What Is DTP Software?

Desktop publishing software is a tool for graphic designers and non-designers to create visual communications for professional or desktop printing as well as for online or on-screen electronic publishing. Answer: The term desktop publishing was originally coined to describe Aldus (now Adobe) PageMaker and among professional designers refers primarily to high-end page layout software applications including Adobe InDesign and QuarkXPress. However, an explosion of consumer programs and the associated advertising hype stretched the use of "desktop publishing software" to include sofware for making greeting cards, calendars, banners, and other crafty print projects as well as all the peripheral programs for handing fonts, graphics, and later Web design. It also resulted in a wider range of low-cost, easy-to-use software that didn't require traditional design and prepress skills to understand and use. Other applications and utilities often lumped into the "desktop publishing software" category are better classified as graphics, Web publishing, or presentation software, and any number of utilities and plug-ins for specific related tasks such as color calibration, font management, or imposition. The DTP software lists below are those that do the core task of desktop publishing - composing text and graphics into page layouts for publishing.

Desktop Publishing in the 21st Century further expands the meaning of desktop publishing and thus broadens the definition of desktop publishing software to include software for Web design and other forms of visual communications beyond print design.

The main players in the field are Adobe, Corel, Quark, and Serif with products that stick close to the original use of desktop publishing software for professional page layout. Additionally, Microsoft, Nova Development, Broderbund and others have been producing consumer or print creativity and business desktop publishing software for many years.

Adobe makes many software packages used by designers. You've probably heard of Photoshop, for example. But these other programs are not page layout software applications for print publishing. They are graphics software, Web design software, programs for creating and working with the PDF format, such as Adobe Acrobat, and other related software tools. The primary desktop publishing software or page layout software applications are:

Corel is best known for its graphics suite that includes CorelDRAW and Corel Photo-Paint. In the past it has produced creative printing or home publishing programs used for desktop publishing too but the primary page layout software from Corel is:

Microsoft produces Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and various consumer graphics and creative printing programs used alone or in conjunction with other applications to do some form of desktop publishing. Their entry into page layout for print is:

Quark has other software but the one most closely associated with desktop publishing is QuarkXPress and its many XTensions (produced by many third party vendors) that enhance and expand the basic capabilities of QuarkXPress.

Serif produces a suite of applications for graphics and Web design but the core desktop publishing software application is:

Broderbund produces a number of design and publishing programs in the consumer desktop publishing arena. Although some users do use these programs as freelance designers, the programs are not typically considered professional or high-end tools. The primary audience for Broderbund creative printing software are individuals wanting to create personal projects. The two titles most closely associated with desktop publishing are:

Specialty programs primarily designed just for greeting cards, calendars, or other specific print tasks are also frequently changing names, changing hands, and changing focus. These include programs such as Calendar Creator and Scrapbook Factory.

In addition to the sometimes fuzzy division of desktop publishing into professional, home, and business categories, there are other types of software closely associated with desktop publishing. Of the four types of software for desktop publishing, the Page Layout category encompasses the programs also known as desktop publishing software. The others are specialized or auxilliary tools used in desktop publishing. But the lines are blurred. Much of the best design software is used for both print and Web and sometimes doubles as both page layout and graphics software or creative printing and business software or other combinatons.

For the most complete list, see the A-Z Really Big List of Desktop Publishing Software.

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Tab Delimited Files

A common problem in desktop publishing is how to get data from one program into another program. Plain text files are one solution. You'll lose your formatting but you'll have your text, which you then reformat in your page layout software. But, for some text such as Word tables or Excel Spreadsheets, there's another option -- tab delimited files.

Tab delimited files are one way to import and place data that is arranged in rows and columns, such as tables and spreadsheets. You'll still lose font formatting and colors, but you'll retain the grid-like layout of your work.

A tab delimited file is a special kind of plain text file with a tab between each column in the text. When imported into your page layout software, the tabs allow the columns to line up neatly.

In this Using Tab Delimited Files Step-by-Step tutorial see how to export tab delimited files and two methods of importing them into your desktop publishing software.

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