Desktop publishing: what is it and what it can do for you

Desktop publishing has emerged in the last few years as perhaps the most exciting new application of the microcomputer. Prior to this development, the only way of producing high quality printed output from computer generated text was to use elaborate embedded formatting codes for driving a typesetter (as in the Unix troff system) or else to use very expensive purpose built equipment (such as that developed for the newspaper printing industry). Thanks to desktop publishing the situation has changed dramatically. With the aid of software packages such as Ventura Publisher or Pagemaker, low cost microcomputers and laser printers can be used to produce high quality camera ready output in a great variety of formats and with sophisticated typographic control. With such cost savings, the quality of presentation material can be greatly improved. It becomes affordable for even small organisations to produce, in‐house, properly printed brochures, newsletters, factsheets, and other forms of documentation. This move towards a higher quality of published information helps immeasurably to improve the public image and credibility of the organisation. With greater control over the printing process it also becomes easier to provide more frequent updates of material. Thus information can be more timely and accurate, as well as better presented. In addition, it may no longer be necessary to print off large numbers of any particular document at any one time: short runs and ‘publication on demand’ become feasible with DTP. Even online storage and document delivery over communications networks become possible, particularly with the adoption of a standard page description language (such as PostScript). In summary, desktop publishing makes communication easier, both by making the printed product more readable and by enabling a whole range of additional services to be added; such as frequent updating, demand publishing and electronic archiving. New methods of document distribution, using electronic mail or other digital networks, also become possible. In this sense, it may represent just the first step towards a radical change in the way we communicate.