Question: What is desktop publishing software? Who makes DTP software?
Answer: Desktop publishing software is a tool for graphic designers and non-designers to create visual communications for professional or desktop printing. The term 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.
Desktop Publishing Revolution Increases Software Options
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.
Desktop Publishing Software Becomes a "Catch-All" Phrase
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 plugins 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 print publishing.
Desktop Publishing Software Companies
The main players in the field are Adobe, Corel, and Quark with products that stick close to the original use of desktop publishing software for professional page layout. Additionally, Microsoft, Serif, and others have been producing consumer 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 DTP 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 but they are not DTP software. Their entry into page layout for print is:
Quark has other software but the one most closely associated with DTP 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:
Also, a few of the other desktop publishing software packages that qualify as page layout applications or software suites that have a page layout component are:
- Deneba Canvas
- Diwan Ready, Set, Go!
- RagTime
SOHO desktop publishing software and home publishing include any number of constantly updated and changing titles. The products frequently change hands as well as changing features. The most enduring of these consumer DTP software packages include:
- The Print Shop
- PrintMaster
- Print Artist
- greenstreet Publisher
Specialty programs primarily designed just for greeting cards, calendars, or other specific print tasks are also frequently changing names, changing hands, and changing focus. Some of the best known of these consumer desktop publishing software titles include:
- Calendar Creator
- Greeting Card Factory
- American Greetings Createacard
- Hallmark Card Studio
