Start of Desktop Publishing
Desktop publishing started in 1985, with the conjunction
of Aldus Pagemaker (later acquired by Adobe), the Apple Macintosh, and
the $7000 Apple LaserWriter, the first laser printer to use Adobe Systems' PostScript page
description language, including its scalable fonts in Type 1 format.
Desktop publishing software, such as QuarkXPress
or Adobe InDesign, is software specifically designed for such tasks. Such
programs do not generally replace word processors and graphics applications, but are used
to aggregate content created in these programs: text, raster graphics (such as images
edited with Adobe Photoshop) and vector graphics (such as drawings/illustrations made with
Adobe Illustrator).
he phrase desktop publishing is attributed to Paul
Brainerd, the founder of Aldus Corporation, as a marketing term that referred to
the use of a computer on top of a desk for publishing and also alluded the desktop
metaphor that Apple used to mimic a real desktop.
Adobe InDesign
Adobe can bundle InDesign with its
other design tools, such as Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop—tools that XPress buyers probably need as well—and undercut Quark's price.
However, InDesign remains a
distant second to XPress in the high-end DTP market, despite the fact that InDesign is
more powerful than XPress in most scenarios.
InDesign can export documents in
Adobe's Portable Document Format and offers multilingual support that Quark users can get
only by purchasing a much more expensive "Passport" version.
InDesign is the first major
DTP application to support Unicode for text processing and the advanced typography of
OpenType fonts.
Its advanced transparency features
also set it apart. Finally, it features tight integration and user interface similarities
with Illustrator and Photoshop programs.
InDesign is positioned as a
higher-end alternative to Adobe's own PageMaker. The program is primarily used to design
short documents (that is, not books) or articles in periodical publications, posters, and
other print media, but it also has some web/PDF features. Longer documents such as books
are usually still designed with FrameMaker.
New versions of the software
introduced new file formats. Adobe upset its user base by not allowing to downsave to
older versions of InDesign.
Apple Macintosh & PageMaker
The introduction of the Apple Macintosh and PageMaker allowed synchronous
typographical editing using the graphical user interface, this system was commonly
referred to as What You See is What You Get, WYSIWYG.
The Apple Macintosh, with historically superior graphics
capabilities (particularly in the areas of typography and colour management), and a simple
GUI, is highly popular in this application domain and remains one of Apple's core markets.
The Atari TT030 was widely used for DTP with Calamus
application. Calamus has its own technology called Softripping for WYSIWYG which uses the
same routine for output to monitor as well as high density print devices.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free
Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Desktop
Publishing.
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