A high-resolution game of composing and designing

Software Magazine, May, 1988 by Jerry Cashin

A HIGH-RESOLUTION GAME OF COMPOSING AND DESIGNING

There was a time when the operational phrase in discussions about future technology was "the paperless office."

Scratch one more cliche from the long list of failed projections. What we have instead is a veritable avalanche of paper, some of it generated by one of the newer technological kids on the block--electronic publishing.

It seems safe to say that publishing applications represent one of the most important additions to computer functionality, particularly in the microcomputer arena, that has occurred in the last five years. Apple Computer's entry into the business market is almost exclusively based on the excellence of their products in low-end publishing services.

The company offers the usual range of computational capability, but it is in publishing that Apple sees its best opportunity for a break-through into the monolithic world of IBM PCs and their clones.

In fact, one of Apple's founders, Steven Jobs, predicts that low-end publishing applications will be just one more functional capability exercised by micros by the beginning of the next decade. Publishing may even become part of a larger integrated package, much like spreadsheets, graphics, etc. are combined today. Whatever the ultimate outcome, electronic publishing is a megatrend in contemporary computer functionality.

The wide range of products under the electronic publishing umbrella makes it difficult to agree on a precise definition. Software Magazine uses the term broadly and refers to computerized development, composition, page design, and output of high print resolution documents. Even within that definition, there is a wide variety of implementations in terms of system costs and services offered.

There are two basic divisions, however, of available products. The lower end, and the one often receiving the most visibility, is referred to as desktop publishing. The higher end is called dedicated publishing, which consists of expensive processing devices that produce very high quality documents. The computer and peripherals supporting this task are typically dedicated to the single function of electronic publishing.

DESKTOP PUBLISHING

Desktop publishing systems, on the other hand, utilize commercial microcomputers (ssee Figure 1) that perform the usual litany of alternate tasks when not concerned with document production. They are much lower in cost, often below $10,000 for the entire package of lasear printer support, software, and central processing capability.

For this relatively modest investment, end users are able to generate near-typeset quality documents for a wide variety of informational and promotional purposes.

At present, the de facto standard resolution for desktop publishing output is 300 x 300 dots per inch (dpi). This is approximately 10 times finer resolution than can be accomplished by the best of the dot matrix printers, often attached to small computers.

There is a strong move to improve resolution dramatically, perhaps reaching 600 X 600 dpi. But this may not be available until the end of the decade, especially in the same price range for 300 X 300 dpi components.

TRADEOFFS

There are multiple tradeoffs in the major desktop systems on the market. Some are adept at supporting interactive, one page at a time processing scenarios. Others emphasize batch or group composition so that many pages can be managed with identical layout standards. Batch composition is advantageous for lengthy publications such as complex instructional manuals, whereas the one page at a time approach is suitable for documents such as a short newsletter or one-page company forms.

The incorporation of pre-existing visual images into the finished product may require the use of an optical scanner. This device will digitize a continuous-tone image, thus allowing that image to be subsequently modified as necessary to properly position it in relation to the text.

Unfortunately, standard desktop publishing systems lack facilities to digitally represent more than a 16-step gray scale. Thus, reproductive quality is not what one can expect from a more costly, dedicated configuration. On the other hand, its quality level should be satisfactory for most applications at this level.

Software for desktop systems range from a low of $100 to $125 all the way up to several thousands of dollars. As can be expected, the cheaper variety are no more than handbill or flyer generators for local distribution. The higher priced entries are typically output to typesetters or laser printers and possess a sophisticated set of user options.

ALDUS: PAGE AT A TIME

Two of the most widely used desktop publishing packages are PageMaker from Aldus Corp., Seattle, Wash., and Ventura Publisher, marketed by Xerox Corp., El Segundo, Calif. PageMaker is excellent for interactive, one page at a time design work.

Ventura Publisher, by contrast, offers automatic numbering configurable style formats, and interface to many word processing packages. It is more amenable to larger volume output where there is a lot of page design uniformity, thus lessening the need for single-page layout interaction.