? The impact of multimedia on information exchange and archiving is tremendous. If no cost or negligible cost is incurred for the authors and the readers, there is absolutely no reason not to embrace it. Note that the system also enables peer-reviewers to see the multimedia displays and review them together with the static paper. The technology also allows integration of the multimedia file with the static paper for archiving.

Of course, we have to allow the system to grow. For example, authors are currently advised that the size of the multimedia file is best confined to 3 to $5\mathrm{MB}$ after compacting with accepted compression codes.

In the printed version, the multimedia image will be represented by a still image (i.e., a representative frame from the video), together with a digital object identifier (DOI) to point the reader to where the multimedia file can be found on the Internet.

The full author guidelines with more detailed specifications are available at http://spie.org/x1835.xml under the heading “Multimedia Guidelines.”

Happy reading! Happy viewing! Happy listening!