Re: What's a dtp?

[David Demyan <concord -at- IX -dot- NETCOM -dot- COM>]

You wrote:

>Does anyone have the patience to explain what a dtp is?  And why are
>they so special?


Richard, thanks for the softball for me to hit out of the park.
DTP is desktop publishing and more accurately refers to software
that was invented in the mid-1980's to typeset text and graphics
on personal computers. This had not been done before, mainly
because there had not been widespread use of a graphical user
interface (GUI) on PCs. The one on Macintosh computers was
developing, and that is where DTP was born. (Ventura publisher
was available on IBM-clone PCs, but the Gem graphical interface
it was based on was definately not widespread -- a "run-time"
version of it had to be included with Ventura.)

Today's DTP software is very sophisticated and, as predicted,
has supplanted very expensive "high-end" publishing and typesetting
systems previously available only on mainframes. I personally use
it daily to produce all of my technical documentation because I
believe the artful use of page layout principles (using DTP)
enhances their readability.

The more mature Microsoft Windows and Macintosh operating
environments on PCs and Macs have opened up the possibilities for
this sophistication. As the GUI environments develop and become
enhanced, so will the desktop publishing software that runs within
them.

Current favorites among desktop publishers: PageMaker (PC/Mac);
Interleaf (PC/UNIX); Ventura (PC); and FrameMaker (PC/Mac/UNIX).
Microsoft Word, Ami Pro, and WordPerfect do not qualify as desktop
publishing software because they do not support enough typesetting/
layout features.

Hope this answers your question in the way you wanted.

Dave Demyan                   ***                 Mendem Concord, Inc.
(908) 753-8500                ***                   One Mountain Blvd.
concord -at- ix -dot- netcom -dot- com         ***                    Warren, NJ 07059
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