DESK TOP PUBLISHING(DTP) AND OTHER COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES
10.0 Objective :
Of the lesson is orient the student with the DTP and the advent of other new communication technologies in printing industry.
Structure of The Lesson :
10.0 Objective
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Comparisons With Word Processing
10.3 Comparisons With Other Electronic Layout
10.4 Offset Printing To Continue
10.5 Digital Printing
10.6 Summary
10.7 Self Assessment Questions
10.8 References
10.1 Introduction :
Desktop Publishing (also known as DTP) combines a personal computer and page layout software to create publication documents on a computer for either large scale publishing or small scale local economical multifunction peripheral output and distribution. Users create page layouts with text, graphics, photos and other visual elements using software such as Quark Press, Adobe In Design, the free Scribes, Microsoft Publisher, Apple Pages and (to some extent) any graphics software or word processor that combines editable text with images. For small jobs a few copies of a publication might be printed on a local printer. For larger jobs a computer file can be sent to a vendor for high-volume printing.
The term “desktop publishing” is commonly used to describe page layout skills. However, the skills and software are not limited to paper and books. 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 PageMaker software from Aldus and the Laser Writer printer from Apple Computer for the Apple Macintosh computer. The ability to create WYSIWYG page layout on screen and then print pages at crisp 300 dpi resolution was revolutionary for both the typesetting industry as well as 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 prod-ucts in contrast to the expensive commercial phototypesetting equipment of the day. Often considered a primary skill, increased accessibility to more user-friendly DTP software has made DTP a secondary skill to art direction, graphic desing, 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 communica-tion design and graphic image development.
By the standards of today, early desktop publishing was a primitive affair. Users of the PageMaker-Laser Writer-Macintosh 512K system endured frequent software crashes, the Mac’s tiny 512×342 1-bit black and white screen, the inability to control letter spacing, kerning (the addition or re-
moval 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, for that moment in time, it 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 fonts built into their ROM memory. The LaserWriter’s additional 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.
During these early years, desktop publishing acquired a bad reputation from untrained users who created poorly-organized ransome 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.
10.2 Comparisons With Word Processing :
While 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 days of graphical user interfaces, DTP software was in a class of its own when com-pared to the fairly spartan 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 today taken for granted.
As computers and operating systems have become more powerful, vendors have sought to provide users with a single application platform that can meet all needs. Software such as Open Office.org Writer and Microsoft Word offers advanced layouts and linking between documents, and DTP applications have added in common word processor features.
10.3 Comparisons With Other Electronic Layout :
In modern usage, DTP is not generally said to include 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 readily available for other systems. The key difference between electronic typesetting software and DTP software is that DTP software is generally interactive and WYSIWYG in desing, while older electronic typesetting software tends to operate in batch mode, requiring the user to enter the processing program’s markup language manually without a direct visualization of the finished product. The older style of typeset-ting software occupies a substantial but shrinking niche in technical writing and textbook publication; however, since much software in this genre is freely available, it can be more cost-effective than the professionally-oriented DTP systems.
There is some overlap between desktop publishng and what is known as Hypermedia publishing (i.e. Web desing, Kiosk, CD-ROM). Many graphical HTML editors such as Microsoft FrontPage and Adobe Dreamweaver use a layout engine similar to a DTP program. However, some Web designers still prefer to write HTML without the assistance of a WYSIWYG editor and resort to such software, if at all, solely for complex layout that cannot easily be rendered in hand-written HTML code.
Desktop publishing allows the editor to design and layout reports, newsletters, brochures and presentations by manipulating copy and graphics right on a computer screen instead of on a drawing board. It produces camera ready pages for offset printing.
10.4 Offset Printing to Continue :
The printing technology that dominates will continue to be web to be web offset litho, mainly because of the huge tonnages of metal already in place. However digital printing will become extremely important, particularly in producing hybrid publications where the numbers for a customized print run fall below economic levels. Technological development will help bring this break point lower. Plate making will be faster and more accurate and it will be easier to prepare presses for printing and far easier to match one printing with another, whether alongside the first or in a different part of the country.
Remote or satellite printing becomes increasingly important to cut lead times and reduce road travel. Complete digital editions of a newspaper will be sent to plants closer to where the readers are. This is only sensible if levels of quality can be maintaned over huge distances. For instance now the newspaper industry has developed a color matching system that operates across the printing sites if uses from one branch to another branch. The software ensures that the variations are provided for, by adjusting the file as it arrives from the head office. The results is that the paper will look the same, regardless of where it has been printed.
All the innovations are within our grasp. Certain areas of the publishing world are nearer the digital dream than others. Academic publishers are already prepared to foreign print and provide pure electronic information. Printing presses exist that can take digital input and produce just one book at a time. The colour that the digital press can reproduce is improving in quality all the time and the cost of using and owning such equipment is dropping. Technologies such as CD-ROM, the Internet and the WWW are starting to change the paradigm for publishers. The options are increasing. But it is already apparent that there will not be an immediate switch from conventional publishing to electronic, and indeed that not all publications will be suited to electronic production.
The easiest distinction is ‘need to know’ and ‘nice to know’. As a rule of thumb, the more up to date and essential the information, the more likely to it is to published electronically. This does not mean that readers will not use paper. It is likely, especially for long documents that users will print out the docu-ment but using their own printer. Up to the minute legal, financial, business to business communications will move to electronic forms. So too will those publications that have only a limited readership – academic journals being a prime example. The size of the market is so small that conventional printing technology is no longer feasible.
10.5 Digital Printing :
Some newspapers are now using digital printing, making use of inkjet heads to add lucky numbers to the top or bottom of the paper. Each number is different, and even at 70,000 copies an hour, legible. The same technology will be used to add a late breaking story, replacing the stop press box, which used to be a feature of letterpress printing. It has been impossible with offset printing to replicate the stop press, where a small story could be slotted on to the printing cylinder after the rest of the page was mounted and printing had begun. Stopping the press, adding the few extra lines of lead and starting again, was a matter of minutes. In offset litho where the entire plate has to be exposed, processed and then fitted to the press, stop press has become a thing of the past. A limited digital capability will restore this feature. The same technology might also be used to print a marketing message, perhaps providing local information to an otherwise global ad – the name and address of a local car dealer for instance.
10.6 Summary :
The demise of the printed word, especially in the form of a daily newspaper, is periodically predi-cated to be imminent by industry analysts. The growth of other News sources – such as radio and 24-hour television news stations – has helped Diminish the impact of newspapers, but the competition between dailies in many Cities has forced many of the weaker, less financially-viable newspapers out of Business. In many cities, joint-operating agreements by which two competing Papers share business, advertising, and printing departments – has helped to keep two editorially distinct papers afloat.
Bypassing the printed newspaper altogether, on-line computer technology has enabled consumers to pick and choose news from among their own specific interest on the information superhighway. One site on the internet, one of the most popular providers of access to on-line information, allows a person to create his or her own newspaper. A menu appears onscreen, and the user selects Stories from wire services, as well as entertainment features and cartoons, and Inserts them onto a template. This template
can be generated on a daily basis with a few keystrokes, producing an edition of a customized newspaper almost instantly.
Just as newspapers adjusted to accomodate radio and television, so they will evolve in this century. They will be conscious that their readers, to a greater or lesser degree (depending on the demo-graphics of their constituency) will be getting information via screens. The movement for newspapers to explain and entertain will continue, as will the sneed for them to justify themselves through investigation and analysis of the news. The newspaper itself will be in colour throughout. It may well have a slip in, digitally printed local section, or a section for a reader’s particular community. Each report will have a Web address for further information on the same subject, or a reminder to check an e-mail account.
10.7 Self Assessment Questions :
- Describe the development and resources of New Printing Technologies adopted now.
- Explain in detail the concept of paperless editorial Office?
