(FORTUNE Magazine) – JOHN H. HARLAND True or false: In the age of electronic banking, automated teller machines, and debit cards, check writing has become passe. False. The check-printing industry is still growing about 3% a year. According to Kenneth Bohringer, a financial analyst at Prudential-Bache, electronic money shuffling has caught on more slowly than many futurists predicted because only about 10% of checks are written for cash and because older Americans seem intimidated by teller machines. Besides, many bill payers would rather have a grace period before a check clears than have their balances immediately zapped by an electronic transfer of funds. So America's two largest check printers are doing just fine. Deluxe Corp., which sold recently for $26.50 a share, 14 times earnings, commands an astounding 50% of the market. But analysts also like the solid No. 2: John H. Harland Co., which accounts for about 23% of checks. Like the tortoise in Aesop's race, the 65-year-old company has delivered steady annual sales increases for the past 39 years, and profit and dividend growth for the past 35. That record is the longest of any company on either the New York or the American stock exchanges. Last year Harland earned $53 million on revenues of $333 million. Profit margins have gone from just under 10% in 1980 to 16% in 1988, due mostly to modernization. The Atlanta company invested $132 million over the past five years, more than triple its capital spending of the five previous years. The most important change: converting plants from letterpress to more efficient offset printing.

Harland says that more than 99% of checks are shipped without error, and attributes its customer loyalty -- more than 60% of business comes from repeat buyers -- largely to rigorous standards of accuracy. The big profits are in ''scenic'' checks, costing about 30% more and meant to appeal to women, who write 70% of personal checks.

Bohringer thinks revenues from checks can increase 8% a year for the next several years. To grow more, he says, the company will have to ''go outside its traditional bailiwick for something with a little pizazz.'' Last June, Harland acquired Scantron Corp., a maker of standardized test forms and the optical mark reading equipment used to scan them. Though Scantron had problems delivering a new series of scanning machines, it should soon resume its impressive, pre-acquisition returns. Harland's stock recently traded on the New York exchange at $20.50, 13 times this year's expected earnings.

GLENEX INDUSTRIES Most of this holding company's business comes from Colorization Inc., a 50.5%- owned subsidiary that converts black-and-white movies to color. This industry pioneer -- only two other competitors exist -- has colorized 24 < movies, including It's a Wonderful Life and Topper. Since putting a palette to classic films has its critics, the subsidiary is moving into less controversial areas, colorizing 138 episodes of the old McHale's Navy TV series, for instance. ''They've taken the gamble out of the business,'' says H. Glenn Leason, a broker at Torrey Pines Securities near La Jolla, California. He thinks Glenex stock, selling at around $2.50 a share, is ''way undervalued.'' For the first six months of fiscal 1989, the company recorded an operating loss of $578,000 on revenues of $5.4 million. But Colorization and Glenex's TV production outfit are now making money, and its specialty- chemicals company is improving. Look for operating profits by fiscal 1990.

CASCADE INTERNATIONAL Security analyst Richard Lilly of JW Charles Securities thinks Cascade is a beauty. The four-year-old Florida retailer of cosmetics, fragrances, and women's clothing has already earned an impressive $3.8 million on sales of $22 million in fiscal 1988. Though the company operates 17 cosmetics and fragrance and 21 apparel stores, its most successful strategy is leasing cosmetic counter space in fashion boutiques, located in shopping malls. There Cascade offers a free beauty makeover with clothing purchases of $150 or more. As the salesclerks never fail to point out, customers who want to replicate the dramatic improvements at home need a cosmetic case full of goodies. So Cascade gets the sale, with less expense than it takes to run a whole store. Cascade, whose stock recently sold for $3.50 a share, plans to open 100 to 200 cosmetic counters annually. Says Lilly: ''This company can grow at a furious pace with very modest capital outlays.''

ISOMEDIX Isomedix uses cobalt-60 gamma rays to sterilize medical supplies and food packaging for more than 600 manufacturers. Profits last year were up a healthy 422% to $3 million, and revenues grew 40% to $18 million. One factor is the AIDS scare. CEO John Masefield acknowledges that the demand for surgical gloves, sterilized by Isomedix, is high. But, he cautions, ''it's easy to exaggerate the worry about AIDS into other areas.'' Analyst Edward Stavetski of W.H. Newbold's Son & Co. also attributes Isomedix's success to non-AIDS factors: restructuring and improvements in quality and manufacturing capacity. Because some materials cannot withstand gamma irradiation, Isomedix has developed an ethylene oxide treatment and will start building plants this year. ''That will allow them to become a one-stop sterilizer,'' says Stavetski. Isomedix fought back a takeover bid last year; the stock recently traded at about $9 a share.