Desk Top Publishing Programs
Introduction
As DMs, we are primarily concerned with the creation of artwork, but we
are increasingly tasked with massive text and the preparation of it for
reproduction. The distinction between Lithographer’s Mates (LI), who
traditionally use desk top publishing programs, and DMs is less distinct.
Desk top publishing (DTP), often called electronic pre-press preparation, is
gaining popularity; become familiar with it.
Desk top
Desk top publishing software programs electronically integrate text and
publishing
graphics into newsletters, advertisements, letterheads, reports, brochures,
software
catalogs, and books, such as this TRAMAN. These programs allow you to
programs
see the page and alter it on screen before committing it to print. The range
of manipulation is extensive. So, too, are the plethora of programs offered
by manufacturers. Regardless of manufacturer and because there are so
many desk top publishing programs used in Navy Graphics shops, this
segment covers only those features common to a majority of programs.
Desk top
Desk top publishing software features can be broken into three basic
publishing
categories. These categories — composition, layout, and graphics —
software
combine to make a comprehensive package for designing and publishing
features
documents.
COMPOSITION: Composition defines the sizes and styles of type, the
amount of space between horizontal letters and vertical lines, and the coding
of the text copy to meet standards. You can edit text directly or input text
from documents created in a word processing program and imported into the
DTP software.
LAYOUT: Layout involves the arrangement of text and graphics on the
page. Electronic pasting moves text from one portion to another and
incorporates illustrations into the text. Some features include multiple
columns, column widths, and gutter space manipulation, printing vertically or
horizontally on a page, automatic copyfitting, automatic page numbering, and
adding headers and footers.
Continued on next page
3-36
