Desktop Publishing (DTP)

A desktop on a computer is an area on the screen on which users can access clickable icons or pulldown menus in ways that simulate the working area of a physical office desk. The users can, for instance, do the following things by clicking on relevant images on a screen desktop:

• put files or images in folders;
• send files or images to the hard disk or along a network;
• start or stop a task;
• send mail somewhere;
• make a drawing;
• cut out text and paste it around an image on a page;
• print documents or images to a variety of printers etc.

Computer desktops were first introduced in the operating system of Apple Macintosh computers, and in later various Windows operating systems. They are now ubiquitous, making it easier to use computers intuitively in the workplace. Modern Desktop Publishing (DTP) software makes it possible to use the desktop of a PC to combine text, graphics, and images to create a document that can be either printed on a laser (colour) printer or on a typesetting machine.

Desktop publishing involves a complex set of processes, software, and equipment, including:

• preparation of the text and headings of the document using a word processor;.
• drawings and illustrations produced by specialized graphic design packages;
• (coloured) images produced by the high resolution scanning of pictures or photographs, or by using high resolution digital photography; and
• layout of pages or an entire publication done using specialized software. 

The software for page layout is what is commonly referred to as the DTP software, where text, images, drawings, and headings are combined on a desktop view to produce a legible, well-designed page and, eventually, a complete publication. Using modern software, the desktop view gives the operator a perfect view of how a page will look when printed. Under such conditions, it becomes much easier - and cheaper - to make changes to ensure that a finished product is what is required. The completed publication is then printed on a (colour) printer, or is sent to a typesetting machine and produced in a printing shop.

Each of these steps requires well-trained people who have an intimate knowledge of the whole design process, and especially of the software they are using. The software is complex, and adequate training is needed before operator can confidently produce products that are good enough for the modern printing process and its design requirements.

Increasingly, software packages combine many of the required functions listed above into single and (mostly) 'simpler' programmes. These programmes can be used to create documents with simpler printing and design requirements, such as school annuals, school papers, class notes of a rather more complex kind (such as in history, biology, geography), flyers of school events (sporting events, carnivals, class tours, etc.). Such programmes are becoming progressively easier to learn and to use.