Desktop Publishing
Desktop publishing (DTP) is the creation of documents using
dedicated software on a personal ("desktop") computer. It was first used almost
exclusively for print publications, but now it also assists in the creation of various
forms of online content.[1] Desktop publishing software can generate page
layouts and produce text and image content comparable to the simpler forms of
traditional typography and printing. This technology allows individuals,
businesses, and other organizations to self-publish a wide variety of content,
from menus to magazines to books, without the expense of commercial printing.[2]
Desktop publishing often requires the use of a personal
computer and WYSIWYG page layout software to create documents for
either large-scale publishing or small-scale local printing and distribution –
although non-WYSIWYG systems such as TeX and LaTeX are also used,
especially in scientific publishing. Originally, desktop publishing methods
provided more control over design, layout, and typography than word
processing software but the latter has evolved to include most, if not all,
capabilities previously available only with dedicated desktop publishing software.
[3]
The same DTP skills and software used for common paper and book publishing
are sometimes used to create graphics for point of sale
displays, presentations, infographics, brochures, business cards, promotional
items, trade show exhibits, retail package designs and outdoor signs.
History
[edit]
Desktop publishing was first developed at Xerox PARC in the 1970s.[4][5] A
contradictory claim states that desktop publishing began in 1983 with a program
developed by James Davise at a community newspaper in Philadelphia.[6] The
program Type Processor One ran on a PC using a graphics card for
a WYSIWYG display and was offered commercially by Best Info in 1984.
[7]
Desktop typesetting with only limited page makeup facilities[citation needed] arrived in
1978–1979 with the introduction of TeX, and was extended in 1985 with the
introduction of LaTeX.
The desktop publishing market took off in 1985 with the introduction in January of
the Apple LaserWriter laser printer for the year-old Apple Macintosh personal
computer.[8][9] This momentum was kept up with the release that July
of PageMaker software from Aldus, which rapidly became the standard software
application for desktop publishing.[10] With its advanced layout features,
PageMaker immediately relegated word processors like Microsoft Word to the
composition and editing of purely textual documents.[11] Word did not begin to
acquire desktop publishing features until a decade later, and by 2003, it was
regarded only as "good" and not "great" at desktop publishing tasks.[12] The term
"desktop publishing" is attributed to Aldus founder Paul Brainerd, who sought a
marketing catchphrase to describe the small size and relative affordability of this
suite of products, in contrast to the expensive
commercial phototypesetting equipment of the day.[13]
Before the advent of desktop publishing, the only option available to most people
for producing typed documents (as opposed to handwritten documents) was
a typewriter, which offered only a handful of typefaces (usually fixed-width) and
one or two font sizes. Indeed, one popular desktop publishing book was
titled The Mac is Not a Typewriter, and it had to actually explain how a Mac could
do so much more than a typewriter.[14] The ability to create WYSIWYG page
layouts on screen and then print pages containing text and graphical elements at
300 dpi resolution was a major development for the personal computer industry.
The ability to do all this with industry standards like PostScript also radically
changed the traditional publishing industry, which at the time was accustomed to
buying end-to-end turnkey solutions for digital typesetting which came with their
own proprietary hardware workstations.[15] Newspapers and other print
publications began to transition to DTP-based programs from older layout
systems such as Atex and other programs in the early 1980s.
Desktop publishing was still in its early stage in the early 1980s. Users of the
PageMaker/LaserWriter/Macintosh 512K system endured frequent software
crashes,[16] Mac's low-resolution 512x342 1-bit monochrome screen, the inability
to control letter spacing, kerning, and other typographic features, and the
discrepancies between screen display and printed output. However, it was an
unheard-of combination at the time, and was received with considerable acclaim.
[10]
Behind the scenes, technologies developed by Adobe Systems set the
foundation for professional desktop publishing applications. The LaserWriter and
LaserWriter Plus printers included scalable Adobe PostScript fonts built into
their ROM memory. The LaserWriter's PostScript capability allowed publication
designers to proof files on a local printer, then print the same file at DTP service
bureaus using optical resolution 600+ ppi PostScript printers such as those
from Linotronic.
Later, the Macintosh II was released, which was considerably more suitable for
desktop publishing due to its greater expandability, support for large color multi-
monitor displays, and its SCSI storage interface (which allowed hard drives to be
attached to the system). Macintosh-based systems continued to dominate the
market into 1986, when the GEM-based Ventura Publisher was introduced
for MS-DOS computers. PageMaker's pasteboard metaphor closely simulated
the process of creating layouts manually, but Ventura Publisher automated the
layout process through its use of tags and style sheets and automatically
generated indices and other body matter. This made it particularly suitable for the
creation of manuals and other long-format documents.
Desktop publishing moved into the home market in 1986 with Professional Page
for the Amiga, Publishing Partner (now PageStream) for the Atari ST,
GST's Timeworks Publisher on the PC and Atari ST, and Calamus for the Atari
TT030. Software was published even for 8-bit computers like the Apple
II and Commodore 64: Home Publisher, The Newsroom, and geoPublish.
During its early years, desktop publishing acquired a bad reputation as a result of
untrained users who created poorly organized, unprofessional-looking "ransom
note effect" layouts.[11] (Similar criticism was leveled again against early World
Wide Web publishers a decade later.) However, some desktop publishers who
mastered the programs were able to achieve near professional results. Desktop
publishing skills were considered of primary importance in career advancement
in the 1980s, but increased accessibility to more user-friendly DTP software has
made DTP a secondary skill to art direction, graphic
design, multimedia development, marketing communications, and administrative
careers. DTP skill levels range from what may be learned in a couple of hours
(e.g., learning how to put clip art in a word processor), to what's typically required
in a college education. The discipline of DTP skills range from technical skills
such as prepress production and programming, to creative skills such
as communication design and graphic image development.
As of 2014, Apple computers remain dominant in publishing, even as the most
popular software has changed from QuarkXPress – an estimated 95% market
share in the 1990s – to Adobe InDesign. An Ars Technica writer said in an article:
"I've heard about Windows-based publishing environments, but I've never
actually seen one in my 20+ years in design and publishing".[17]
Terminology
[edit]
There are two types of pages in desktop publishing: digital pages and virtual
paper pages to be printed on physical paper pages. All computerized documents
are technically digital, which are limited in size only by computer
memory or computer data storage space. Virtual paper pages will ultimately
be printed, and will therefore require paper parameters coinciding with standard
physical paper sizes such as A4, letterpaper and legalpaper. Alternatively, the
virtual paper page may require a custom size for later trimming. Some desktop
publishing programs allow custom sizes designated for large format printing used
in posters, billboards and trade show displays. A virtual page for printing has a
predesignated size of virtual printing material and can be viewed on a monitor
in WYSIWYG format. Each page for printing has trim sizes (edge of paper) and a
printable area if bleed printing is not possible as is the case with most desktop
printers. A web page is an example of a digital page that is not constrained by
virtual paper parameters. Most digital pages may be dynamically re-sized,
causing either the content to scale in size with the page or the content to re-flow.
Master pages are templates used to automatically copy or link elements and
graphic design styles to some or all the pages of a multipage document. Linked
elements can be modified without having to change each instance of an element
on pages that use the same element. Master pages can also be used to apply
graphic design styles to automatic page numbering. Cascading Style Sheets can
provide the same global formatting functions for web pages that master pages
provide for virtual paper pages. Page layout is the process by which the elements
are laid on the page orderly, aesthetically and precisely. The main types of
components to be laid out on a page include text, linked images (that can only be
modified as an external source), and embedded images (that may be modified
with the layout application software). Some embedded images are rendered in
the application software, while others can be placed from an external source
image file. Text may be keyed into the layout, placed, or – with database
publishing applications – linked to an external source of text which allows
multiple editors to develop a document at the same time. Graphic design styles
such as color, transparency and filters may also be applied to layout
elements. Typography styles may be applied to text automatically with style
sheets. Some layout programs include style sheets for images in addition to text.
Graphic styles for images may include border shapes, colors, transparency,
filters, and a parameter designating the way text flows around the object (also
known as "wraparound" or "runaround").
Comparisons
[edit]
With word processing
[edit]
As desktop publishing software still provides extensive features necessary for
print publishing, modern word processors now have publishing capabilities
beyond those of many older DTP applications, blurring the line between word
processing and desktop publishing.
In the early 1980s, the graphical user interface was still in its embryonic stage
and DTP software was in a class of its own when compared to the leading word
processing applications of the time. Programs such
as WordPerfect and WordStar were still mainly text-based and offered little in the
way of page layout, other than perhaps margins and line spacing. On the other
hand, word processing software was necessary for features like indexing and
spell checking – features that are common in many applications today. As
computers and operating systems became more powerful, versatile, and user-
friendly in the 2010s, vendors have sought to provide users with a single
application that can meet almost all their publication needs.
With other digital layout software
[edit]
In earlier modern-day usage, DTP usually did not include digital tools such
as TeX or troff, though both can easily be used on a modern desktop system,
and are standard with many Unix-like operating systems and are readily available
for other systems. The key difference between digital typesetting software and
DTP software is that DTP software is generally interactive and "What you see
[onscreen] is what you get" (WYSIWYG) in design, while other digital typesetting
software, such as TeX, LaTeX and other variants, tend to operate in "batch
mode", requiring the user to enter the processing program's markup
language (e.g. HTML) without immediate visualization of the finished product.
This kind of workflow is less user-friendly than WYSIWYG, but more suitable for
conference proceedings and scholarly articles as well as corporate newsletters or
other applications where consistent, automated layout is important.
In the 2010s, interactive front-end components of TeX, such
as TeXworks and LyX, have produced "what you see is what you mean"
(WYSIWYM) hybrids of DTP and batch processing.[18] These hybrids are focused
more on the semantics than the traditional DTP. Furthermore, with the advent of
TeX editors the line between desktop publishing and markup-based typesetting is
becoming increasingly narrow as well; a software which separates itself from the
TeX world and develops itself in the direction of WYSIWYG markup-based
typesetting is GNU TeXmacs.
On a different note, there is a slight overlap between desktop publishing and
what is known as hypermedia publishing (e.g. web design, kiosk, CD-ROM).
Many graphical HTML editors such as Microsoft FrontPage and Adobe
Dreamweaver use a layout engine similar to that of a DTP program. However,
many web designers still prefer to write HTML without the assistance of a
WYSIWYG editor, for greater control and ability to fine-tune the appearance and
functionality. Another reason that some Web designers write in HTML is that
WYSIWYG editors often result in excessive lines of code, leading to code
bloat that can make the pages hard to troubleshoot.
With web design
[edit]
Desktop publishing produces primarily static print or digital media, the focus of
this article. Similar skills, processes, and terminology are used in web design.
Digital typography is the specialization of typography for desktop publishing. Web
typography addresses typography and the use of fonts on the World Wide
Web. Desktop style sheets apply formatting for print, Web Cascading Style
Sheets (CSS) provide format control for web display. Web HTML font
families map website font usage to the fonts available on the user's web
browser or display device.
