Desktop Publishing
Before your customers read the content you've presented, they notice visual features 
such as layout, color, and font. The materials you release to your customers have a lot to say about your company image; and image is everything with documents and publications.
My desktop publishing service can create a professional and polished image for your documents, just by enhancing their visual appeal. Revising something as simple as the font colors or layout of a document can make the difference in the level of attention and interest your publications receive.
Why use my desktop publishing services?
A desktop publisher uses the latest industry software tools to design visual materials that help you sell your product or service, inform your customers, or motivate your staff. Our desktop publishers focus on the visual aspects of a document such as page layout, format, design styles, font types, and colors. Whether it is a brochure, manual, or annual report, a desktop publisher has the tools and the "know-how" to publish your materials creatively and effectively.
Desktop publishing (also known as DTP) combines a personal computer and WYSIWYG page layout software to create publication documents on a computer for either large scale publishing or small scale local multifunction peripheral output and distribution.
The term "desktop publishing" is commonly used to describe page layout skills. However, the skills and software are not limited to paper and book publishing. The same skills and software are often used to create graphics for point of sale displays, promotional items, trade show exhibits, retail package designs and outdoor signs.
- Desktop publishing began in 1985 with the introduction of MacPublisher, the first WYSIWYG layout program, which ran on the original 128K Macintosh computer. (Desktop typesetting, with only
- limited page makeup facilities, had arrived in 1978–9 with the introduction of TeX, and was extended in the early 1980s by LaTeX.) The DTP market exploded in 1985 with the introducti
- on in January of the Apple LaserWriter printer, and later in July with the introduction of PageMaker software from Aldus which rapidly became the DTP industry standard software.
The ability to create WYSIWYG page layouts on screen and then print pages at crisp 300 dpi resolution was revolutionary for both the typesetting industry and the personal computer industry. Newspapers and other print publications made the move to DTP-based programs from older layout systems like Atex and other such programs in the early 1980s.
The term "desktop publishing" is attributed to Aldus Corporation founder Paul Brainerd, who sought a marketing catch-phrase to describe the small size and relative affordability of this suite of products in contrast to the expensive commercial phototypesetting equipment of the day.
By the standards of today, early desktop publishing was a primitive affair. Users of the PageMaker-LaserWriter-Macintosh 512K system endured frequent software crashes, the Mac's tiny 512 x 342 1-bit black and white screen, the inability to control letter spacing, kerning (the addition or removal of space between individual characters in a piece of typeset text to improve its appearance or alter its fit) and other typographic features, and discrepancies between the screen display and printed output. However, it was a revolutionary combination at the time, and was received with considerable acclaim.
Behind-the-scenes technologies developed by Adobe Systems set the foundation for professional desktop publishing applications. The LaserWriter and LaserWriter Plus printers included high quality, 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 much more suitable for desktop publishing because of its larger, color screen, support for multiple displays, greater RAM capacity and its SCSI storage interface which allowed fast, high-capacity hard drives to be attached to the system.
Although Macintosh-based systems would continue to dominate the market, in 1986, the GEM-based Ventura Publisher was introduced for MS-DOS computers. While PageMaker's has a pasteboard metaphor closely simulated the process of creating layouts manually. Ventura Publisher automated the layout process through its use of tags/style sheets and automatically generated indices and other body matter. This made it suitable for 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, Calamus for the Atari TT030, and even Home Publisher, Newsroom, and GEOPublish for 8-bit computers like the Apple II and Commodore 64.
During these early years, desktop publishing acquired a bad reputation from untrained users who created poorly-organized ransom note effect layouts — criticisms that would be levied again against early web publishers a decade later. However, some were able to realize truly professional results. For example, .info magazine became the very first desktop-published, full-color, newsstand magazine in the last quarter of 1986, using a combination of Commodore Amiga computers, Professional Page desktop publishing software, and an Agfa Graphics typesetter[1].
Often considered a primary skill, increased accessibility to more user-friendly DTP software has made DTP a secondary skill to art direction, graphic design, multimedia development, marketing communications, administrative careers and advanced high school literacy in thriving economies. DTP skill levels range from what may be learned in a few hours (e.g. learning how to put clip art in a word processor) to what requires a college education and years of experience (e.g. advertising agency positions). 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.
