(FORTUNE Magazine) – ELECTRONICS FOR IMAGING -- After building one successful company, Efi Arazi, 56, is now on his second. In 1988, Arazi left Scitex Corp., the $550-million-a-year manufacturer of graphic design and publishing hardware he founded in Israel in 1968, to launch Electronics for Imaging. With EFI, Arazi is helping to move the still largely black and white world of desktop publishing to its next phase: affordable and consistent color reproduction. The company, in San Mateo, California, holds several commercial patents and designs products that can deliver professional printing results for almost any computer user. EFI's main product is the Fiery color controller. When linked to a personal computer and a color copying machine, the Fiery enables the copier to operate as a high-speed color printer. It can also scan a photograph from the copier into a computer file. EFI sells the Fiery through the largest makers of color copiers and their dealers: Canon, Xerox, Kodak, and Belgium's Agfa. Users include publishers like R.R. Donnelley and American Greetings, as well as companies in other industries that buy the Fiery to do in-house publishing and graphics work. The unit costs $20,000 to $38,000, depending on printing speed and features. David Nelson, an analyst with Lehman Brothers, forecasts net income to rise 81% in 1993, to $12 million, on a 75% increase in revenues, to $90 million. The stock traded recently on Nasdaq at $19.75, or 21 times Nelson's estimate of 1993 earnings per share. EFI also designs software to enhance and edit color images. With Cachet, for example, a user can work on a photograph that has been scanned into a computer file, altering exposure, color, and overall dimensions. MacUser magazine chose Cachet as the best new Macintosh software for 1992. Cachet contains a patented color-management system, called EFIColor, that reduces distortions in color that occur in different printers. The company recently licensed EFIColor to Quark, a publishing software maker in Denver, for use in a new version of QuarkXPress that will be shipped in June. CEO Arazi says it will be only a matter of time before larger companies like Apple and Adobe move into similar color applications. ''I'm bracing myself for a lot more competition,'' he says. ''But EFI has maneuverability. When seasoned people start a software company, they can turn on a dime.''

KRONOS -- Kronos Inc. has updated the century-old time clock for the modern era. It manufactures Timekeeper Central, a computer that keeps track of payroll data for thousands of employees who ''punch in'' to the unit with magnetic cards. Timekeeper, which runs on Kronos's software, monitors overtime, generates labor-management reports used for scheduling employee shifts, and communicates with a company's central payroll office. Timekeeper systems cost $1,300 to $250,000, depending on how many employees a company has and the type of operating system it uses. Customers include Sears stores, Marriott, and big manufacturers like General Electric and Pillsbury. Kronos founder and CEO Mark Ain has expanded the company's expertise in labor-management devices into more general industrial data collection. Using technology similar to Timekeeper's, new Kronos products track inventories and manage shipping and receiving. Rick Martin of the Chicago Corp. brokerage house expects earnings of the company, in Waltham, Massachusetts, to climb 35% in 1993, to $5 million, on a 16% rise in revenues, to $71 million. The stock traded recently on Nasdaq at $16, or 16 times Martin's estimate of 1993 earnings per share.

COOKER RESTAURANTS -- Cooker knows how to keep hungry customers happy. It focuses less on theme dining and more on good service and hefty portions. With 23 company-owned bar and grilles in Ohio, Tennessee, Florida, and three other states, Cooker specializes in American basics. Get ready for pot roast, meatloaf, ribs, and chicken. Its success may be part of a larger trend, as people left hungry by lean servings of shrimp and salads tear into heartier fare. ''We do offer a lot of meat dishes,'' says CFO William Esch. ''But we try to have a varied menu with a wide assortment of salads and vegetables.'' Revenues per restaurant average $3.25 million annually, among the highest for casual full-service establishments. Cooker, in Columbus, Ohio, plans to open at least five more restaurants in 1993 and 12 in 1994. Elliott Schlang at Kidder Peabody in Cleveland expects net income to increase 36% in 1993, to $5.4 million, on a 40% rise in revenues, to $74.3 million. The stock traded recently on Nasdaq at $22.50, or 33 times Schlang's estimate of 1993 estimate of earnings per share. The company tries to keep turnover low by offering stock ownership to all employees.